The Peat Inn

The story

The Peat Inn, St Andrews – Michelin-Starred Modern Scottish Dining in Fife

A Historic Setting for Modern Cooking

The Peat Inn has stood on this spot since the mid-1700s, first as a coaching inn and later as a hotel, pub and restaurant. The surrounding village grew around it, taking the inn’s name – hence the address: The Peat Inn, Peat Inn. Today, it is a Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms, owned and run since 2006 by chef proprietor Geoffrey Smeddle and his wife Katherine. The original building has offered hospitality for around two hundred and fifty years, and that tradition continues with a personal, unhurried welcome.

Chef Geoffrey Smeddle’s Philosophy

Geoffrey Smeddle holds a university degree in history, an unorthodox background that, the team says, explains his calm, questioning approach. His cooking is thoughtful and original, rooted in classical techniques but expressed through modern cuisine. The kitchen focuses on outstanding Scottish ingredients, handled with precision to create dishes of terrific flavour and striking presentation. The Peat Inn has held a Michelin star since 2010, a reflection of this confident, contemporary cooking.

The Dining Experience

The restaurant comprises three elegant dining rooms, intimate and quietly refined. A log fire burns in the reception lounge, and service is friendly and attentive without formality. Lunch is served on Fridays and Saturdays, dinner from Tuesday to Saturday. The sample à la carte menu includes first dishes such as a salad of Scottish asparagus with wild herbs, soft goats curd and smoked lemon mousse, or scallop tartare with lemongrass oil and pink grapefruit gel. Main courses might feature roast loin of Scottish spring lamb with herb mousse, confit tomato and tarragon jus, or wild halibut baked in lime and seaweed butter. To follow, a hot coconut and Madagascan vanilla soufflé with mango and cashew nut sorbet, or a delice of Edinburgh bean-to-bar Guatemala milk chocolate.

For those who want the full expression of the kitchen’s skill, the six-course tasting menu at £140 presents dishes such as dressed East Neuk crab with apple and seaweed tuille, seared sea bream with scallop mousse, and baked onion filled with braised shin of beef. A classic or prestige wine flight is available to pair.

A Place to Stay

The Peat Inn also offers eight beautifully appointed suites, seven of them split-level with a separate living room upstairs. Each suite is individually styled, providing a comfortable space to extend the evening’s pleasures into an overnight stay. The goal, as the team puts it, is simple: to build on the very fine reputation of one of Scotland’s most cherished destinations.