Restaurant at Willowburn Hotel

Sometimes, just sometimes, one is inclined to suspect the motives of restaurateurs/chefs who set themselves up in some remote piece of countryside, often in apparent total defiance of the laws of economics and then, to everyone's amazement, including possibly their own, finds a path beaten to their door, and a living. Looked at another way, such people enable the rest of us to enjoy often beautiful countryside in the sure and certain knowledge that the inner man is going to be as happy as Larry the lamb before he made the supreme sacrifice. So here's to them, wherever they may be!

Of such an ilk is surely the Willowburn Hotel, with its superb view over the sort of scenery that makes the West Coast of Scotland so compellingly attractive. Eleven miles south of Oban, it is a good staging post on the way south, or north if you happen to find the delights of Oban less than compelling.

Willowburn is a prime example of the theory that if you make things attractive and good enough, people will almost certainly track you down. The description of where Willowburn materials are sourced from is amongst the most appetite-inducing reading I have ever experienced. "The eggs come from Flo MacAaskill down at Balvicar Farm - her chickens are truly free range . . . . ." Just listen to a few of the results. For starters, a thyme brioche filled with guineafowl, avocado and camembert, or a soup of red onions and roasted tomatoes with basil croutons.

Returning to Larry you might feel drawn to five cuts of Kilbride lamb served with Provencal vegetables, thyme-infused oil and reduced red wine and lamb jus. For puddings the choice is equally diverse but many will lean towards the cranberry, walnut and apple tart, served with lime cream and cranberry ice. An extra course of some of those wonderful Scottish cheeses can be accommodated. £32 for the set dinner, plus £2.95 if cheese calls.

A modestly priced wine list has much to offer, starting from £14. The pace is unhurried and redolent of that wonderful Jamaican phrase, "come soon". But you have no right to be there if you lack the savvy to realise this is all part of the experience. It is closed in January and February.

Reviewed by Michael Tebbutt