Carfraemill Lodge is a restaurant, venue and hotel set in the beautiful Lauder countryside. Within the lodge there are a choice of eating areas: Jo’s kitchen, the Bistro bar and the Conservatory, all offering the best of Scottish and local produce. Jo’s kitchen is a cosy area of the restaurant named after the owner Jo Sutherland. Jo personally ensures that guests at her ‘home from home’ leave contented and extremely well fed. The emphasis is on family cooking and there is an Aga, toys for the kids and a warming open fire. It is a replica of a real farmhouse kitchen, offering home cooking just like it used to be!
The recipes used here have been handed down for generations and there are numerous good old fashioned favourites on the menu. The lodge is widely thought of as the Scottish Borders most unique hotel, situated in breathtaking landscape- the perfect position to explore the attractive towns and villages of the Borders.
The lodge has some beautifully decorated rooms as well, ideal for a weekend retreat to the borders or stop off if you are heading down south/ up north.
The menu spoils you for choice with wide selections of home cooked dishes to suit all tastes and a great children’s menu too! Holly and I opted to share deep fried potato skins and crispy coated Roxburgh Roondie brie with cranberry sauce to start. The Brie was a melt in your mouth delight and the homemade cranberry sauce was a sweet accompaniment to the gooey Brie. The potato skins were a simple choice, but we really fancied them and we loved them!
For our main courses we both chose a Sunday roast as we had watched it arrive at neighbouring tables and couldn’t think about having anything else! I had roast pork with all the trimmings and Holly had roast beef with all the trimmings. We both enjoyed it so much we ended up arguing over whether the beef or pork was better, but did agree that they were both cooked exceptionally well, in fact Holly thought it was the best roast beef she had ever had! The vegetables still had crunch and the roast potatoes were fluffy and light in a crispy golden shell. The meat itself tasted as if it had been reared on a local farm and was full of flavour! And the Yorkshire pudding (yes I had one too with my pork), well that was a real treat.
So we now had a breather and went to explore the rooms of the hotel and see the event facilities. The bedrooms were all en suite and decorated in inviting colours. Each room had a feeling of luxury without being pretentious. Although we didn’t stay overnight I suspect this would be a wonderful base for a good night’s rest, where you could enjoy a few days golfing, walking, fishing, cycling and much more. The staff at the lodge are only too happy to help their guests so whether you would like them to prepare you a picnic lunch to take with you when you go exploring or want them to book you in for a day’s clay pigeon shooting, nothing is too much trouble.
The event facilities this venue has are also fantastic. A banquet room for up to 140-150 people and a permanent marquee, erected in the warmer months, offering facilities for groups of up to 300 people. So if you are looking for a based in the borders between the north and south for conferences, corporate hospitality or even your wedding this is certainly somewhere to check out. It is also worth mentioning that the venue also offers outside catering so if you a looking to have a ceilidh in the farm barn or a wedding reception at home then the team at Carfraemill are delighted to come to you.
On return from our tour we were greeted by the delights of the pudding menu- we knew we had to make room as going on the last two courses the sweet was going to be very good. Holly gave into temptation and chose the chocolate fudge cake with a warm chocolate sauce and cream. It was a rich and gooey feast perfect for a chocolate lover like Holly, she was in heaven. I selected the toffee apple pie with fudge ice cream (hardly a calorie in this fruity feast – wink wink!). The pastry on the pie was AMAZING- I think I will be making the journey back to Carfraemill just to have this pudding again, I fell in love!
Over all we heartily recommend the friendly team, the delicious food and wonderful facilities of Carfraemill. They really do make you feel at home!
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
