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From pot washer to two Michelin stars: the story of The Glenturret Lalique
There’s a restaurant just a few minutes from Crieff town centre that holds two
Michelin stars. It sits inside Scotland's oldest working distillery, beside the River Turret.
The food is extraordinary. And the story of how it got there is just as exciting.
Where it started
Mark Donald grew up in Glasgow. As a teenager he took a job washing dishes in a
pub kitchen in Milngavie. Not because he had ambitions to become a chef. He wanted to be an actor, and the kitchen paid.
What happened next was not part of the plan.
Something about the professional kitchen got hold of him. The discipline, the craft, the relentless pursuit of getting something exactly right. He decided to stay. And then he decided to get serious.
He had no formal culinary training. What he had instead was curiosity, determination and a willingness to go wherever the best kitchens were.
The kitchens that made him
The list of places Mark Donald has cooked reads like a map of the world's finest restaurants.
He staged at Noma in Copenhagen at a point when it was widely considered the best restaurant in the world. He worked at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, the only two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Scotland at the time. He spent time at Claude Bosi's two-starred Hibiscus in Mayfair, one of London's most celebrated kitchens. He was Head Chef at Bentley in Sydney for four years. He returned to Scotland to take the helm at Number One at The Balmoral in Edinburgh, where he secured a Michelin star.
Then he got a phone call from a distillery in Crieff.
The call from Crieff
The Glenturret Distillery, established in 1763 and Scotland's oldest working distillery, was opening a restaurant. Not a hotel restaurant. Not a distillery café. A serious, ambitious restaurant in a converted stone building beside the River Turret, with the copper stills of the distillery visible through the glass.
Mark Donald moved his entire team with him.
The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant opened in 2021. Within seven months it had been awarded its first Michelin star, making it the first distillery in the world to hold one. In February 2024 it received its second.
Great British Chefs described it as "an impressively swift achievement." The National Restaurant Awards called it "a restaurant like no other." The Good Food Guide said it was "a marriage made in heaven (well, Crieff, anyway)." The Michelin Guide said it "mixes the luxury with the familiar."
Two Michelin stars in three years. He started washing dishes.
Inside the restaurant
The Glenturret Lalique is not loud. The setting is understated. The dining room seats just six tables.
The food reflects exactly where it is. Scottish ingredients, handled with the precision and creativity of a kitchen that has cooked in some of the world's finest restaurants, presented with the confidence that comes from knowing you don’t need to try too hard.
The Glenturret Lalique Bar menu features over 400 whiskies, a curated wine list, alongside signature cocktails, premium gins, beers, and alcohol-free beverages, perfectly paired with bar snacks created by Executive Chef Mark Donald.
The restaurant is open Wednesday to Saturday. Booking well ahead is essential. This is not the kind of table that’s easy to get. The Lalique Bar is open Thursday to Saturday from 12pm.
Why it matters for Crieff
The Glenturret Lalique is not just a remarkable restaurant. It’s a statement about what’s possible in this corner of Perthshire.
A young man who started washing dishes in a Glasgow pub, trained at some of the world's greatest kitchens, and chose to build something extraordinary in a small town in the heart of Scotland. That’s not an accident. It’s a deliberate decision about the quality of life and the quality of ingredients that this region makes possible.
Crieff has always had something worth coming for. The Glenturret Lalique is one more reason to make the journey.
The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant is open Wednesday to Saturday for dinner, with lunch available at the Lalique Bar. Reservations at theglenturretrestaurant.com
Experience Crieff: it's yours to discover.
