Visiting Saint Andrew's for the day we stopped at Balgove Larder for lunch. This is a very nicely stocked, high quality farm shop with a very decent restaurant attached. Three scones and hot chocolates later we left satisfied. A nice shop and a good lunch. read more

Neat concept and lovely location, Balgove is a farm shop, café and steakhouse all featuring local ingredients. It was Father's Day and my dad's more of a steak-on-the-bbq kinda guy than fine dining, so I did some research and found this place. Less than a 10-minute drive from the touristy bustle of St Andrews, it seemed ideal for our lunch stop. The wait for a table for 4 at the Steak House was 45 minutes, which we agreed to and happily wandered around the farm shop to kill time. After we were seated, however, the REAL waiting game began. The menu is simple, with basically 4 different cuts of steak available and a burger option, so it didn't take us long to decide we'd all go for rib eye steaks. It took the server 10 minutes to come back and take our orders, and another 15 minutes after that for our drinks to arrive. That wasn't the worst part... our meals (nothing fancy - 4 grilled steaks on wooden boards with chips) took another HOUR after that!! Nobody checked on us while we were waiting to apologise for the delay, or ask if we wanted to order more drinks. We sat there with empty glasses, having nursed our beers as long as humanly possible. In summary, we arrived at 12:45pm, seated by 1:30pm and weren't served our meals until 3pm. It was absolutely ridiculous and unfortunately I just didn't feel that the management/staff did enough to make up for it to warrant a return trip for me. read more

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I had high hopes of the food in this place as you enter through an amazing farm shop full of fresh, local produce. Everything from veggies, meat, cheese and deli food to local ales, spirits and ciders to chocolate biscuits and cake. The restaurant is more of a cafe really, they do breakfasts till 11.30 which I hear are really good and then 12-3pm they serve lunch which is mainly light dishes like sandwiches, salads, tarts and soup. They did have a couple of hot means too and pudding. I ordered a hot chicken and bacon salad which had more meat than salad, which in my book was a good salad! All the meat is from local sources and it was all fresh, yummy and high quality. My one year old son had a cheese scone which was basically the size of his head! Luckily this meant I had to help out with the eating and it was probably the best cheese scone I've ever eaten! I washed it down with a local ale, it was dark, a little bitter and really good. I haven't tried it, but there is another restaurant called steak barn, which is literally a large barn outside. We had a peak and it's rustic and simple with wooden benches and a fire. It's only open April to October and apparently also very good. read more

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Where do I start with this amazing place? Situated just outside St Andrews, in a very pretty setting they have a great farm shop and The Steak Barn. The shop is amazingly well stocked with a wide variety of both local, Scottish and deli produce, much of which is from Balgove itself. If you are a Scottish gin lover you will be in heaven!!!!!!! They even make their own Scotch eggs! The Steak Barn is a quirky farm building that has been cleverly designed as an outdoor/indoor space. It has long wooden trestle tables and benches to sit on but don't worry they have blankets on the benches to make them a bit more comfortable. The menu is based on beef but has a great small selection iif other yummy choices. I had the beef burger and I can honestly say that it was one of the juiciest I have ever tasted. My friends had the rib eye steak and they said it was really really good. The twice cooked chips were amazing and one of my friends steak was late in coming because the chef was not happy with the first one he cooked so he made another. Good selection of Eden Brewery beers and gin. Downside, you can't book, I think this maybe because if the weather is bad it would be difficult to operate. Totally recommend it, made a great day out even better, they even have WiFi read more

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My girlfriend and I were really looking forward to lunch the Balgove but unfortunately we were quite disappointed. The service was poor; slow, unfriendly and generally unhelpful. The value for money was very poor. We both realised that the café was quite expensive upon arrival but decided to try out something anyway. We both ordered a roast beef sandwich and we both had to prompt the waiter for our choice of dressing. At £4.95 for a sandwich we were expecting something a little special, instead we were presented with a very basic sandwich. The quality of the food was good, but certainly did not represent the price paid. The menu is extremely limited and incoherent; we felt that there could have been much more choice available. The atmosphere was much like another busy café although everything seemed quite rushed. It was quite cold and generally uncomfortable and we were in and out quite quickly...once we actually got a table and got served! Unfortunately, We won't be returning anytime soon. Border line 3 star from us, very close to getting a 2 star! read more

Very, very disappointed with the customer service at Balgove. Tried to order a turkey for Thanksgiving, went in multiple times to confirm, finally did confirm with staff on phone, but no turkey today. Received only arrogant responses from the manager. We go to Balgove 2x per week to eat and also do lots of grocery shopping there (multiple times per week). Thanks to the dismissive response we received and the utter lack of taking responsibility for their mistake, we won't soon be returning. Disappointing, because Balgove was one of the things we really love about St Andrews. Oh well. read more

OH and I came with our parents about 6 months ago and had very tasty lunch, however, for no particular reason we hadn't gone back until Saturday morning when we decided to go for coffee and scones. We had to wait for a wee while for a table, not because there weren't any, but because the waitresses were clearly trying to be strategic about the number of tables they could manage efficiently. Anyway, coffee and scones were good - cheese scone perhaps a little dense, but the fruit one was lovely, and, at under £8 for the pair of us for a HUGE homemade scone is pretty good value when you compare the prices to Costa or Starbucks. The shop is excellent and not particularly over-priced that I could tell. Butcher counter looked pretty awesome. Would definitely return for some meat and some scones. read more

A place under development I would say. The shop side of the business is good, the cafe side is ok. The menu is limited which is fine but it seems rather hit or miss in terms of value for money. I liked it but will wait for them to develop before I come back. read more

Returned to Balgove Larder over the weekend and happy to say I enjoyed my visit just as much as previous ones. It was busy, but we got seated quickly after prompting the waitress that the two of us could sit in the empty window seats and didn't need to queue for a table. Had fishcakes again as they are a favourite and we were not disappointed. Staff very pleasant if a bit unsure of themselves at times but that just adds to the charm for us. Will visit again. read more