It seems that there are few places to stay in the Aberdeenshire countryside so Saplinbrae is perhaps a rare find - and the only find! We're glad we did find it. This isa hotel doing lots of things very well. We arrived back at the hotel at 3pm on the Saturday afternoon hungry for some lunch (not many options in Aberdeenshire!) and it was full of people enjoying afternoon tea and others there for a special event. We asked hopefully if lunch was still possible: no problem, said one of the servers, take a seat. We had some excellent home made soup and the bread they use from the Ythan Bakery. Saplinbrae is good for food. We had dinner on the Friday and Saturday evenings. It's not a big menu but it is full of local produce. I was glad to see that burgers were absent! The food was excellent, piping hot and the servers knew the menu and could explain the dishes: full marks. A large Glen Garioch whisky beside the wood stove in the dining room was a good and to our meals. Breakfasts were also good but perhaps lacked the 'wow' factor of the evening meals. Our bedroom for two nights was perfectly fine but if it's the case that Saplinbrae is focussed on their food offering they could maybe give a wee bit of attention to the rooms and achieve the same standard. One thing for sure, they didn't skimp on the heating, which was appreciated: April was a rather dreich month! In summary: excellent staff and food, fine accomodation and very good value for money we thought.