Today my husband, son and 2 grandchildren were in the restaurant. One of my grandchildren has a chronic allergy that is life threatening if he eats the wrong food, or foods that have been cross contaminated with another intolerant food. Anyway, we were at the carvery counter and myself and husband ordered the roast beef, and to be honest the quality was not as good as it used to be, last time was April 2022(we are quite regular customers as we travel this road to visit grandchildren) my son asked one of the guys behind the counter if he could have 2 bowls of chips for the children as they were our safe bet, but my husband asked if he could have fresh ones that were in the drier. The guy said those in the Bain Marie were fresh, my son said he wasn’t disbelieving him, but the tongs that were on the chips could have been used in other dishes of food as you can’t guarantee a customer don’t use the same tongs/ spoon for other food. My son was just trying to keep his son safe, but the guy behind carvery said, there’s not dairy or anything in them they’re just potatoes, and he started to laugh!!! My son was so taken aback by his attitude that he raised his voice and said he wasn’t stupid and he knows what chips are made out of, but couldn’t guarantee that they had not been contaminated with the tongs if they’d been used for anything else. To be honest, it was a small ask to wait for fresh chips but yet your staff member had to make a thing out of it. I was standing down the line from my son, then the guy came to serve me and he was laughing and said did you hear that guy, I said I did and told him it wasn’t a laughing matter and he was my son. He then shut up and got on with serving. The other guy behind the carvery took over and served my son. I’m just appalled at the customer service. I worked in tourism for most of my career with Visit Scotland and have recommended thousands to the House of Bruar over the years. But after today I’m so upset and disgusted( that’s a strong word) but I am. How can a first class 5* establishment change so much in a short time. Not sure if you still have the 5* but I don’t think if that’s the attitude to your customers you should have. Also just to point out, my son has to carry an epi-pen with him as my grandsons allergies are life threatening.