Cafe 1 — Restaurant in Great Britain

Like the Scottish highlands and Inverness, a down to earth restaurant with character, good food, and good people.

Upon entering the restaurant you get a warm feeling and are greeted by the manager/owner. We were promptly seated with no reservation on a busy Monday night. This place is one of a few restaurants open on Monday night.

Overall we had a nice experience though there are certain areas for improvement. Don't be fooled by the tacky website, it is not reflective of the actual place.

FOOD 4.5*

It starts with nice warm bread (we got two rounds).

The best part of being there. Simply good food. We picked this place because we were getting tired of Scottish food. Their menu is a good mix of traditional and ethnic fusion.

We had gotten scallops, the duck confit, and courgette tempura for the starters. All excellent. The courgette was well cooked and crisped with a stuffed cheese surprise surrounding the courgette under the batter. Delicious and melts in your mouth.

Mains we got the lamb, chicken, veggie fried noodles, and mushroom pasta. Both meat eaters enjoyed their dish. My mushroom pasta was cooked and flavoured well just needed more cheese. Feedback on noodles were that it was not spicy enough for an Asian dish so ask for extra chillies if you like a kick.

Dessert was a combination of the white chocolate cheesecake and ice cream. It was my wife's birthday so they nicely dressed it up with candles and even had the staff singing happy birthday. The cheesecake was amazing. It was baked, not a fan of British non baked cheesecake and am a purist, but this did not disappoint. Nice texture, solid crust and the right level of creaminess. A must have on the dessert menu.

SERVICE 3* Service was good to start but left for something to be desired by the end. In general Scottish people are nice and this was no different. But half the wait staff were teenagers that were nice but more concerned with packing up for the night whilst you had a couple tables still there. I think if we came earlier it would be ok as at the start with fool tables the main waitress was attentive. But as people left and they were nearing closing it was clear they were getting ready to pack it up. My advice is don't keep the place open late if that's the case or ensure at least one person is attentive to customers still there. Or nicely say they're closing. That said we did end up leaving a card with money in it. The staff found it and saved it in a double wrapped envelope to ensure money did not go missing. I was able to get to the restaurant before opening the following day and get the card back. Thank you!

ATMOSPHERE Not fancy or snobby but not casual either. Just right when you want eat somewhere good but down to earth. And it's located in the heart of Inverness so easy to get to.

Overall a nice place to eat with some service issues they should be able to easily rectify. I'd come again and highly recommend a visit if...

My wife and I were going to eat here based on the recommendation of the innkeeper we were staying with while visiting Loch Ness. She had called and made reservations for us.

When we arrived, we asked to take a look at the menu and after a short perusal, we decided that we weren't overly enthused about it and that we were in the mood for something else that night. The reservation was made hastily by the innkeeper and we hadn't had time to view the menu ourselves prior to arriving.

We thanked the gentleman and gave back the menus, politely requesting they cancel the reservation.

The attitude we received at the hand of who was, presumably, the owner was nothing short of disgusting. He proceeded to tell us that "making reservations isn't a game" (sorry... WHAT???) and was extremely rude to the point of being adversarial. We obviously left and I replied "I'm glad we aren't eating here" as we left. The 'owner' then yelled back at us "I'm glad you aren't eating here too!!".

It was honestly shocking. To have someone in the business of serving and being hospitable act in such a way was actually really jarring. We looked at each other in shock, wondering whether this was actually happening. The look on the staffs faces who were behind the bar, was one of complete embarrassment.

One minute, you're being cordial and polite, deciding that the offering isn't what you're in the mood for (which I might add is entirely a customers prerogative) and the next second later, the owner is in your face, yelling at you.

We didn't eat here. Obviously. Maybe the food is lovely. Maybe the service is stellar. We will never know. One star because we have to leave something...

Absolutely awful service and treatment from the owner Norman. My partner and I had a voucher from the highland hospice to enjoy 2 courses from the early bird menu only to be told it “clearly states in big writing lunch menu and is not to be used on our early bird, we don’t make enough money from these charity vouchers” with a patronising and rude attitude. The voucher states lunch voucher - 2 courses from early bird. The early bird states 12-5:45 and we arrived at quarter past 5 so I don’t see what time we could’ve used this. We were embarrassed in front of the restaurant as he walked off while we were trying to question it, asking if there was a separate lunch/early bird menu (there isn’t) he arrogantly stated “I don’t come to work to argue with customers”. We also paid to win this voucher and are now out of pocket. The young servers we dealt with were pleasant and understanding, it’s a shame the owner lets the place down, I’d urge anyone...