EE-USK — Restaurant in Scotland

On Friday, March 14th, at noon, I had an exceptionally terrible experience at this restaurant. There were three of us, and we ordered dressed crab, a seafood platter, and seafood penne as our main courses, along with a large portion of mussels as a starter.

To begin with, the main courses were served before the starter without our consent. But what was truly unacceptable was the quality of the seafood. Many of the mussels were not fresh, with a bitter taste or a strong unpleasant odor, making the large plate of mussels practically inedible. Similarly, the seafood platter I ordered also contained the same poor-quality mussels. On top of that, my platter included three langoustines, two of which were extremely unfresh—the heads had turned visibly black, as shown clearly in the pictures I provided, and the meat was incredibly loose, completely lacking the firmness of fresh shellfish. The oysters were very small, and the crab claws were also tiny, though fortunately, these two items were relatively fresher compared to the rest.

Due to the poor quality of the seafood, we were unable to finish any of our dishes, especially the large portion of mussels, which remained almost untouched, as mentioned earlier. When I finally requested the bill, the rude waitress showed no concern whatsoever and, without asking, took away the barely touched plate of mussels. All of this happened during a non-busy period, and we were, in fact, the first customers of the day at this restaurant.

When the waitress came over with the bill, I attempted to provide feedback regarding the terrible experience caused by the unfresh seafood, but the rude blonde waitress gave me no chance at all. She simply tossed—yes, tossed, not placed—the bill towards me and, before I even had the chance to look at it, immediately handed me the card machine for payment. I want to emphasize once again that all of this occurred during a non-busy period, and we were the restaurant’s first customers of the day.

Ultimately, given such a dreadful experience, I did not bother to express my dissatisfaction to the staff on the spot, as it was obvious they simply did not care. Later that evening, two out of the three of us experienced varying degrees of diarrhea and discomfort. Since we had not eaten anything else after this meal, I believe this is solid proof of the restaurant’s lack of fresh seafood—or perhaps, just the lack of fresh seafood...

Tl:DR Believe the hype. Worth travelling for. Excellent food and service in modern decor restaurant with cozy atmosphere. Great wine selection with decent recommendations for pairing. Be sure to book in advance.

We came to Oban as a detour on our way back from holiday near Loch Tarbert, following a recommendation. My wife has a thing for seafood and planned it as a well deserved mini-treat for herself. Having been somewhat underwhelmed by the local sights on the particularly grey, miserable, rainy day we'd arrived, our hopes weren't particularly high in all honesty. We weren't disappointed.

EE-USK is the phonetic pronunciation of the Gaelic for Fish according to the website. It's apt and the menu reflects accordingly. Reasonably priced particularly in the current climate. If you don't like seafood or don't eat fish, go to their sister restaurant Piazza next door.

Although it seemed a bit pricey in comparison to other menu items, as this was a special treat, we went all out and ordered the Grand Platter "for two", with a portion of chips naively added on (on the off chance our 9 yr old son was in a fussy mood).

Now as I've mentioned my wife is partial to sea food, and as a result we've eaten alot of seafood platters, in various places around the world over the past 16ish years. This was up there with the best of them. A superb balance of flavours from the sea, with decent amount of different components (cooked & uncooked) and no obvious filler. I got about 1/2 way through before starting to notice what can only describe as akin to a religious experience, with emergence of a zen like calm and focus as I found myself savouring the various subtle nuances of different textures and flavours.

It was also much bigger than anticipated. I had barely eaten anything all day and am known to have a bottomless pit for a stomach. Reader, I'm ashamed to admit that we failed to finish it completely, which is unprecedented 😳

Believe the hype. It's worth making the trip for. I strongly suspect we'll be making a regular annual/biannual pilgrimage from London (at least until we can conquer...

The initial greeting was fine when we were shown to our table. The waiting staff were quick to come to the table and to take our order. We ordered our food and drinks together. The wine and water arrived very swiftly. Within a minute of that, the scallop starter arrived, which from experience suggests they were not freshly cooked to order. When eaten, they were lukewarm. The lemon, garlic butter sauce on the scallops was over poweringly citrusy. Within the sauce, the taste of lemon was prominent to the extent it tasted extremely acidic with a sour after taste. My partner queried this with me so I tasted it and I agreed that there was far too much lemon in the sauce and to my mind this sauce had not been tasted by the chef or the person who plated up. As the sauce was inedible, it was not eaten. When the waitress collected the plate, she asked how the dish was, the above was explained to her in an effort to provide helpful and well intended feedback which was met with a defensive, condesending and unempathetic response referencing the fact that 'there is lemon in the sauce'. The waitress looked at us disbelievingly so she was invited to taste it herself, she didnt choose to do so, so we offered a suggestion that the chef might wish to do so in case they didnt realise there was an issue. The waitress took the plate to the kitchen, and we heard nothing further. The main courses then arrived, seabass fillet with mashed potato and leeks and seafood penne pasta. The seabass was generous. The spring onion mash was tasty, but the dish could have done with a few more leeks. The seafood penne was ok, the salmon, mussels and queenies were good but the dish was a bit too creamy. There is no real atmosphere in the restaurant. The dark blue painted walls are bland, with no reference to the location's nautical context. Overall it was adequate but we did get the impression that the staff didn't seem to be interested in the customers dining experience which is typical of a venue relying on tourists where repeat business in returning diners is...