Giovanni's Ristorante — Restaurant in Scotland

I came to Aviemore expecting to find Leprauchans and soon found myself disappointed after realising that was an Irish creature and not Scottish.

The overwhelming disappointment had a cascading effect and lead to me being famished. Out of pure desperation, I flocked to the nearest restaurant with decent ratings and found this place, built and constructed by Mr Giovani himself in 1602. As a one man restaurant I wasn't expecting much, but was incredibly surprised. Not only did this place help me get over my rational fear of Scottish people, but it also served me a hearty meal.

Let me start with the setting. This little restaurant takes very avante gard approach to decor with seaweed and marijuana on display in little cute Italian bottles. It caught me off guard at first, but its all a part of the art exihibition; that was the meaning behind the art, the shock factor. This instantly added at least 2 stars to my rating. The Scottish actors that were paid to speak with an Italian accent were very impressive.

Now let's get to the meat n' taters, or should I say the pizza n' pasta (that's what me and my partner ordered). First of all, the pricing was very high. Maybe it was meant to be a striking piece of social commentary on capitalism; either way, very avante gard. The food took very little time to get onto our table and into our gobs. Good to know the microwave was working. The carbonara was very oily and tasted of carbonara. Maybe a bit more like subpar carbonara. I ordered the fun guy pizza, because that's what I am. I think the chefs forgot the main ingredient, the taste. The dough was very nice though. I expected so much after seeing that they cooked it in a medieval forge that would make even the tightest of dwarves proud. The food was food and that was definitely one of the meals of all time, I can tell you that much.

The dude who looked like Owen from 'The Haunting of Bly Manor' was very kind. Liked him a lot. Same goes for the lady who looks like Marie from Breaking Bad. Much love from Bilingo!!!!...

Ate here twice during Thunder in the Glens weekend, the first time out of choice, the second out of desperation as everywhere else was fully booked. The food is overpriced and at best average. The first night I opted for prawn linguine, glad I went for the large size as it was a small portion. £15 for 4 prawns and a small amount of pasta is outrageous! Second night I opted for mushroom risotto which was completely tasteless and swimming in some bland sauce, it went back after 3 mouthfuls! hubby had a calzone pizza which was mostly crust and had little filling. I then had tiramisu which was an extremely merge portion for £5.50 sprinkled with so much cocoa powder I could barely taste anything else! Had to laugh when the head waiter advised me they hadn’t charged for the risotto like he was doing me a favour not charging for something I didn’t eat! No apologies or offer of any reduction in the price though! Food aside the front of house staff are friendly and helpful, pity...

A week or two ago we actually stayed at the Macdonald resort just around the corner from Giovannis and I also went there for breakfast about 3 days out of the 4 I stayed there. I see a lot of mixed reviews for this place but let me tell you, don’t get put off by the negative reviews, it’s definitely worth a visit. The breakfast was really delicious and the service was very great too, I had the same breakfast the vegetarian full English 3 times in a row I enjoyed it so much! They also offer the meat version of course and a whole bunch of other things like continental breakfast etc. They also do amazing pizzas, takeaway aswell, my sister had one and I had a piece, I enjoyed it so much I got one myself the next day. The restaurant itself is very tidy and well...