Taste - John O'Groats — Restaurant in Scotland

I heard that this place was meant to be a good place to stop for food. However, I was slightly disappointed. Firstly, it advertises outside that they sell pies, wraps, sandwiches and salads but none of those options were available. There was a good selection of sweet treats but virtually no savoury options. We asked if there was a breakfast menu and we felt that our response was quite rude. The guy rolled his eyes and said, “we get asked this all the time. No, what you see is what we offer”. We ended up getting, the only savoury option, cheese and bacon puff pastry, a blueberry croissant, a jammy dodger slice, a courgette and apricot cake slice and 2 “luxury mega hot chocolate”. The pastry was not bad, maybe a little soggy. The croissant was delightful, the jammy dodger was very sweet and the cake was really tasty. We expected the mega hot chocolate to be a large one but it was in a normal sized cup and there was nothing luxurious about it. In fact, it was probably the worst hot chocolate I’ve had in a long time. It was very watery and disappointing. Part of the cafe is a great shop with all sorts of food you can buy such as, chocolate, biscuits, crackers, crisps, jams, chutneys and so much more. A lot of the produce is sourced locally. They also have pottery and some other household items that you can buy. Most of the things in the shop are quite expensive but that’s to be expected. Overall, I was expecting better from the cafe as I wanted a decent breakfast but the sweet treats were great so it wasn’t all bad. The shop is awesome so...

The staff were friendly when I ordered, two ladies, no complaints. The place is set up very oddly in that, you go over to the coffee counter to order then you have to go to a separate counter behind you to pay, and that causes the staff more work because they'll have to make the coffee then walk to the till across the room or make the coffee and then get someone else to charge you, which isn't always the best. It's a waste of resources, because instead of having two people serve, you have one person make the coffees and one person charging. So please install a till at the coffee counter, it makes more sense.

The lady that made my coffee did a pet peeve of mine when steaming the milk. She sat the jug down while the milk was being steamed. This is bad because you're not stretching the milk to get adequate microfoam and because you can't control the temperature of the milk properly and can burn the milk. When I was given my coffee it was very hot, and they didn't have coffee sleeves so I had to use a napkin.

A regular oat mocha costs £4 ish, which is pretty steep, but I did like the coffee once it cooled down.

The gift shop looked cool, would definitely check it out again.

So some good points and...

Nice little place with potential to do very well. However they will need to improve service, quantity and quality to justify their high prices. We had quite literally the worst excuse for a bowl of leak and potato soup. It was nothing more than green coloured water with lots of pepper. The quantity couldn’t have been more than one ladle full. It’s no wonder they only had some pathetic paper teaspoons to eat with and to provide you with the illusion of the soup lasting longer due to the time it took to spoon the watery bree from plate to mouth. Perhaps take the time to greet customers and go around the tables and ask them how their first couple of bites were and if there is anything else they need to make their stay at your place a little better. We had planned on staying for a coffee and sweet treat as well but after suffering the peppery dishwater, pathetic paper teaspoons and miserable service, we left the building and ventured across to the neighbouring 8 Doors Distillery Shop for coffee where the service was a least with a smile and the coffee and bakes...