The Lochside Brasserie — Restaurant in Scotland

We stopped here for lunch on our way home from Skye, mostly as there was very little choice in the area if I'm honest. The welcome was a little odd; asking if we'd been before and then telling us we hadn't; it used to be Letterfinlay Lodge, which we had visited previously, but is now part of the Black Sheep chain. We were then told it must look and feel better now......err no.

The decor and location are delightful, although not as welcoming as Letterfinlay was. The menu was unusual for lunch; it was mostly Indian main meals with a burger and a couple of Scottish alternatives snuck in and a kids section. More like I would expect for an evening restaurant meal. I can see that they were trying to be 'high end' but there was nothing particularly that we wanted to eat at lunch time. The majority of the clientele during our visit were like us, travelling past on their way somewhere else, so I feel a more appropriate lunch menu would've been better. By all means keep it high end if that's the aim, but salads, sandwiches, soups etc would've been a fantastic option. As it was, our table of six chose two kids meals, two starters and two burgers. This was very much looked down upon by the waiting staff, but they did accept our order.

We were again made to feel uncomfortable for only ordering four drinks as two of us were drinking tap water.

The food itself was ok; presented well but only ok in taste. The burgers were nothing special, the kids meals were frozen nuggets and starters (very overpriced for what was received) and the starters small. For example, the Garlic Paprika Prawns starter was 4 prawns, four one inch long pieces of overcooked calamari and about 2 slices of chorizo cut into thirds. This was then smothered in a Paprika sauce, where all I could taste was Paprika. This one small starter cost £12! I ordered a side of Paprika fries, which were also so covered in Paprika I could taste nothing else. We were then looked down upon further when we didn't want to order dessert. Total for our uncomfortable, below average lunch......£83.50! Suffice to say we will not be...

Came here during a recent stay in the Highlands for a meal as it's a highly rated restaurant.

Even on booking it was very clearly emphasised that we'd need to be gone within 80 minutes but that's fine as we don't dawdle.

We arrived and were squashed into the corner of the half full restaurant (some tables were still empty as we departed)

Our food order was taken at the same time as our drinks but the food was served first. In fact, the drinks may never have been served if we hadn't got someone's attention and asked for them. The service wasn't great for the duration, particularly a couple of the waitresses, although one waiter was particularly smiley and friendly.

Unfortunately I ordered the teriyaki salmon which was overcooked and dry throughout. The sauce was overly sweet. The chicken was apparently a little better but we both agreed that it was neither horrible nor impressive.

Dessert took an age to arrive, as did the bill. I think the bill only came because the floor manager got into a clear panic that we were still present after 78 minutes.

Plenty of people taking photographs just outside holding wine glasses up against the beautiful scenery but sadly, we wouldn't visit again.

*Edited to correct error over order of food and drinks served. Visited...

The only good thing about this place was the view. From the start we felt very uncomfortable with the waiting staff (a middle aged gentleman in particular) waiting around and watching us like hawks. We were offered still or sparkling water for the table soon after arriving and were confused when we were given a very expensive bottle of water. Shortly after, others around us were being asked if they had wanted tap or bottled water. This set the tone for a very disappointing meal; we felt swindled from the start. The food was extremely low quality and poor, but VERY expensive considering. The vegetable biryani was tasteless and had seemingly been microwaved. The vegetable burger was even worse; literally a cheap breaded frozen burger (think Wetherspoons but worse... actually, we had a better time at the Wetherspoons in Fort William...) with some lettuce slapped on top. Ketchup came in sachets on a serviette, which is hilarious given the upscale image this place tries to...