The Olive Retreat — Restaurant in Scotland

Where to start? The service was a bit chaotic, but they were trying hard. This was the worse restaurant meal I can ever remember having. I ordered focaccia bread, received pitta. The tomato salad was nice (but hard to go wrong chopping up vegetables). Me and my partner ordered seafood platter, this is where things went really wrong. There was a huge langoustine with practically no meat inside it. The prawns were hard and tasted like they had been cooked in dirty oil. The calamari was frozen, calamari badly cooked, the batter was soggy and the calamari was liking chewing a rubber band with absolutely no flavour. The chips again tasted like they were cooked in dirty oil, as did the potato bravas. The bravas sauce was tasteless (no seasoning). The sauce the mussels was in had little flavour and very oily. My mother had the fish and fries, again the fish tasted like it was cooked in dirty oil, as did the onion rings (not helped by using red onions instead of white onions), which also had little flavour except for dirty oil. My father said his burger was ok. Not a pleasant experience, which is a shame as the menu has the potential to be so much more (albeit far too many items on menu). Castle Douglas has limited eating venues, but I would eat from chippy rather than waste £130 here again. And in reply to the owners reply, my wife is a chef, so she concurred with everything I have written. Not used to quality like this??? You use the cheapest ingredients, cooks who don't look after their kitchen and charge extortionate prices for mediocre food! All show, no substance! Strangely you have never admitted to anyone that you could possibly make a mistake. Shame you also never mention how many good reviews I leave too. Take a look at the ones I've left for real Mediterranean restaurants in Santorini! I don't live in Castle Douglas, so not limited in my choice of restaurants, unfortunately people there...

We came across The Olive Retreat by chance whilst holidaying with the family, with 4 of the 5 of us on vegan diets and one of those also recently determined to have a wheat intolerance, we were looking for somewhere that could cater to meet our wide needs. We managed to get a table arriving around 2pm for my wife and I, along with our 3 children all under 6.

There were a few games about that kept our kids entertained while we ordered food, complimentary crudités and fruit were provided for the kids and hummus and home made pitta for the table, along with some freshly made focaccia with home made vegan aioli and a red pepper dip, both lovely and so nice with the warm foccacia.

The kids were catered for with a gluten free base and vegan margarita, which they all promptly polished off along with a portion of home made fries, my wife had the firey veg vegan pizza and I had the meat extravaganza, both of ours were 12" and the kids shared the 10". All of our pizzas were delicious, we got both of our remainders to go along with a slice of vegan chocolate cake.

All in all the staff were very attentive, accommodating and managed with all our dietary needs, if only such a lovely restaurant existed closer to home. Highly recommended and will absolutely visit if we're back...

Visiting Castle Douglas for a holiday weekend and went to the Olive retreat tonight after a recommendation from our holiday accomodation, this place did not disappoint!! The staff were all extremely friendly and went above and beyond for us. After taking our orders they kindly brought out a bowl of fruit and veg for each of our 3 kids to keep them going until their food was ready and even adapted what they were giving them for each age group. The server talked through the menu with us and gave us recommendations too. They brought out the kids meals very quickly and these were eaten even by our fussy girl. When our food arrived it was steaming hot and extremely tasty. The menu has a great choice and the portions are extremely generous with the main meals being great value for money with the choice of 3 sides too. The entertainer was very good and interacted with the kids. I cannot recommend this place enough and will definitely be returning if and when we are down for a visit again. Thanks again for a...