The Riverside - Pub, Kitchen & Coffee House — Restaurant in Scotland

It pains me to write this but there are a few reasons why I feel I should. As a couple we are not big complainers, a nice plate of food and friendly staff and we are happy.

A Sunday evening. We were seated by the manager, a lovely and friendly female waitress took our drinks orders. One of the glasses with ice turned up dirty. It was a hot night, staff were busy so I just gave up and poured my drink into it.

We ordered a starter to share and also our mains. I ordered the Sunday roast and my partner the fish and chips. Our orders were placed at 19:05 and at 20:15 our mains were nowhere to be seen. Staff clearly realised and then apologised, saying the order didn’t go through but it would be “up soon.” We were offered a free drink.

By now, the sun had gone down, the tables who were seated after us were eating their mains and we were just sitting waiting.

The food turned up. The beef was so tough, the sauce tasted like it was out of a packet. Carrots were hard, knife wouldn’t cut them and the cauliflower cheese was so bland. It was less than average and priced at £22.00. My partners fish and chips was average at best. The batter on the fish hard; the chips soft. We decided to leave our meals and go.

We spoke to the female manager who just wanted to know which staff member cleared the starter away. Staff behind her looked scared as she was asking. She said she hoped we would come...

Food tasty, if overpriced, service very poor. Booked a table for an early evening meal for four. Informed that it would take 15 to 20 minutes as the chicken is cooked from fresh, which we were fine with. After 40 minutes we had to ask about our meal and were told that they were just plating it up. 10 minutes later the burgers arrived, with the chicken 5 minutes later. We were told that they were short staffed in the kitchen, which is not my fault or problem. To make matters worse, when the burgers were being passed across the table the serving staff dropped the tomato sauce, or relish, over one of our party and handed them some blue rolll paper tool to clean up, no offer of cleaning etc. The sauce, or relish, tub was left below the table with no attempt to pick it up. I'm describing it as relish or sauce as I didn't get to taste it due to no replacement being offered or supplied. As a Dunblane local it is dissapointing that this is another eating establishment which I will not visit again. Also, I am really sick of almost every place I go to eat claiming that they are short staffed, if this is the case then drop the prices because the service drops had the wages...

Staff are lovely but the place lacks atmosphere and food was awful.

You are pleasantly greeted at the door and sat down and served with friendly smiling staff. You sit down and the place is quite literally warm, possibly to cater to their heavy presence of elderly customers and even ignoring the chatter I couldn't hear any music if it was playing. Keep in mind I grew up on a farm where I ate and still do eat basically anything I can get. I ordered a soup of the day which was prepared scorching hot and was like eating pure liquid ginger I then ate the shrimp linguine. The sauce was presumably straight out of a can as my dry, overcooked linguine sat in a pool of oil, covered in dry, flavorless 'tomato' sauce of some sort, with scorching hot shrimp which will give you a scare if you don't look out for it. The cocktail of the month was OK just not my thing and the water came with a cucumber which again I'd rather a lemon but that's just small preference stuff.

I won't be coming back but the place seems successful so I hope you enjoy your visit a lot more than I did.

Thanks again for the wonderful staff...