The Salt Cellar — Restaurant in Scotland

My family and I ate out late on a Friday afternoon at the Salt Cellar / Smugglers / Guidis (all the same place, same kitchen) and I was shocked and upset about how I was treated by the owner of the place.

When my food arrived I quite surprised at the size of the piece of monkfish I was served. As you can see in the photo the size of it was similar to that of a standard sized mayo packet width and length wise, depth wise it was around 1.5cm.

I called the server back over and pointed this out to him and very nicely (not angry, not rude) just explained that for £23 I didn't think this was an acceptable size of fish.

That size of fish I'd expect at a Michelin starred restaurant, not Guidi's in Lossiemouth.

The server went away to have a word with the chef and came back and offered me another portion. Which I agreed too. It came out, still on the smaller size but a lot better so all good, all sorted.

Until 10/15 mins later this guy (I later found out was the owner) came storming over to me and in a very passive aggressive tone demanded to know "are you happy now" - his exact words.

I was in shock to be honest but said "yes, thank you, this piece was much better".

Oh boy. I was then subjected to, again very passive aggressively to a lecture about the cost of fish and he even then pulled out his phone to show me a photo of man sized halibut (or some other fish, definitely wasn't monkfish) and was told it cost him £500. He then went on and on about how expensive this fish was and basically I think the point he was trying to make was that I shouldn't be moaning about the size that I was served.

He then stomped back off both leaving my partner and 12 year old daughter to declare that they wanted to leave now. My daughter was so upset she left half of her pizza.

That was our lovely Friday night treat absolutely ruined, by what I can only describe as a nasty bully.

Oh and I paid £85 to be treated like that!

So word of warning.

Don't eat there. If you do, don't complain about anything and certainly don't do the right thing and complain in person when you're in the restaurant to allow them the opportunity to rectify it.

Wait until you've left the establishment and write a bad review...

Was at the salt cellar for dinner on Saturday, and i just want to put forward some feedback, I called up a couple of hours before hand to book a table for half 6, but when i arrived myself and my party were told someone was sat on my table that I reserved and were then directed towards the bar next door to wait, went back to the restaurant after 10 minutes table was still not ready and were told to go back and wait for additional 20 minutes half an hour after my original reservation, we were all slightly confused why this happened when i had booked a table and had not walked in unexpectedly. It then took your staff 15 minutes to get a food order in, when questioning your member of staff about allergies as my friend has a mushroom and truffles allergy they did not proceed to check if the carbonara had any truffles and mushrooms in it as well as not recording that we had a allergy on our table, better training needed there. then for us to have our starters finish our starters to wait and additional 30 minutes for our mains we were again confused why none of your staff were unable to check on us or communicate to us why there was a wait on our mains understanding if it was busy at the time however there was 5-6 members of staff on for a about 20 tables, like plenty people to cover all areas you would think? When i went up to pay they then charged us for our drinks that we paid for at the smugglers which was refunded immediately but again nothing seemed to be communicated before i received the bill, in all honesty communication was a problem and the lack of customer service was as well. also wondering why your VAT is not included in your total price however just an additional charge and why it is not stated on your website that Tapas is only bookable and when we we asked for we were practically shut down and told no we cannot have it instead of accommodating us when it was asked about. would love to return as food was spot on just that customer...

Pros: Lots of fish options on the menu Nice décor Reasonable prices

Cons: Food was just average - this wasn't really a problem until I took into account other factors When asked what gins were available, the waitress offering table service, said I should just go to the bar to look (although in the interest of fairness, this might have been because we were having to shout at each other at the top of our voices due to table next to us) The waitresses cleared my husbands plates before I had finished eating (I'm not an especially slow eater, I only had a few mouthfuls left) My plate was cleared the second I placed the knife and fork together, I hadn't even swallowed my last mouthful

The biggest problem for us was the table of 20 we were seated next to of the most entitled, arrogant Neanderthals. They were not just loud because they were having conversations with one another, they were chanting, grunting and quite literally making random noises just to see who could be the loudest and shouting at one another at the top of their voices. My husband and I couldn't have a conversation, we were having to shout to one another across our small table of two before we gave up.

It isn't a large restaurant and whilst I appreciate no one wants to risk their tip by asking their customers to show a bit of common decency for other diners, the fact that at least one other diner on every other table was continuously looking over with disgusted looks and the fact the waitresses could neither be heard or hear really should have been a clue that they should have managed that table more...