The Steamboat Inn — Restaurant in Scotland

It seems like a spark has gone from here.

We are locals and we visit here quite often, we even hired the place out for a wedding party a couple of years back. I was here not even 2 months ago and it was fine!

This is the same place in name only. The setting is familiar inside but it’s just not the same anymore. The service was disjointed. Our table was booked weeks in advance, but seemed hastily set up in a dark corner, with no cutlery and as I later found out, 2 pepper pots one of which was mistaken for salt.

The menu was brought to us after a few minutes, and I was dismayed at what they have done to it! The menu before wasn’t exactly huge, but it had a bit of variety to it. This new menu has been cut back to the bare bones. This place used to do a great steak pie, it was my go to - and I’d been craving it all day! But that’s now gone, along with a lot of other things. I opted for the scampi based on the menus promises of ‘fresh seafood blah, blah, blah’ but this was clearly just frozen scampi that you’d get from tescos. It cost 20 quid for frozen scampi! I was so annoyed. And it also got dashed with lots of white pepper due to the 2 pepper mills on the table, so that added to my annoyance.

Any atmosphere the meal had was sapped due to the absolutely terrible, TERRIBLE, music which was playing - early 2000’s Nu Metal and Pop. Really added to my scampi and white pepper - thumbs up there!

This was a special place for us once upon a time, but whoever owns it now seems determined to rip the heart right out of it. We all agreed last night that we won’t be back for a long time.

Great...

I made the booking two days before we arrived, and didn't expect to get a table for two at short notice, but the host/owner asked when would we like to dine and were offered 7.50 pm. |We arrived on time and showed to our table in the back room. It was busy, but also seemed to have enough staff. We hardly saw the staff after being shown the table, other than when they were serving other tables. ||20 minutes later they took our order. The starter arrived at 9pm. The main course at 9.45 pm. The host apologised for the delay when he brought the mains course (we did not complain to him, but he knew because I think others had complained) and he offered us both a free drink or dessert of our choice. But that was the last time we saw him. ||We rushed our main course because we felt we were keeping the staff from going home. |I tried to get staff attention for a dessert and went into the bar area to find them. The only ones left, walked past me, got their coats on and left. My husband paid but didn't ask for a reduction in the bill even though they didn't honor the offer of a free drink /dessert. They never asked how our meal was at any point. We were made to feel like we shouldn't be there and it was our vault we were served late. Someone asked me the next day at our hotel what we thought. It wasn't a recommendation but since there are very little pubs left in the area they will always get bookings. My only plea is please don't take bookings if you can't cope with the demand. Every customer should be made to feel...

I don't know where the negative reviews are coming from, (even the very recent ones), but they must be very picky, petty people with higher standards than a Michelin starred chef, who expect Gordon Ramsey's poncy style cuisine, or just unlucky, but when we visited the place was lovely and welcoming, with fantastic views of the Nith, albeit a wee bit chilly outside. Having lived in the Dumfries area for nearly 3 years, it was our first time visiting, due to the usual Covid fiasco, and we managed to get a night off from a 14 month old, so we were looking forward to going somewhere unfamiliar. It was a nice atmosphere, with friendly accommodating staff, food arrived within around 10 minutes during a busy Saturday and was red hot throughout. Not once were we waiting for anything we asked for for more than a few minutes. I'm personally not a big seafood fan, but took a risk by going to a seaside place that specialises in seafood and ordered a beer battered piece of fish on a whim. I was not disappointed. The food was delicious and there was plenty of it aswell, so much so, I was that full, we neglected to have a dessert, and I'm a fairly big guy. I consider it a nice quirk that dogs are allowed, as most places dont, so I'm thinking of taking ours when we visit again soon. Some of our local friends recommended it to us and are regulars and have never had a bad experience, and neither did we, so we'll be going back sometime soon...