The Stepping Stone Restaurant — Restaurant in Scotland

I really don't know what to make of Stepping Stone. It was OK, in a throwback kind of way. My colleagues informed me it's a local institution, and I've long been a customer of the owners' bakery (MacLean's bakery - far superior to Stag) so I was quite excited to go.

I ate from the specials board - had seafood risotto, which I was quite excited about. What arrived wasn't a risotto. It was a fish stew (which also contained chopped egg - if you have allergies watch out!) served on rice the way your mum served you curry in the 80s. It tasted good, but was quite different to what I expected.

For pudding, I had the summer fruit pavlova. Again, it was good in a 'how your mum would make it' sort of way - a meringue nest (which looked and tasted like it was from a suoermarket, with enough whipped cream in the base to hold the scoop of ice cream, topped with a couple of spoonfuls of mixed Berry compote.

For what was served in terms of it being what you would expect, it was quite expensive (£20), but there was something kind of charming about it which almost makes me want to try again. It brought back memories of food at home in the mid to late 80s, or the Eddie Murphy 'McDonalds' routine where his mum makes him a burger instead of taking him to McDs and its good but its not what he was...

The food was good but nothing was as you'd expect and there was no detail of what was in it which is very important for people with allergens or extreme dislikes.

The staff member had no idea what an assistance dog was and was not open to me explaining. We ended up having to sit unacceptable seating as it was her dog friendly table. Assistance dogs are different to pets and are allowed in any seat in the restaurant with their handler. The nice seating was not wheelchair accessible and they did not have a ramp either. The dissabled bathroom's door was extremely heavy and nearly impossible to close and I could not lock. I could bearly push it open to leave the bathroom and had a panic attack. The handle to help people transfer to the toilet couldn't be put down as there was a sanitary bin under it. The normal bathrooms were nice and clean though

Over all it I would recommend this to able bodied people and I think it would be great if they could change afew things. The scampi...

We booked as suggested on various websites, but we had a pretty early booking and it seemed pretty empty on arrival. The menu looked fairly limited and was short on any detail and we all immediately lowered our expectations. We shouldn't have. The person serving was lovely and helpful and the lack of detail on the menu doesn't do the food justice. We were 2 adults and 2 teenage boys and we had one crispy chicken, one scampi and 2 burger stacks. It was all delicious and we left stuffed. I highly recommend the burger stack - I can't even tell you everything that was in it, but it was a taste sensation and the burgers from the local butcher were brilliant. When I am back this way, I will definitely return...and probably...