Dulse and Brose — Restaurant in Skye

Good food, nice decor, spoiled by perfunctory and indifferent service

With the understanding that the restaurants on Skye can get quite busy, we heeded the advice to book a table in advance. We booked for 17:15, the latest time available on the Dulse & Brose reservation system and fine for us, we’re happy to eat early.

We arrived on-time to a stylish, handsome, warmly decorated, mostly empty restaurant (we may have been the 3rd table seated). We were shown to a table, when I asked if we could possibly be seated in one of the cozy 2-person booths, we were told it was not possible, their tables had all been reserved and to move from one 2-top to another would be problematic. OK, fair enough, maybe they have some inflexible reservation management software.

We were seated with one incomplete menu (no drinks list) and no whiskey menu. When the server came to take our order, we asked about whiskeys, were then given the ~5 page book and asked which one we wanted, expecting a reply at that moment. While my husband took a brief second to glance at the whiskeys I ordered our appetizer and main courses, a pre-dinner Prosecco for myself, and a bottle of wine. Not having had time to explore the whiskey list, my husband then ordered a favorite he already knew.

Shortly thereafter, our delicious soups and homemade bread arrived - well before the whiskey, the Prosecco or the wine. When the person we assumed was the floor manager, the one who told us it was not possible to have a different table, asked how the soup was, I said it was delicious, but that we were feeling rushed. The (paraphrased) response was “We’re a very busy restaurant, this is bistro food, you are not expected to linger over your meal“.

With the soup finished, the whiskey finally came, as did the wine, we cancelled the Prosecco, which, like the whiskey, was intended as a pre-dinner cocktail.

Our dinners arrived promptly, they were delicious and beautifully presented. To the servers credit, he did stop to ask if the food was fine, and as soon as I could say “yes, it’s good”, he was walking away, his back to us, as his gave his reply.

We did go on to share a dessert. All clocked-in, we were done in ~1 hour, 10 minutes.

As with many restaurants, the service was included. We’re usually good tippers (having been in the restaurant business ourselves), but this time, we didn’t add any additional gratuity because we didn’t feel any was earned. Before running our credit card, the server did look to see if we’d increased the bill, and it was evident from his expression, he was disappointed that we had not.

Oh, and when we left, those cozy booths we had asked to be seated in were still empty and the restaurant was about half-full (but getting busier as you would expect closer to 19:00).

My advice, look elsewhere to dine...

Overall disappointed with our experience at D&B despite some fairly extensive research beforehand. Made a reservation weeks/months in advance and were sat right away. Limited menu initially in a, seemingly, fine dining approach with expensive entrees but some fun options to choose from. We were told immediately the main beef dish was no longer available/sold-out which was a bummer but several alternatives to consider. My wife decided on the main fish dish (Sole Veronique) and upon ordering was informed they were out of this as well, so 6-8 Main Dish options became about 4-5 excluding breaded haddock (glorified Fish n Chips) and a burger. I opted for the venison loin.

The table behind us found a long strand of hair in their appetizer which was replaced, and comped, by the kitchen. My wine glass has a full-on lipstick smear on the glass rim from the previous patron (I promise it was not mine.) So we were immediately worried between the abrupt reduction in menu options and some surrounding red flags…

My wife settled on the risotto which was fine, hardly inspiring, and my venison loin for £36 (~50.00 USD) came with just THREE pieces of venison. Not three blocks of meat that requires sectioning into bite-sizes pieces, but arguably 3 singular bite-sized pieces arranged on a purposefully small plating dish to inflate portion size. The three meager pieces of venison were flanked by 3 baby carrots, two mini potato fondants, and 3 undercooked (read; not cooked whatsoever) parsnips cut in half.

The venison tasted great, but 3 pieces was a mere tease for the price of the dish. We deferred dessert in fear of yet another disappointment.

After dinner (totaling ~£130 for two people with just two dinner drinks each) we walked immediately across the street to the Co-Op Convenience store and spent £13 on snacks and were more satisfied by that then our meal at D&B unfortunately…

TL;DR: Overpriced for the quality of food. Friendly staff but simply not worth it compared to alternate options in the are. Would...

We had made reservations for a special evening tonight for our family (celebrating a birthday and a graduation) on our very first trip to Scotland and Isle of Skye and I was so looking forward to it.

We had missed lunch while hiking and were famished and eager to have a good dinner. Needless to say the whole evening was a huge let down.

We had a reservation but it still took them 15-20 min for them to seat us. After that not a single person came to our table for the next 30 min. I saw staff passing by us and deliberately looking away.

I had to flag a lady down that we had been there for 45 min and had not even received water. (The table next to us btw were seated after us but had already started getting served). She sent a server who took our drinks order, got the drinks but still no water.

Had to ask for water 3 times before we got it.

Food order- I was told the chicken balmoral was not available. Fine, I ordered the lamb instead.

Appetizers come quickly thankfully but the main courses took time. And imagine my surprise when I was handed chicken balmoral instead of lamb.

I mentioned to the staff that had brought the food that I had ordered lamb and had been told that chicken was not available. Seeing his deer in headlight look, I told him not to worry and took the chicken.

The food was average. Nothing exceptional. Example, for my dish, the presentation was beautiful but the chicken and sauce were flavorless.

No one came to check up on us if we needed anything. Our water finished but we didn’t get a refill. My daughter asked for a refill of her soft drink and it took them 30 min to bring it. She had left by then.

I had to flag the server down again to ask him for the dessert menu and the check. But since it was again taking forever, my kids left to get ice cream from outside because we didn’t want to waste more time waiting.

I am not sure if they had less staff tonight or whatever the reason was, but the service was abysmal. The whole experience was extremely...