The Lower Deck Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Skye

I didn’t know a restaurant could get this many different things wrong in a single meal. If you’re in portree, be sure to make a reservation somewhere else in advance so you’re not stuck with this as your only option. We visited tonight on a Saturday night around 5:45pm and were seated around 6:15pm. There was no reservation/wait list - you literally wait outside in a queue, so people watch you through the windows while you eat. The owners packed in the tables, to the point that you can barely walk to the restroom without bumping into someone. I ordered white wine, which was brought to the table at room temperature in the single service bottle and not poured into the wine glass. My partner asked for a beer, and the only lager they had was a Corona. The bottle of ale he ordered instead came out warm. We also asked for still water, which was never brought to the table. I had to get up and ask them to bring it to the table halfway through the meal since I was so thirsty by that point. I might have been able to remind them that we’d asked for it sooner, but no one asked us if we needed anything else at any point during our meal after we ordered our food. After we ordered our drinks and appetizers quickly after sitting down, both waitresses separately asked us almost immediately if we were ready to order our entrees next before we could even look further at the menu. Both of them looked visibly annoyed that we didn’t know quite yet. About 5 minutes later, I flagged down both waitresses separately again to let them both know we were ready to order now. Both of them told us they’d take our orders shortly. It was 5-10 minutes before one of them actually came and took our order after that, which seemed ridiculous after how much they seemed to want us to hurry at the beginning of our seating. We ordered the Cullen skink, cold smoked salmon rosette, mussels, and fish and chips. The fish and chips were completely seasonless, as were the peas served with it. The Cullen skink was also very bland. My partner had to season his entire meal at the table himself with sauce packets and butter to make it taste like anything. I did like my mussels however, which had the soy ginger sauce. The salmon rosette was also pretty good, although it was a pile of smoked salmon rather than a nicely presented rosette shape as the menu stated. The waitresses both wouldn’t make eye contact with us at all during our whole meal, and one waitress was obviously scanning the walls to pretend that she was busy serving people. We noticed that every other table had to also flag them down to get them to do anything (take orders, bring checks, pay checks, the most basic parts of waitressing, etc.) and were visibly looking just as annoyed as we felt. We had to flag down a waitress to get our check ourselves, and to get our check paid even though our card was completely visible out on the table for another 5-10 minutes after getting the check. Even after all of that, the waitress still had the audacity to made a show of telling us that we had the option to leave a tip at the end of the meal if we wanted. We couldn’t get out of there...

After a long day of driving, thriving, and a large growing craving for fresh seafood, me and two other acquaintances desired a deliciously fishy meal. Finding our way back to Portree and calling a number of restaurants, our luck sent us to the Lower Deck, whom had a ‘no booking policy’ and thus we could turn up at anytime for a quick munch. We rocked up at 6:53 on the dot and, surprise surprise, there was a wee bit of a wait. However, the menu on the side of the wall kept us occupied for the entire 10 minutes. A wait that left our tummies growling only enough to keep our temptation and excitement of some delightful Skye cuisine. We were finally given a table for three and quickly our orders were taken. First- a starter of scrumptious calamari, or so we thought. The rings were most likely defrosted from Lidl’s frozen section as they were not chewy rubbery rings that our hearts intended on. Instead they were minced calamari mushed in batter. Next our main courses. To describe simply, the cuisine lacked flavour, creativity and freshness. With three tiny plates of boiled vegetables, a potato and overcooked fish, our satisfaction was not met. At a whopping price of £75 for the meal, you can imagine our disappointment. We paid, evacuated and stomped to the local co-op, where a dessert only Aladdin could rub his lamp for- a delicious Skye delicacy of iced bun with whipped cream in the middle, the Dream Ring. This really was the light at the end of the extraordinarily long tunnel. In conclusion, I would give the food a 2 star rating, the service 4 stars, and the aftermath 5 stars thanks to the...

Risotto is overcooked. You are paying 15 pounds for it but you only get frozen seafood. Not only this, they make the dish extra salty so it is tougher to tell the fish served are frozen. There were also two fish bones in the risotto.

Mussles were fresh and not bad, only problem is the chief again has a passion to overcook dishes. It was served with a curry which was a bit weird. Will only recommend a person to this place if they change the chief or if the chief received a proper cooking lesson.

Lobsters: overcooked and had it taken back. Chief was in defensive position and argued it was "completely fine". He said he had steamed, then pan fry the lobster. Normally you would do it the other way round to lock the water in the meat. Again, such a pity the chief was unskilled.

Staff and experience: it was a nice place with good atmosphere. Staff attitude was however quite poor and well below standard. I sent back a lobster that I only had a small bite. It was too overcooked and my knife had troubles getting through it. Chief argued it was fine so I later had the waitress take away and cancel the dish, only to found out I had to pay 15 pounds for a dish that I had one bite. Waitress didn't warn me I had to pay for an almost uneaten dish and the waitresses shouted at each other cause no one wanted to take responsibility.

Overall experience was to be honest disgusting. The staffs and chiefs should be ashamed to be working for this...