# General > Recommendations >  best food in Caithness?

## daviddd

Who serves the best food (or best value food) - there are some good eateries now such as Bord L'eau in Wick, the Seafood place at Scrabster, who likes what?

We had a cracking meal at the Weigh Inn the other night - two courses, large portions, a coupla pints and coffees for £22 - not bad IMHO   :Grin:

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## muts

The old smiddy Inn Thrumster does a cracking meal large portions nice atmosphere and good prices too!! what else can you ask for  :Grin:

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## daviddd

> The old smiddy Inn Thrumster does a cracking meal large portions nice atmosphere and good prices too!! what else can you ask for


Mmmm - must try the Old Smiddy, not been for a few years!

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## champagnebaby

Mackay's hotel/Ebenezers in Wick is lovely for a meal, a bit expensive for an evening meal but the lunch menu is cheaper and the food is just out of this world - i've never found place to complain yet!  :Grin:

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## wicker

Went to ulbster arms the other day and had a lovely meal, melt in the mouth and good prices.
also like the central, upper deck and eh silver darlings does some good stuff aswell.
went to portlands the other day and wasnt all that keen, not enough for the money that was paid, nice service but just not enough food on the plate for me.

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## Fluff

LE BISTRO in thurso do some lovly food. their prices can be alittle high in SOME things, but all their stuff is fresh and local. i love their fish, and their steaks r lovly too like!!! def. worth a try if you want some good food!!

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## Anonymous

The central's really good for snacks and meals, food's lovely and prices are reasonable  :Grin:

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## sophietotnot

The Station Hotel in Thurso is great.

Prices dearer now since they refurbished but food is still very good.

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## squashed frog

The lamplighter restaurant above houstons chip shop in wick does a blinking good feed at the weekends  :Grin:

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## casper

> just not enough food on the plate for me.



Why does that not surprise us?     ::   ::   ::   ::

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## blueneep

i find the pentland hotel do superb food at a reasonable price.
it has a nice atmosphere as well     :Grin:

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## codex

Standard priced menu offering a great deal of choice. 
When it came to my favourite.(DESSERT'S) The strawberry pavlova looked like it would of been fit for a tv advert. Top Quality food at such a low price Niceone da
Northern Sands hotel

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## bacardibabe

heard the st clair in castletown is great at weekends 3 courses for £9.50 that is wi steak as a main course option.will try it soon.let you know how it was.

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## Stegglervision

We went to the Portland Arms at Lybster last week - FANTASTIC food, a little bit pricey - but worth every penny!  ::

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## AR

I go to the Portlands regularly and the food is always excellent, as is the service, cant say I find it pricey unless you are comparing it to pub grub. Never have had cause to complain at all

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## johndy

Looking for a good meal, try the St Clair Hotel, Thurso, Food Fantastic  ::

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## Doolally

I have to agree with Johndy, the food in the St Clair or Thurso Town Lodge as it's going to be called is second to none.  

The new owners Helen and Jerry will make the hotel great again, just like they did with the Portlands.  Good food and a nice relaxing atmosphere.     :Grin:

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## Doolally

OUCH!!  

Her indoors says that her cooking is better and to let you all know!!!!

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## Doolally

It's not of course.    ::   ::   ::   ::

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## andrew.bowles

has anyone tried the cafe' at berriedale new owners food really good and opening hours are longer to?

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## Donnie

> Looking for a good meal, try the St Clair Hotel, Thurso, Food Fantastic


 Yeh the chef there is pretty good. Can't remember his name but he's a young guy.

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## mentallywinnie

Tried Wetherspoons (nr Council Service point, Wick) last weekend and last Monday.
2 meals for £5.99 and DELICIOUS they were too!
Fish and chips looked lovely I had Lasagne served with a gorgeous side salad both days and it was delish too!
They do 'clubs/nights' in there too we saw on the menu: curry night I think was £10 and they serve a roast and drink each Sunday till around 9.30pm for £9 roughly
I sound like a walking ad for them but tried it twice and will go back! (Plus I can't walk I'm the mad one in a wheelchair!)

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## johndy

Food may be good in weatherspoons but stupid rules when it comes to children having to order meals for infants if not you are asked to leave, If they are in the building they are required to be eating, not a child friendly place  ::

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## Naefearjustbeer

Weatherspoons good food???? Only as good as pre packaged & reheated meals can be. It is hardly a quality meal. You cant beat good fresh local produce cooked to order. I can buy frozen food from safeways to stick in the oven at home if I want that kind of grub.

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## squidge

> Weatherspoons good food???? Only as good as pre packaged & reheated meals can be. It is hardly a quality meal.


Im with you on this.........weatherspoons is ok for lunch - i like the wraps and the salads but for anything else its not great.  

I like the french restaurant - not quite as nice as the one im going to on Thursday night but hey............ im in France just now soooooooooooooooooooooo.....  ::  

I like the Bistro and i have heard the Northern Sands is ok these days too

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## Naefearjustbeer

having heard about the take over of the St Clair in  thurso we went out to try it and all I can say is yummy yummy, A 3 course meal for 2 cost just over £30 and the food was good and the portions were big, I could hardly move afterwards. I will be going back again but  i think I will stick to 2 courses as i had to let my belt out a notch after I was finished  :Smile:

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## kirkhill

Was at Maxis Kitchen in the dounreay club for lunch today, good homemade food, large portions, and very child friendly, well worth a visit if looking for a good meal, cheap as well, 3 course meal £5  :Grin:

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## exiledtoedinburgh

I have to say the best meals I've had in Caithness in the past few months were at the Ulbster Arms in Halkirk- it's a set price per head (poss £29.50???) for a 3 course meals plus some delicious sorbet. They do amazing things with venison and salmon (not together!), and I would also recommend the duck. You also get coffee and homemade sweeties or traybakes afterwards which are great too. And the measures in the bar are 35ml which is some good value for money!!   :Wink:

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## sophietotnot

Great food and fair price.   ::

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## ©Amethyst

I love to eat at Le Bistro.  It can be a little pricey, but the food has never disappointed me.  Still sizzling on arrival at the table... impressive!

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## daviddd

bit far afield, but OK if you're on the A9, the Tomich Restaurant near Invergordon serves simple but wholesome food, and the cakes are HUGE!! Nice latte too! All things equal I think the Portland is best. My partner ordered the pork a couple of weeks ago and even got a big piece of crackling served separately, nice touch. And I had oysters at the French in Wick a coupla Friday's ago, and they worked!  :Grin:

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## Baconbuttie

> has anyone tried the cafe' at berriedale new owners food really good and opening hours are longer to?


Really Mr Bowles should we not wait for people to recommend us rather than doing it ourselves

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## girnigoe

> The old smiddy Inn Thrumster does a cracking meal large portions nice atmosphere and good prices too!! what else can you ask for


Here Here!!!!!  The best around!!!!  :Grin:

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## daviddd

tonight we had high tea at the Northern Sands (up to 7 PM) and it was pretty good. I had fish and chips and salad - huge fish, really nice crunchy beer batter, nice chips. Nice pint of Guinness and a very friendly Aussie girl serving. Well done everyone. Only £7.50 a head too (not incl bar drinks) - exc value.

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## Les McBeath

I would recommend anybody to try Keiss Hotel for a meal.

We went for an evening meal recently and had an excellent meal.
Cheerful and pleasant staff, plenty of options on the menu and very ample portions.
We were in a party of six, everybody had something different and everybody was happy with their meal.

We'll certainly be going back again.

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## Baconbuttie

> bit far afield, but OK if you're on the A9, the Tomich Restaurant near Invergordon serves simple but wholesome food, and the cakes are HUGE!! Nice latte too! All things equal I think the Portland is best. My partner ordered the pork a couple of weeks ago and even got a big piece of crackling served separately, nice touch. And I had oysters at the French in Wick a coupla Friday's ago, and they worked!


I agree about Tomich but had a really good meal at Tall Pines at Evelix Filling Station by Dornoch last week when travelling to Inverness.   Always used to stop at Skiach but find its gone down hill a bit.

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## AR

Ive stopped going to the Skiach now because of rising prices and what seams to be getting ever smaller portions, far prefer Woodys (behid wickes in inverness), or further south The Chefs Grill in Kingussie is excellent! Motorgrill at Ballinluig is good too. 
 Any other ideas where to eat further south?

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## KitKat

Not especially cheap but not expensive either, food always good and served with a smile, in The Macbeath Experience at Bankfoot. Maybe a bit too far away for most but a handy stop on the way down to Glasgow and Edinburgh. If we are in Inverness we always head for the Chest, Heart and Stroke place round the corner from Etam's where the soup is hot and good and there's a great range of cakes.

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## daviddd

> Ive stopped going to the Skiach now because of rising prices and what seams to be getting ever smaller portions, far prefer Woodys (behid wickes in inverness), or further south The Chefs Grill in Kingussie is excellent! Motorgrill at Ballinluig is good too. 
>  Any other ideas where to eat further south?


 Do I detect a bacon butty person?   ::

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## daviddd

My all time favourite - I've eaten there scores of times over at least 10 years - is Bella Italia (formerly Bella Pasta) in Inverness (under the TIC). Always excellent, especially the desserts!

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## AR

Where is bella itialia?
Bacon buttys? sometimes if im in a hurry. I was actually wondering if anyone knew of good places that are not cafes, pref south of inverness and north of Penzance.  ::

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## squidge

::

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## William

The Cafe in Castletown makes really good food now that it has been taken over.

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## calish6

> Bacon buttys? sometimes if im in a hurry. I was actually wondering if anyone knew of good places that are not cafes, pref south of inverness and north of Penzance.


There is an excellent Indian restruant that does traditional balti dishes that is a good bit north of penzance ; the centre of Warwick.  :Grin:   ::

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## daviddd

anyone tried the new cafe under Top joes yet?

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## apollo69

Forss House Hotel - best meal I've ever had. Reasonably priced for the standard of food.

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## Naefearjustbeer

The new cafe cardosi was a bit expensive and not a lot of selection on the menu for my taste. 
However having been to the French Restaraunt in wick i have to say it was top quality all the food was lovely and reasonably priced. I would definantley go back again. The selection aon the menu was also one of the best I have seen I had great difficulty narrowing down the choices

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## daviddd

> anyone tried the new cafe under Top joes yet?


yes - about 2 weeks ago we had lunch. It's a nice cosy place if you can get on a sofa, but the food and drink was poor - the roast veg and chicken panini was as dry as anything (no sauce whatsoever) and the so-called latte was not good either - not a patch on Starbucks or Costa - it tasted like boiled milk, not steamed. The staff looked a bit put out and didn't seem very well trained. The management should remember that many would-be customers have tried dozens of other eateries around the country and there are some good ones to compare to. Mind you I'll try again 'cos I may have caught them on a bad day.

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## ©Amethyst

uh, the cafe's under the central - next to top joes, not under.  lol, splitting hairs now.

I've been in the cafe a few times, I really like it.  It's nice, light, airy, I don't think there's anywhere for smoking (which is good considering there's food around).

Anyone tried the banoffee tarts?  Mmmm, too rich for me... but still delicious!

Only time I've been disappointed there was Christmas Eve.  Middle of the afternoon, went in, they'd ran out of soup!  They should have expected lots of soup being wanted on a busy winters day!  I couldn't think of anything else to warm me up, so I went cold.

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## katarina

I recommend the Quiet Piggy in Brora.  A bit far to travel, but guaranteed worth the effort.  Out of this world!  :Grin:

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## Tristan

> Any other ideas where to eat further south?


Best eating we've had in Inverness is a restaurant called The Mustard Seed".  We always make reservations if we're going down to for the day - they get really busy at lunch time, and no wonder!  For a set price of £5.99 you get a starter and a main, and the food is out of this world.  The menu is always changing, and we've never been disappointed yet.  It's situated on the Riverside, about a five minute walk from downtown.  They're completely non-smoking now, and they always seem to have a vegetarian option available.

Highly recommended to anybody.

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## m.fraser

I'm at uni in Stirling and regularly eat in a place called 'Jimmy Chungs' - Chinese Buffet all you can eat in every course - starter, main course and pudding. For lunch, it's about £5. Very good value for money! Really fantastic food, good selection!I also recently found out there is one in Inverness. Tried it with my dad and sister on our last visit and we all agreed it was great!

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## AR

At the weekend a group of us went to the portlands, we all had different dishes, and all was excellent as usual, bar,one of the main coarses. When he commented on a minor fault, he was offered it replaced by an waitress who could not be any nicer. The replacementwas perfect. And when we payed he got a free drink and was not charged for the main coarse. Excellent service. Try to get that in weatherspoons.

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## The Pepsi Challenge

The trouble with most, ahem, 'restaurants' in Caithness is that their food is supplied by the same suppliers. Therfore, your meal comes down to how well it was fried, microwaved. Furthermore, the food in Caithness is so terrible (excusing the odd exceptopn) people don't really notice because there's nothing to compare it to... other than the next bistro/restaurant/cafe/whateveryouwanttocallit next door. 

Just my £0.02p worth.

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## Naefearjustbeer

There are few place that I have eaten that match what you are saying but I tend not to eat in those places unless it is for a quick meal or bar snack. Its like saying weatherspoons cooks good quality meals. They dont they reheat mass produced meals at a reasonable price and serve it up with cheap drink. 
If I am going out for a good meal there are several places in the county that serve up delicios (sp?) local produce and and beat these other places hands down every time. It costs more but you are getting top quality well cooked and presented meals.

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## apollo69

Best places for food in Caithness: (IMO)

1:Forss House (quality food at a decent price)
2:Le Bistro (best steak I have ever had)
3:K2 (best Indian north of Shapla Tandoori)
4: Chinese in Cabrellis old place (best chinese in Caithness)


Worst places:

1:Weatherspoons (poor service for pub grub)
2: Upper Deck (living on past glories)

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## Rheghead

The Captain's Galley is where you would take someone to impress them, but you would be skint if you did it too often.

The carvery at the Northern Sands Hotel takes some beating, you get a lot of meat and it is presented very well.  The down side is that you pay for 3 courses so if you're full after the meat you may struggle with the sweet.

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## daviddd

> The trouble with most, ahem, 'restaurants' in Caithness is that their food is supplied by the same suppliers. Therfore, your meal comes down to how well it was fried, microwaved. Furthermore, the food in Caithness is so terrible (excusing the odd exceptopn) people don't really notice because there's nothing to compare it to... other than the next bistro/restaurant/cafe/whateveryouwanttocallit next door. 
> 
> Just my £0.02p worth.


I think this is a bit unfair Pepsi - I think there's little difference in quality between here and south other than *really* expensive places where you might pay £35+ per head. The Bord l'eau in Wick, Ulbster Arms, Portland, Bistro etc don't microwave! the food here at £20 to £25 per head is as good as anywhere at that price, probably even more expensive in England for the same quality.

I recently stayed at the Tulloch castle Hotel in Dingwall, and was pretty impressed - has a really good steak with lots of trimmings, but also the service and quality of the accomodation (OK, apart from the overworn carpets!) was very good indeed. Would make a nice weekend break for a romanticly-minded couple!

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## phil_moonbeam

you cant beat the sinclair bay hotel in keiss the food is excellent service is great and the hosts john and judith are really nice and friendly what more do you want?

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## ajr

I tried Liquid (stupic name but hey I guess they are trying to be trendy) - the bowling alley.  The food was great and the selection superb!  Give it a go.

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## Playgirl

:Grin:  Liquid is fantastic now its really modern and trendy u wouldnt think u were up in the sticks there

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## ©Amethyst

My experience of the food in Liquid is that their chips are nice, but I would never eat their chicken curry and rice again.  The rice was congealed and the curry was dry.

Another place I would rather never eat again is The Book Shop Cafe at Bews.  It took me half an hour to get served last time I was in.  Our drinks weren't served while the woman was cooking the bacon for my BLT Wrap - and the George Foreman wasn't used properly (lid wasn't down) making the bacon extra greasy and meant it had to be turned...

Another place I've had bad service is the Central Hotel.  Went in with a couple of friends.  The guy that took the chips over to the table slammed the plate down, was not impressed.  

What happened to customer satisfaction in this town?  Or, for that matter, service with a smile?

Gurn over... last weekend I went for a meal to Le Bistro with a few Friends from TN.  The meal was fantastic.  Quick friendly service and we didn't have to wait long for our food at all.  And there's one waitress which is absolutely fantastic - I think her name's Jo.

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## shiney_shoes

NO1 in Mackays Hotel is good, tends to be a bit pricey for what your getting sometimes, but then again i like pot noodles!!!   :Grin:

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## ~~Tides~~

> I recommend the Quiet Piggy in Brora.  A bit far to travel, but guaranteed worth the effort.  Out of this world!


i wouldnt give them any awards for a good name. Unless it is a specialist pork restrant?

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## doreenhedgehog

> NO1 in Mackays Hotel is good, tends to be a bit pricey for what your getting sometimes, but then again i like pot noodles!!!


Mackay's Hotel do Pot Noodles???   ::

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## daviddd

the cafe over Jim Bews in Thurso is OK, especially if you get a window seat, but it's a bit noisy, not what you'ld call relaxing. The coffee machine must be over 100 decibels - come to think of it it's probably illegal! The coffee and cakes are OK, that's my main criterion!  ::

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## cezzy1234

I recon the northen sands in dunnet is really good expeshily on the sunday when it comes to the buffy  ::

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## The Pepsi Challenge

Is there a Chinese buffet in Caithness yet?

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## cezzy1234

the chineze buffey is in the  chineze  shop in thurso it just a caverry in the northen sands on a sunday .

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## BazzaG

I agree wee cezzy1234 the Northern Sands food is fantastic, good price, and good size plateful. The owner Donnie is a great chef.   :Grin:

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## neepnipper

Had a fab meal at the Northern Sands at Dunnet last night.

Nice presentation, fresh produce, good portions, reasonably priced and friendly staff (makes a change!).

Highly recommended.  :Grin:

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## Angel-Eyes

Also the Smiddy Inn at Thrumpster! It has lovely meals all home made aswell. Big big portions and very well priced too! I certainly will be eating there again!   :Grin:

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## hammers

The Trentham near Dornoch does an excellent steak - still sizzling on the platter - fresh veg and large portions.   :Grin:     Their sweets are brilliant too.  Went to the Halladale Inn today, lovely steak, great pudding and friendly staff as well.  :Smile:

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## wicker

i totally recommend sinclairs since they introduced the new menu, fresh cooked lovely food, cheap and what a plateful you get    :Grin:

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## The Kid

Hasn't the St Clair  in Thurso changed hands now ? I think it is Brian Cardosi and the wife who bought it a few months ago.  Neverless you get good food regardless  ::  .

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## laguna2

The Upper Deck in Scrabster is back in business.  We went on Saturday night and it was excellent - new decor is lovely too!   :Grin:

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## Bobinovich

Having just visited the Northern Sands to sample their Sunday carvery I must agree with the previous entries, giving it a double 'Thumbs Up'!

A nice selection of starters - not too heavy - and our kids say that the soup & rolls were 'gorgeous'.  The carvery had 4 roasts on offer, luverly big Yorkshire Puddings, a good choice of veg (the 'pears in mint sauce' being an unusual but very tasty addition to the line-up) and plenty of gravy and different sauces to boot.  It was all finished off with a small, but perfectly formed, selection of sweets.

As a couple who eat out regularly we were both delighted.  The presentation was immaculate, the staff friendly and helpful and as for the price - 3 adults and 2 kids for less than £60 including drinks seemed pretty good to me.

Congratulations to the new owners - we'll be back.

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