26 Bank Street

It's got a great location right by the River Ness, but it's on the lower level and even if they have outside seating you wouldn't get to see most of it.  Pub & Restaurant in the name are technically correct, but arguably not quite the correct terminology.  We got a beer and we got fed, but it didn't feel like a Pub, nor a Restaurant - probably more like a Club that doesn't really get going until about the time we were leaving, with live music supposedly every night.

It was seat yourself so we found a booth.  Perhaps the oddest booth I've ever been in.  It was almost enclosed the whole way around so it was next to impossible to see what was going on in the place - and for the Servers to keep an eye on you.  And, the table wasn't quite the right width - when it was in the middle it was just a little bit too far away from both of us so we sat together on one side.  But, by pulling the table into a more sensible location we could no longer get easily out of our booth.

We sat for awhile with no Server so we assumed it was order at the Bar like a couple of the other places we'd already been.  No big deal.  However, at about the same time that the Bar Ordering was completed a Server came up to take our drink order - the Bar Tender never hinted that we had a Server.  Something's not quite right with that system...

We promised ourselves that we would have Haggis at least once before we left.  This night was the winner.  Catch is, if we didn't now we'd ordered Haggis we wouldn't have known that's what we had.  The question in our mind was how authentic it really was, but seeing we'd already crossed it off our to-do list we didn't question, nor feel the urge to try it again later.

Our meal went a little something like this:

• Belhaven Best
• Yellow Hammer - Apparently this won an award last year.
• Mussels, tomato sauce - Fine mussels but the sauce was more like a soup which we were given a spoon to deal with.
• Haggis & Neeps & Tatties - It sort of looked more like an upside down Shepard's Pie and I don't have any special taste recollections other than the Whiskey Sauce was really really good - thick and rich and moorish.  Oh, Neeps are turnips and Tatties are mashed potatoes.
  
  • Extra Bread - Normally I don't note all the extra bread we get to help us not miss out on sauces.  This time it gets special mention because we were charged extra for it (and not told there would be a charge).  Not a lot, just something new...
• Fish & Chips - Honest Fish & Chips without being anything special.  Came with slightly overcooked peas and a pretty good tartar sauce.
• Game Casserole - Not sure what the game actually was, but it was hearty and tasty.  An ok gravy.

We asked our Bed & Breakfast Lady if there was a Pub in walking distance that would take care of us and Johnny Foxes is where she sent us.  We did not have a bad experience (if you don't count the extra we had to pay for bread) but of all the places we visited on this trip to eat I would score this as the place last on our list of what we expected to find on our travels.

Stay JOLLY!
D