The Pier

We arrived in Tobermory for our relaxation weekend.  After we finally found a B&B (a 5 minute drive away from the town center) we drove back down to find a place to eat.  We originally were going to go with a sandwich until we saw the Fish Stand with a nice little line of people waiting to get their fish and chips.  The Fish Stand is right on the pier so the fisherman don't have far to go to deliver the days catch.  It appears that two ladies own? and work the counter.  Since it was around 2:30pm, we opted for the small fish and chips which was still a nice piece of fish with enough chips to keep us going until dinner. 

Main Street

The Restaurant is part of a Hotel / Pub building and although it is obviously friends with the Pub people (we watched the Bar Tender dude send a Server into the Pub to get one of our beers) it seem its goal is to be a step or 3 above what you'd expect from a Pub. Our guess is that it opened sometime during or just before the Summer Season, because not only does it say 'established 2010' but you can see the shadow outline of the name of the previous occupier of the space still on the front windows.

From the outside it's kind of beat up, but in the nice way a place with years of history develops character, but inside it's a modern looking and feeling space split up into two areas.  There is an open fire that we sat next to which fortunately we didn't get much of the direct affect of because it really wasn't all that cool outside.  There is a bar, but I doubt anyone comes in just for a drink when the Pub is just across the hall.  We arrived early (well early for Scottish diners) without a Reservation and was given the option of a tall table - that's it, one option - while the place was still deserted.  It did just about fill up, but every time someone came it was a puzzle for them to figure out which table to offer.  Seemed harder than it needed to be to me?

The menu appeared fine, but in reality was a bit lacking.  When given our menu we were told of a few items that were not available this evening because "Lunch had been busier than expected" and we're pretty certain this list grew as the night progressed.  We still found plenty to choose from, but it's a little disappointing (and a lot odd) that their signature side dish of mishmash was not available.  It's good they're busy, of course but not so good they can't plan the weekend out a bit better.

I think the kitchen was upstairs, but it may have been down.  Often you'll here a little bell ring when an order is ready of off goes a Server.  Not here.  Telephone rings, Bar Tender answers, Bar Tender summons Server, Server takes off out of the Restaurant, Food arrives soon after.  It works, but it's odd.  What if the Bar Tender can't get to the phone?  Oh, and the phone also rang when the fire alarm went off.  Turns out it happens often during a cooking of a Steak, so the first thing the Kitchen will confirm is that's the case, then they go about turning the alarm off.  If we didn't overhear the conversation we wouldn't have known what the deal was, but seeing the staff weren't charging out the door I don't think we would have.

Speaking of the Bar Tender, he was more likely the Manager who happened to be doing the drinks (maybe he always does?).  And he really ran the show in a micro-managed sort of way.  There were 3 Servers but they did almost nothing without his say so.  We didn't suffer because of it, but I can't easily recall a restaurant where it seemed like the boss didn't trust his staff to do their jobs.  I may be seeing this differently to what really is the deal, but I doubt it.  The Servers were friendly enough and available enough.  They weren't really chatty (other than to tell us what we couldn't have) and the one we saw the most was clearly on some sort of working vacation and hadn't quite got the hang of the menu - but not in a deal breaking way.

Our meal went a little something like this:

• Tennents Lager
• Belhaven Best
• Mussels, classic - a definite extra bread worthy sauce.
• Grilled Langoustines - tasty at the sweet end of the scale.  A little fiddly to eat but worth the effort.
• Scallops, with basil and bacon - presented in a slightly odd way in their shells, but tasty and not too bacony.  The basil seamed to be an inspired touch?
• Venison Burger - the oddest burger I've ever had.  The burger itself was tasty and cooked as requested but all you got was the burger on the bread (pretty good bread too).

We got to eat in our own way and were mildly entertained by the way they did things.  Had we arrived later and had to go through the 'negotiations' of getting a table we probably would have rolled our eyes, but we didn't and we left with satisfied tummies.

Stay JOLLY!
D

The Pier

"The only thing frozen here are our fishermen"

Now that's a motto!  One that you have absolutely no reason to doubt the validity of.  I don't for one second recommend nor condone this sort of behavior, but had I been so inclined and with not too much extra effort, I probably could have peed in the harbor where their fisherman start their daily 'adventures' (not on the fisherman!!) from the deck of the restaurant.  The seafood is fresh! - that's my point.

Although our guide book suggested we should try here, it was on my radar from a couple of websites I bumped into during our planning process.  Fortunately both suggested a table can be hard to come by, especially during the Summer Season.  We made the good decision of making a reservation because we did see a good number of people get turned away - it's a double good thing we arrived in the town at Lunch time and not just before Dinner.

Cafe is a fair description of the place. It's over the office for the ferry with nothing but harbor sounds surrounding.  It's small, maybe 30 seats and it operates more like a 'cafe' at lunch with a welcoming display counter and a lot of quick and easy items available.  For dinner the counter becomes the cold station and an extra table is placed in front of it for dinner - that's where we sat which turned out to be a lot of fun for us.  There are a couple of picnic-type tables outside on the deck, but it doesn't look like they're ever a dinner option just a lunch time unserviced option - I guess we could have asked to confirm.  It's neat and tidy, but very informal - had we put on our going out finest we would have been well over dressed.

We definitely could hear the music - it's a 'boom box' up on the side of the Counter where we were sitting - but it wasn't too loud.  We thought it funny (in the nicest possible way) that we got to hear the same Elton John best of play through 2 times before the boss switched it over to Johnny Cash - we suspect that Johnny also would get a rerun.

There were two Servers, one of which was clearly the boss and maybe even one of the owners (again, we probably should have asked to confirm).  There was also a third person who mostly worked the Cold Station, but did help out on the floor when she had nothing on her plate.  She also turned out to be very entertaining (and patient with us) in the way she answered our questions - I think they were all about the menu...  The whole team worked well together and although a little surprised at our ordering technique at first did a great job of keeping us fed, informed, adequately 'hydrated', entertained and relaxed.  One unusual (and ultimately practical) way of making sure we always had cutlery was to give us a bucket with everything we might need and just topped it up as we progressed through our meal.  Unorthodox? Yes.  Useful?  Also yes!  Appropriate?  Yeah, sure.

The menu is relatively short, but the extensive Specials Boards - yes more than one - make for a very interesting decision making process.  We noted a couple of non-seafood dishes but don't recall one heading past us and certainly not considered among our process (that bordered on difficult) of choosing what to have next.  We probably made a mistake in not finding room for the Mussels which we later found out came from a farm 'just' down the road.

Our Meal went a little something like this:

• Chardonnay - I think Italian?  Nothing overly memorable other than a slight acidity that worked out fine with everything we had.
• Shellfish Bisque - rich and creamy and definitely shellfishy.  Great bread for dipping, actually the bread may have come with every course.
• Crab Cakes, lime mayonnaise - crunchy on the outside, soft and craby on the inside.  Lovely sauce, but just fine on their own.
• Smoked Special Plate, hot smoked salmon, cold smoked salmon, smoked mackerel - the mackerel was probably the strongest flavor of the 3.  When given the choice, take a hot smoked salmon!  Both were enjoyable, but the hot smoked more so.  Oh, and don't be tricked into thinking that the hot smoked salmon is a hot dish - nope.
• Scallops, chili sauce - fortunately for me the chili sauce was relatively mild and on the side.  Cooked just right I could argue the sauce wasn't needed.
• Langoustine and Squat Lobster Caesar - We actually asked the very nice Cold Station Lady / Server exactly what the big bowl of tails we could see being used quite often were.  Squat Lobster tails.  She showed us a whole one (kind of like a crawfish) and gave us each a tail to taste.  Really quite sweet.  We had to have a dish!  There were two options, and I half jokingly asked if one of them didn't require us to open the tails.  The Caesar didn't so we chose it...  The langoustines are also sweet, but perhaps a little bit more tender.  Together they made the salad really enjoyable.  We're glad we asked what they were!
• Tobermory - It just seemed right that we order the 2 whiskeys that were made just up the road (although we found out later they are bottled on the Mainland).  This was the lighter of the two.  Very little peat, if any.
• Ledaig^* - We own a bottle of this now!  This one a little rougher, but nice rough.  Definitely stronger on the peat scale.
• Sticky Ginger Pudding, toffee sauce - gingery and sticky.  And our glass of Tobermory Whiskey worked quite well together.

I might have to call this our most enjoyable dining experience of the trip. I can't call it the best food we had (although it would have to be right up there) but we were relaxed, a good bit buzzed by the end, had fun with all the Servers, had fun with ourselves, got in a little fun people watching (a single guy had a quite detailed journal going and two tables of locals (I think one of them was one of the Fishermen) were having a grand old Saturday night out - good for them), got to be smug as people came in after us being told there was no room for them (we hope they were in town long enough to have another try!) and ended up with a fast arriving and chatty (although short) cab ride home - we had a big big hill to walk up otherwise.

It's arguably a good thing they were closed on our second night in town (a Sunday) because we would have been strongly tempted to return and therefore foregoing some other dining experience.

Stay JOLLY!
D

* - Have a go at the Gaelic pronunciation.  We only have the definitive absolutely correct way because we did a tour of the Distillary a couple of days later.  Our Server did say it for us, but it didn't stick so it's a good thing we got to do the tour.  Our guide told us to think of a chicken that was late, therefore latechick - yep, no hint of a 'd' or a 'g' in there...