Achiltibuie: The Summer Isles Bar

You've hopefully read the review of the Caberfeidh in Lochinver. Now for The Summer Isles Bar. The Hotel restaurant has a Michelin Star, but we weren't going there. Still, I was hoping for a good lunch in the bar. Sadly the experience did not live up to my expectations, although I have to say that what food we did eat was excellent.

Atmosphere

Somewhat lacking. The bar is very small (some might say intimate). There were a couple of local beers on tap, which is good, but nowhere to sit and eat. Instead the tables were in an adjoining area (fairly open plan) which had little atmosphere and reminded me of a clean roadside café.

Food

Make no mistake, the food was excellent. We had a smoked salmon sandwich and a steak sandwich. Both were high quality: the salmon was delicately smoked and melted in the mouth; the steak was top quality.

My reservations on food came with the choice: sandwiches; a bowl of soup; salads; seafood platters. That was it - and of source a dessert menu. True: for dinner there were a couple of hot meals (literally 2 plus vegetarian) - but they're not served until 5pm. Good for the waistline though, as this is possibly the first 'pub lunch' I've had where there haven't been any chips available.

Overall Rating

Tricky. I expected a good range of pub food: I didn't get it. I expected high quality tasty ingredients: they were there all right. I expected all the best things about a good highland pub: maybe a real fire; relaxed atmosphere; comfy chairs; eating in a pub. I got to eat in an annexe to the pub with little atmosphere on metal chairs. I hoped to be able to drive up there, spend an hour or two relaxing, perhaps even drinking a pint, letting the alcohol wear off, and, eventually driving back home. Instead I had a quick half and a sandwich.

Disappointed? Yes. Would I go back to the bar? No - there are far better bars out there for my taste. Would I consider going to the hotel? Undoubtedly yes, at some point - but I think that at the end of the day, a bar is a bar - it should stick to doing what bars do well: serve a good range of hearty food. In a bar affiliated to a Michelin starred restaurant, you might expect that food to be of a higher quality, but it should still be bar food - not just salads and sandwiches.