It is with a prodigious amount of sadness I post this less than stellar update. Okay, so I first visited Cawdor Tavern four years ago on a best-friends only trip to the Highlands. The food was so remarkably good, the service friendly and relatively fast, the atmosphere so charming, that we couldn't resist visiting it two more times during our stay.
We visited the Highlands again this month and couldn't wait to head to Cawdor Tavern. What a complete and utter disappointment. The service was slow and unfriendly, the food was "meh." The only thing that had remained the same was the charming ambiance.
We decided it must have been a fluke. Everyone has a bad day, right?
So, after a long day of touring castles, we decided to head to Cawdor Tavern for a pot of tea and some sticky toffee pudding. The greeting we received was almost too unbelievable to describe. When we asked for a table and indicated we merely wanted to order tea and dessert, the manager hesitated, then disappeared into the kitchen, only to return a few minutes later with an annoyed look on her face. She said, in a terse tone, "Well, if you are only having tea and dessert, we can accommodate you."
We were seated at a small, drafty table near the entrance. The waitress took our order, then returned to the waitress stand (where they store their water pitchers) and whispered to another server. Then, both servers glared at us.
It was VERY uncomfortable. If I wasn't a wee bit of a sticky toffee pudding addict, I would have left.
The tea and desserts arrived. My sticky toffee pudding should have been named Pudding, because they neglected to add the toffee. SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT. We guzzled our tea and left without finishing our desserts. Nobody thanked us, invited us to return, or wished us well.
Gluttons for punishment - or perhaps just gluttons for the sticky toffee - we decided to give our formerly beloved Cawdor one more try,
We went to Cawdor for Sunday Roast. Again, the greeting at the door was terse. We were seated in a nicer location - a small table in a windowed alcove. The server came to take our order. We both ordered roast - assuming it would be roast BEEF, as shown on their picture out front. I also asked for a side of peas. The veggies of the day were beans and carrots, but I was craving fat, juicy peas. It shouldn't have been a big deal, since peas are pretty much a staple item in all restaurants in Scotland. Peas were being served with several other meals being consumed by other diners that day. The server seemed put-out by this wee request. I decided to shake it off and enjoy the company and the sweet anticipation of our meal.
The server came about 20 minutes later with our orders. She put them down on the table in front of us...and a grouchy old lady seated at a table nearby snapped, "We were here first! Those should be our meals!"
It was VERY uncomfortable.
Even though we had arranged the plates and lifted our utensils, the server snatched the plates back up and served them to the cranky old bag and her equally cranky old friend. The server never apologized.
It was VERY uncomfortable.
Our meals finally arrived and we were a wee bit disappointed to discover the roast was PORK, not beef. It was still a good meal, but the quality wasn't where it had been four years before. We gave the sticky toffee another go, too, but mine arrived with only a smidgen of toffee sauce and was only slightly warm. It wasn't warm enough to melt the cream.
The manager, who took our money on the way out, was so unfriendly it was physically painful. She wasn't hostile, just unfriendly to the point of rudeness. Again, we departed without having been thanked or invited back.
This was the WORST service of the three week trip. I have come to anticipate warm, friendly, professional service from restaurants in Scotland. Cawdor Tavern crammed a stick of dynamite in that illusion and blew it to bits. I can't see us returning there ever again. read more