Found this little gem as we were driving across Orkney. It's easy to find, park, and has an…read moreinviting dining room with a big bay window. There were but three empty tables when we came in for lunch. The decor is part bar, part restaurant with letter stools and banquettes that are clean, and comfortable. It seems to be a spot for people who like to fish, with a few fine specimens mounted on the wall, and an art piece of tied flies (surprising delicate and beautiful; I would bite on these). The grab-a-menu-from-the-bar menu is large, and offers conventional Scottish cuisine of fish, and meat, tatties (potatoes), and salads/vegetables. You order at the bar. They tell you to give them 30 minutes to prepare each meal to order, but ours was out in 15. And it was some of the best food I've had in Orkney. All three kinds of potatoes (!) were tasty. We both had slow-roasted pork with apple sauce and it was tender and delicious, with a light gravy on top. There were also steamed vegetables, and they were as expected. Each plate cost thirteen pounds, which seemed more than reasonable for the quality. Service was minimal but just right. Loved this find. Pro tip: Kitchen closes at 2:00 pm.

A stunning location especially if you are a fisherman :-)…read more Food is excellent and the resturant is well worth a visit. Accomodation is a little tired but the staff are very helpful and friendly.

Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. They totally scammed me. Ran my card and claimed it didn't work. Then…read moreI paid cash. $330+. Get a notice the next day that my card was charged. Was enjoying a lovely time in Scotland, and Kirkwall in particular...but this will change my outlook entirely. IN addition to the scam, the food was meh. Prawns were DIRTY. No follow up service.

A fantastic find! I don't want to leave. The staff, Malcolm and Paulina, are very warm and…read moreknowledgeable. Their service goes way above any five star hotel I've ever been in. The rooms are exceptional and beautifully decorated in eclectic antiques. The whiskey collection is an envy and the chef's dinner effort was amazing. Best of all, Archie, the adorable black springer poodle was an affable and charming host! Well worth the money and plan to spend some time enjoying the experience.

John o Groats is the furthest north you can go, it has a few touristy shops but the hotel itself is…read morebeing regenerated into a hotel with leisure facilities, you can also take boat trips just around the coast to see the local wildlife including puffins or a slightly longer trip over the water to Orkney

John o Groats is the northern most tip of the Scottish mainland. It is at the same latitude as…read moreJuneau, Alaska. There are several nice local gift stores and the ferry terminal to the outer islands. It is often cold and rainy but it is worth the trip. 5 Stars. By Gregg L. Friedman MD

We stayed here for 4 nights in August and loved this place. The rooms were clean, the bed was…read morecomfortable, and the hotel was quiet. More importantly, the bathrooms had been updated recently, with a good shower and heated towel rack. My only complaint about the bathroom was that the hot water took a bit to heat up but it got plenty warm and had good water pressure. We also ate in the bar for lunch and at the restaurant for dinner. Both meals were excellent. The staff was very helpful, let us use left luggage when we arrived early and let us settle our bill the night before/gave us instructions for leaving our keys when we checked out very early. Location is convenient to buses at the visitor center and to the city center for shopping, sight seeing, and dining.

The shore provides some lovely rooms, a restaurant, a back bar and a bar open to the public. The…read morefood is always delicious, the staff friendly and everything is spotless. The bar is the only place in town where you can get a proper cocktail, which are always delicious. The interior is stylish, with leather sofas, a tv showing sports and a tempting display of bottles behind the bar. It is right by the harbour and open for lunch and dinner for food.

Very much a dump. The rooms are loud and the bed is like a board. Bathrooms are dark and very…read moresmall. You need a step stool to get in and out of the shower. Breakfast was below average. Avoid this place.

We came to Kirkwall to tour the lovely island of Orkney. The Ayre is on the main drag of town,…read moreparking in the front and more in the back. The registration is adjacent to the back door, the front is entries to the pub and dining room. The employees were pleasant and we were into our room quick enough. The room is beyond several fire doors, was kinda fhnny, so many doors, but it's a good thing. The room was adequate, clean, and comfy. The bath was nice, a great shower....ahhhh. The restaurant was lovely, nice draught of local beer, ample wines I think, and a good menu. The breakfast is in a large back hall, buffet of Scottish breakfast. The location to touring is fine as well. I enjoyed the harbor and the back streets for walking.

There's a pub attached to the St Ola Hotel and if you walk through the bar area it takes you to a…read moresmall dining area (there's also an outside side entrance). Very straightforward, just a couple of booths and tables. We weren't terribly hungry so we got the soup of the day (Basil and Tomato), cajun fries and a very good Steak and Orkney Ale Pie. (Steak & Orkney Ale Pie £14.95 Orkney Ale Braised Beef Pie served with Mash Potato and Buttered Greens). The pie came with a massive but tasteless puff pastry topping and a delicious beef interior. My only complaint was there wasn't enough sauce, it was a little dry. I'd have asked for more sauce but the dining area wasn't really staffed well that night. The beef was memorable and delicious though. Quiet, even though the bar was busy, it was great for a quick, casual bite.

This review is for the restaurant at St. Ola Hotel. I came here for dinner with my husband and…read moreanother couple and our experience was not so great. My first impressions of the environment and ambiance were good. It was a pretty standard-looking pub. It looked like a chill environment. There were tvs and it was very relaxed. We sat down at a table and it took quite awhile before our server asked us if we wanted any drinks. My husband and I shared the "Orkney Farmhouse Crispy Cheese" as a starter. It was alright. It was nice that the cheese was local from the island, but other than that it wasn't too special. I tried to order the "Beef, Bacon, & Grimbister Cheese" specialty stuffed burger, but they were all out of it so I was bummed about that. I ended up ordering the "Ola Burger with Chili" and again, this was nothing special. I was starving but only finished half of my burger. It was just sort of bland and didn't taste very fresh. Our server never came by our table once to see how we were doing. We all had no water in our glasses for a long time. I kept trying to track down a server and no one was coming over. I was so thirsty that I eventually just walked all the way to the bar and asked if we could get a pitcher of water. She said yes, but then she continued to talk with her co-worker for awhile before she even thought about getting the pitcher of water. The prices were not bad. Overall, I was not impressed. We were all very chill about this because we were on vacation and just going with the flow, but I was pretty disappointed. I'm giving it 2 stars because the food was not the most terrible that I have ever had and the restaurant was clean, but the service was severely lacking.

My travel companion and I were on a walkabout of Kirkwall and decided we were in need of a…read morerefreshment. We stepped into the Kirkwall Hotel Bar and were very pleased with the ambiance. We debated what to order and the bar tender (Kelvin maybe? such a great gentleman) - suggested trying some local gin.

We really came here solely for the 8 pages of Highland Park scotch they have at the bar and did…read morelunch at the same time to avoid being too tipsy and feed the kids. My wife and I are huge scotch fans and we really wanted to do a Highland Park tasting, but there was no way to do that with our kids. The distillery instead pointed us here, where they supposedly have the biggest selection of Highland Park scotch anywhere in the world and I believe it because they had 8 full pages. We wound up tasting our way through a relatively expensive collection of six different selections going as far back as 1973, which was awesome to do. That said, it was a bit disappointing because we basically had to do the selecting entirely on our own. I would have expected somebody there to be able to help some with what we might like given how extensive their collection is. Also, there were at least a few times where what we asked for wasn't available anymore. We still had a great time drinking very good and rare scotch. Beyond the scotch, the food was good, if not exceptional. My wife and I both got salads we enjoyed and finding a good salad with vegetables in Scotland isn't always easy. Our kids didn't really eat the mac and cheese, but that's sort of par for the course with them. The ambiance with the view of the bay and a very fancy dining room was actually quite nice. The only real downside (beyond wishing there was more Highland Park scotch expertise) was that the whole hotel filled up with people from the cruise ship in the harbor pretty soon after we sat down, which then resulted in very slow service for a while.