Walking in to Contrast Brasserie, there are wood tables and chairs and a beautiful wood floor. The…read morestaff are wonderful, very helpful in making our selections. Our choice of wine, Sancerre, was excellent. I ordered the scallop appetizer that was good, not great. The scallops were sweet, the sauce also good, but it was a bit overpowering for the scallops. Our mains included the seabass cooked in a tandoori style. The fish was good and flavorful, but the preparation dried the fish and in my opinion, did not enhance the flavor. The fish was accompanied by a combination of truly delicious vegetables-cauliflower, potatoes, broccolini. My wife chose the cod in a light creamy sauce, with gnocchi, pearl onions, peas and small clams. I think her dish was the superior selection. The food quality was first rate. I think the preparation of my dishes missed the mark a bit. It was late and we were tired, so we did not order either dessert or coffee or tea. It is a nice place with a great staff and ambiance. The quality of the food is absolutely superior, the preparation was not to the level of the food.

Fine dining experience, well worth the time. Kudos to the Chef and crew for the exquisite meal. We…read morefour had three starters (get the duck pate sandwich) and four entrees: venison. Filet, rib eye, and risotto. All were delicious. We especially liked the rolls that were served while we waited for our meal.

I'm giving the food a 3 and the service a 2 so overall I'd rate this place 3 stars. The waitress…read morewas a total mess and all over the place. They kept running out of food and she would update the chalkboard once someone would ask for it and she realized it wasn't available anymore. There seemed to be a lot of confusion between the waitress and the chef and it took really long for the food to come (over 30 minutes for soups and a sandwich). The waitress also didn't know how to multitask so multiple people were sitting around forever waiting to even place their order. In terms of the food, my sandwich was fine and the soup was good but needed a ton of salt and pepper. I wouldn't get the sandwich again. Only come here if you have a lot of time to kill.

Nice cafe with friendly staff. We had a delicious pea soup for a quick lunch. The stuff people had…read moreat the other tables looked nice too. Great choice of herbal teas.

This was an excellent lunch stop for us in the town of Inverness.  We picked this place partially…read morebecause it was a recommendation by renowned travel writer Rick Steves back in 2014.  It is also located conveniently in the heart of the commercial district and right alongside the Ness River.  Our friendly and engaging hostess/manager was Alina, a 17 year veteran.  They have a cozy and attractive 2 story high ceilinged setting and we sat on the 2nd floor.  The lunch menu was a variety of high quality 2 course selections for a very reasonable 18.95 GBP.  Our party of 4 had a delicious and beautifully presented lunch.  For the mains, I had their traditional fish pie and wife had their filet of seabass.  Our travel mates had the rump steak and red pesto gnocchi.  It got busy and the kitchen might have gotten backed up and it took a little while on the food, but we enjoyed hanging out here.  Service was otherwise friendly and attentive.  Highly recommended should you find yourselves in the lovely town of Inverness.

I almost never leave 1 star reviews but this place earned it. First, the service was so incredibly…read morerude. Sophia was just plain awful and honestly abusive with her mind games. I joined my family after parking the car who all warned me that the server was not even remotely friendly. They weren't kidding. She was awful, just plain rude and should not be in hospitality. She was aggressive, moody, unpredictable. It was like an old ex who played mind games just to be mean. She honestly was that bad. How is she working at this place? Upon sitting down, she told me we had only 2 hours at the table so I better order immediately. I asked if they had wifi, and she said yes. Then immediately walked away from me. Umm... Really??? The table next to us tried to flag down the same server and she yelled at them. At least, we weren't them! We actually bonded over the trauma of this woman since we weren't the only ones. I quickly ordered the halibut for my main course. I have to say, it was the worst meal I've had in a very long time. It was not only dry but completely lacked flavor. My kids also disliked their food. My daughter's mashed potatoes tasted like it was from the box. She didn't even touch them (and typically cleans her plate). And my son didn't eat half of his pizza. I tried it. And have to agree, it was really bad. No flavor. Finally my partner ordered the steak medium rare. It came out charred, burned and fatty. The meal was honestly awful. The service was even worse. I booked this meal months ago. We all laughed since it felt like one of those meals you're abused and you're all in on the gag. Except that wasn't the case here. Just rude service and terrible food. My kids ordered the brownie sundae for dessert. Surely, that couldn't be bad? Wrong. The brownies were dry and stale. But the kids at least enjoyed the ice cream. Overall, this was probably the worst dining experience I've had probably in years. It was definitely the worst meal and service in Scotland. I was shocked at just how bad the food was. How rude the service was and how expensive it was. The one upside is the restaurant space is beautiful. I rarely, almost never, give 1 star reviews. As an elite all star, I pride myself on trying to see the positive especially for small businesses. And focus on the positive. But I'm not going to promote a place that is truly not good, rips off the consumer and is rude. If it's not clear by this point. My recommendation? Run from this place!

My mom, sister and our friend were vacationing in Inverness for almost a week and were looking for…read morea place to have dinner our first night. We were able to get in at Aspendos and proceeded to have the best lamb, chicken, and hummus we'd ever had anywhere. To qualify the above statement - we are all very seasoned travelers and have been all over Europe, America, some places in the Middle East, Africa, Japan, China, Russia, Indonesia, Central and South America, Canada, and UK. We've had good food. Mustafa is the owner and greeted our table, told us about the menu, and answered any questions we had. He also made perfect recommendations for our meal choices and based on the stars of this review - you can see he was spot on. The place is well appointed, very clean, aesthetically attractive, and clutter-free. All of their food is incredibly flavorful, juicy, beautifully presented, and plentiful. If you go to one non-traditional Scottish cuisine place while you're in Inverness - it needs to be Aspendos. And you can quote me.

The food may have been authentic, it was difficult to tell. The food was tasty but average. The…read moreservice was slow and the server a little strange. The atmosphere was not good with the intense lighting.

Very tasty pizza and beer and friendly staff. The secret garden area upstairs was nice in the mini…read moresheds. But it can be quite busy even on a weeknight. We got a half and half pizza and enjoyed both halves.

As our forefathers said - pizza is life is pizza. (I may be paraphrasing, and possibly made that…read moreup...) We love good pizza, and even on a trip where we're focusing on local cuisine, if good pizza is available, we're willing to forego a meal of local culture to put it in our mouths. Black Isle Bar is located on Church Street, in the main couple of blocks stretch of bars and restaurants in the heart of Inverness. After a day out exploring Speyside whiskies, it was exactly what we needed for dinner. You order at the counter and find a table where they will deliver your food. The pizza menu has a handful of good vegetarian options, and there are plenty of beers on tap. My wife and I shared the Broccoli and Stilton pizza...It had a good, light, and chewy crust and overall good flavor, though I didn't taste much of the honey listed as one of the ingredients. We also shared a salad, which was quite fresh. They've got a nice rooftop garden-like seating area too (though it was too cold for us Californians to enjoy that space) Great pizza in a lively atmosphere with very friendly service. We'd definitely get it again if we were in Inverness.

This was the first place we stopped at for food in Inverness. I read a few items that were vegan…read morespecifically and chose this for that, we were not disappointed! There was a whole veg menu to choose from and the food was great, I couldn't finish much of mine but thankfully my husband helped me out. Service was good and staff was friendly and seemed happy to be working there. The bar is prohibition themed which was cheeky for us dining as Americans.

Both the bartender and our server were very nice. Our server kept forgetting us but the bartender…read moredidn't, so we didn't mind so much. The steak was melt in your mouth good. My mouth just started water all over again as I typed that.

This place is fabulous. Great food, wonderful service and a fun place to sit, eat and relax after…read morea long day of touring through the countryside. I think I had the best fish and chips ever here and I will definitely be back when I return to Inverness.

We happened upon this lovely place by accident. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere was cozy…read moreand friendly. The service was nice and friendly too. Don't let them fool you... we ate there twice and both times we walked I. Without a reservation and both times there was a bit of "discussion" as to whether they would be able to seat us. They did. And they were never completely full either time! lol! Gets our full recommendation. Picture is the Trawlers Pie and the Steak and Ale pie. Try the Scottish Blaggis appetizer. And their bread pudding was really good as well!

We had a reservation at Rocpool on the evening of our wedding anniversary and our first night in…read moreInverness in the middle of our 12 night Scotland adventure. The place was packed when we arrived for our early evening slot so doubling down on anyone's recommendation to make dinner reservations if you want to go to nice places in the North of Scotland. We were seated immediately. Everything about the experience was beautiful and delicious. I started with a Passionate Laddie Cocktail made with a peated whiskey and egg white. The texture reminded me of the Ramos Gin Fizz drink I had in New Orleans. It was well mixed but I didn't taste smoke from the whiskey, The tomatoes in the "Green Salad with Cherry Tomato and Parmesan" we're amazing and, truly, the star of the salad which had a generous amount of shaved parmesan on top satisfying my cheese-mongering sensibility. I had the Cornage Cheddar and Feta Cheese puffs for my main. They were fried but delicate, served over mango with cooked pear. It was quite indulgent - like dessert for dinner My wife enjoyed the prawns dish she got, and the salmon as well served with perfectly cooked asparagus and really good mashed potatoes. Everything was beautifully plated and tasted great. Inverness is not huge and there are a finite number of finer dining restaurants. We ultimately chose this one as I'm a vegetarian and they had the most abundant options to choose from (including a separate vegan menu which I didn't end up ordering from as the options on the main menu served my desires for the evening. The tiniest disappointment - It was our wedding anniversary and I had put that on the reservation (as well as emailed in advance about it) and we didn't get a "happy anniversary" or any kind of acknowledgment of it. I mean we were perfectly happy to just be with each other, but it would have been nice. :) Otherwise this is undoubtedly one of, if not the nicest restaurant in Inverness.

The food was delicious. The staff were very nice to us. They have soft jazz and other music playing…read morein the background. The tartare has some texture. The chips were fantastic. The bathroom is also interesting because it's connected with sinks in the center.

Ambiance: Loved the salute to silent and black and white…read moremovies. Cinema buffs will enjoy having a meal here. Service: Top notch and friendly. And prompt- can we say we love promptness? Love it. Food: Our food was cooked to order. The porridge with fruit toppings was hearty and yummy. The Brioche French Toast and Maple syrup was delicious and perfectly cooked. I asked for bacon and scrambled eggs on the side and they didn't disappoint. This is the best breakfast place I have been to in the last 8 days in Scotland. Good selection of coffee etc. And if you like CBD; they have that for coffee as well.

The food was great. The customer service was fantastic and the speed of everything was spot on…read more It's a cute little café with decent seating and plenty of things to look at while you're waiting.