Inverness is a small city with a good appetite. Its restaurants draw on some of the best produce in Britain, from Highland beef, lamb and venison to west-coast scallops and langoustines and salmon from the rivers and lochs, and most of the best places are within a few minutes' walk of the River Ness. Add a revived Victorian food hall, a handful of whisky bars and pubs with live traditional music, and you have more than enough for a few days.
The riverside restaurants
Several of the city's best-known kitchens sit on or close to the River Ness below the castle. Rocpool is one of the city's longest-standing favourites for modern British cooking with Scottish produce and is busy enough that booking ahead is wise. The Mustard Seed occupies a converted church on Fraser Street with a double-height dining room and views of the river, and has been a fixture of the Inverness dining scene since the 1990s; its set lunch is good value. The Kitchen Brasserie, across the river on Huntly Street, is spread over three floors with views along the water to the castle and serves relaxed, modern brasserie food.
In the centre
Café 1 on Castle Street, close to the castle, is consistently recommended for its focus on local produce and sustainable cooking, with good-value lunch and early-evening menus. Number 27 on Castle Street is a reliable bar and kitchen for pub-style food. For a quick, affordable lunch, the food hall in the Victorian Market, a covered nineteenth-century arcade in the city centre, gathers a dozen or so independent vendors serving everything from bakery goods and burgers to sushi and street food, often with live music at weekends.
What to try
Look for Highland venison, Aberdeen Angus and Highland beef, Scottish salmon, Cullen skink, the smoked haddock soup of the north-east coast, and hand-dived scallops and langoustines from the west coast. Haggis, neeps and tatties appear on many pub menus and are worth trying once; cranachan, made with cream, raspberries, toasted oats, honey and whisky, is the classic dessert. Breakfast in hotels usually means a full Scottish with black pudding and tattie scones.
Whisky
Inverness is the gateway to Speyside, the most famous whisky region in Scotland, and to the distilleries of the northern Highlands. In the city, several bars specialise in single malts, with long lists and staff who will help you choose a flight. If you want to go to the source, the Speyside whisky tour visits several distilleries and a cooperage in a day, which means nobody in your group has to drive.
Beer and live music
The Black Isle Brewery, an organic brewery just north of the city, runs a bar in the centre with its own beers and wood-fired pizzas, and a rooftop terrace. Hootananny on Church Street is the city's best-known music pub, with traditional sessions downstairs and other bands upstairs, and Gellions, also on Church Street, claims to be the oldest pub in Inverness. On most evenings you will find a fiddle, a guitar or a full ceilidh band somewhere in the centre.
Practical tips
Book dinner ahead on summer weekends and during events such as the Highland Games, when the best-known restaurants fill early. Many kitchens stop taking orders by nine or half past, earlier than in bigger cities, and some smaller places close on Sundays or Mondays. Tipping of around ten percent is usual in restaurants if service is not included. Lunch menus are often much cheaper than dinner for the same cooking.
Making a plan
Combine a Victorian Market lunch with an afternoon at Inverness Castle, a riverside dinner with an evening walk to the Ness Islands, and a music pub to finish. Our three-day itinerary shows how meals fit around the Loch Ness and Culloden days, and our where-to-stay guide notes which hotels have their own restaurants.
Eating around the region
Days out from Inverness come with their own food stops. On Loch Ness, the Dores Inn on the quiet south shore is a popular pub for seafood and Highland dishes with a view along the loch, and Fort Augustus has pubs and cafés beside the canal locks. On the Black Isle, the villages of Cromarty and Fortrose have cafés and seafood that pair well with a morning watching for dolphins at Chanonry Point. If you are touring Speyside, many distilleries have cafés, and the towns along the Spey have traditional hotel bars for lunch.
