The Riverside Restaurant

Crab and crayfish starter — yum.
Surf and turf main — yum yum.
Banana and salted caramel cheesecake — yum yum yum.
Service great, ambiance great, wine great… Booking recommended (even though we didn’t, we were lucky!)

Overall an okay deal for when we stopped by. Party of two on an Easter weekend lunch. We ordered a steak baguette and soup combination, a lamb steak (T-​bone) with a soup entrée.
The overall presentation is fair, with some effort put in. The butternut and squash soup of the day was good, but was not memorable. My baguette came out with really soft steak pieces (well prepared), and my partner’s lamb pieces were juicy. However, the proportions are not very large. We would give it 3.5 or so — perhaps other items on the menu would have been much better.
This place also sells Cairngorms’ ales — if you’re looking for something award winning and won’t be stopping by their brewery, here is a substitute.

I was searching for a restaurant that offered gluten free options and couldn’t find one in Inverness. After reading some reviews about The River Café and Restaurant I took a chance and went to check it out. Low and behold not only did they offer gluten free dishes but they could also alter some (not all) of their other dishes and make it gluten free. The restaurant is very accommodating and very much aware of your dietary needs. I had the monk fish (one of their gluten free main dishes) and it was absolutely delicious and their cream of mushroom soup (yes gluten free also). So for anyone visiting Inverness and is gluten intolerant you need to come and visit. Great place and great food!

the environment was really nice, pretty much enjoyable. the high tea we had was just 10 pounds per person. but for the taste I would rather say four stars, especially for the cakes and cookies.

Great food and a cozy atmosphere. Just don’t get the sea bass. It’s as crusty as a Navy veteran. Otherwise I’d highly recommend this wonderful restaurant.

We were lucky enough to get a table without booking on this clearly popular small, intimate restaurant. Service was perfect and friendly without being intrusive. Had venison wellington the meet was cooked just right. Faultless.

Unbedingt vorbeischauen, wenn ihr dort seid. Spitzen Gerichte liebevoll zubereitet. Exklusiv aber nicht überteuert. Man kann doch schlemmen in Schottland!!!

We were recently in inverness and decided to try this restaurant based on good recommendations. We were very impressed. Although it looks like a modest café the menu is quite extensive. We ordered the Duck Breast and Plaice and started with the Grilled Goat Cheese and the Smoked Haddock Chowder. Everything was beautifully presented and truly delicious — you could tell that the chef had carefully and lovingly created each dish and made sure that it left his kitchen with his signature on it.
The best part of the meal was having a traditional Scottish dessert called Cranachan. It was recommended by our waitress, although it didn’t sound like much — cream and toasted oatmeal with some raspberries — since I love trying new things — I went with it. What a surprise! It was heaven — creamy, thick, the crunch of oats bound with just the right amount of sweetness and luscious raspberries. To top it off, our waitress told us that I had been served the last portion of Cranachan which was not as large as it should have been. They graciously reduced the price and sincerely apologized. My portion was really quite large — can’t imagine what full portion looks like.
Most of the year we reside in NYC/​Washington, DC, but spend a lot of our time living in and traveling around the UK. In the past ten years we have been amazed at the quality of the food we have been served at the restaurants we have visited in the UK. The food has been creative, made with the freshest local ingredients and often cooked to perfection. We find that when dining out our meals here are frequently more enjoyable than in the States. We highly recommend the River Café as one of our most delicious finds — hope you enjoy it, too.

river café is a great little café. our family tends to visit mainly for high tea, where there is toast, a light meal, followed by loads of home made cakes. it is really friendly place and has a great river view. it is always worth booking a table in advance as it si quite small. there are a few veggie options but cakes ar ewhat this place is about