Aye Eat, Inverness Quite what the Americans who are occupying all the tables due west of us today are making of the stovies I can’t rightly say. They’re too far away to overhear. I think, anyway, the stovies are okay if a little uninspired on the flavour and seasoning front; like I imagine a mountain of beef-flavoured mash to taste like.
There are a couple of oatcakes on the top, some generic-looking gravy, there’s a beetroot under here somewhere. The Highland cow beef (strands really) is 12-hour cooked, the spuds are Maris Piper. The price is £17.
What those same Americans, there are four separate tables in now (maybe from a cruise liner at Invergordon) make of the decor I really do know. They like it. The family with the kids keep turning to watch the train going over (I think) the Glenfinnan Viaduct on the TV and I’ve seen them pointing at the nick-nacks and gee-jaws framed around the walls.
Chandeliers and dangling lights made out of whisky bottles, sporrans in frames, you get the drift. The good thing about Aye Eat is it all feels a little tongue in cheek. And, actually, the tartan wallpapering, the whisky barrel tables, the Nae Bother sign, the framed kilt even, though probably not the Nessie, don’t come across as tacky.
Aye Eat, Inverness (Image: free) Seriously, I really like the wallpaper and also like those mind-bending floor-to-ceiling murals all the way up the stairs to the unisex loo. And why not have a totally Scottish restaurant? It’s what people a.