Eating Fancy and Local at The Three Chimneys

One of the benefits of having had my parents live in Scotland for 3 years before us is that they have lots of good tips on things to see and do around the country. Unfortunately, my Mom’s tastes are impeccable, but also quite expensive, so while I’m sure the five star restaurants and hotels she recommends are all stellar, we usually opt for less expensive accommodations. However, since this past trip was for our baby-moon, we decided to splurge a bit and follow one of her restaurant recommendations. 

The Isle of Skye is home to one of Scotland’s most famous restaurants, The Three Chimneys. I’ve heard countless people rave about the food and dining experience at this Michelin star eatery, and I figured a baby moon was a proper occasion for the splurge.   

The lunch and dinner spot is so popular that it actually has its own helipad for out of town guests to drop in for dinner. There is also a fancy-pants hotel attached  but that was surely over our budget for this particular trip. If you didn’t know where to look for the restaurant, you’d never find it because it is smack dab in the middle of nowhere, which makes it’s popularity all the more impressive. 

We booked our dinner reservations a month in advance and still had slim pickings on reservation times. It’s quite a quaint space and the dinners are quite lengthy 3-7 course affairs so tables are scarce. We opted for the early reservation time (6:30) since we knew we’d have quite a trek back to the B&B on some tiny and unlit roads. 

Local Whisky sampler for Jonathan

Designated Driver

When we arrived for dinner we were given the option between two menus. One was a 3 course menu in which you got to choose your starter, main, and dessert. 

The other option was a set '7 courses of Skye' meal which gave small portion samples of lots of local dishes that we were intrigued to try. 

Since it was a fancy occasion, we decided to go for the fancier option and chose the 7 course meal. And boy was it fancy! They started the evening by bringing us a wax sealed menu complete with a letter opener so that we could keep track of the dishes as they came out. 

I tried to be discreet about my picture taking, because I figure really fancy people don’t feel the compulsive need to document their fancy meals. I, on the other hand, am pretty shameless about getting photographic evidence when food is served to me inside of a seashell. 

Consider me impressed. I actually managed to get a photo of all 7 courses which I will now archive for eternity in the blogosphere:   

Course 1: Prawns

Course 2: Smoked Fish

Course 3: Crab

Course 4: Choice of lamb or oysters (we chose lamb)

Course 5: Scallops!!!! In a seashell!!!

Course 6: Venison

And finally, Course 7: Hot Marmalade Pudding Souffle

As you can imagine, dinner was quite lengthy and we didn’t end up leaving until after dark, which meant yours truly had to play designated driver on the smallest, windiest, darkest, rainiest, most sheep infested, most mountainous, foggiest roads on the planet. I drove about 20 mph the whole way home and aged about 10 years in the hour it took to get back to the hotel.  

The stormy weather continue through the night and into the morning, and followed us right up until we were crossing the bridge to exit the island. I kid you not, as soon as the bridge came into view, a blue sky opened up and sunshine left a huge rainbow in our wake. But alas, our time on Skye was over and we were headed to the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. More on that later. Stay tuned!