Ar Bòrd

The name Ar Bòrd (‘our table’ in Gaelic) perfectly sums up this little village restaurant – you eat in the spacious front room of Iain and Joyce Hetherington’s modern house. What started out as a supper club has evolved into a popular seasonal destination that works because Joyce is a natural host, while Iain’s generous fixed-price carte is built on produce grown, caught or reared on the island. Meals always start with a thick slice of freshly baked sourdough, followed by an amuse-bouche of, say, smoked sea trout on a wafer-thin crispbread given a sharp kick with homemade green chilli sauce. To follow, a mound of delicate white Croig-landed crab is piled on plump chilli pancakes and topped with a cuttlefish-ink cracker. Mains could feature a cassoulet, five-hour slow-cooked shoulder of lamb or pan-fried hake with potato and Inverlussa mussel curry. Desserts are down-to-earth, perhaps a take on Eton mess involving strawberries, meringue and crumbled shortbread with a thick meadowsweet custard. The restaurant is BYOB, although guests can pick up wine from Dugie’s shop in the village.