Best restaurants on the Isle of Skye
Published 26 November 2024

Niall Munro opened this cool little speciality café down a Portree side street after checking out the coffee scene in Melbourne. Inside, the look is sleek and Scandi-chic, all pared-back pale wood. Beans are sourced direct from growers and roasted in small batches; you can also buy their current roasts, along with custom-made ceramic coffee cups. To eat, expect anything from chia-seed pudding to sourdough with assorted toppings – from scrambled eggs, chorizo, lacto-fermented chilli and Parmesan to charred asparagus, salsa verde and blue cheese. Not a coffee fan? Try smoked strawberry and lime iced tea. A second Portree branch opened recently with a more industrial, exposed-brick vibe.

A charmingly eclectic bookshop, café and bakery with a vintage vibe – think mismatched furniture, high stools perched at the sea-facing picture window, and retro velvet sofas where you can curl up with a flat white and thumb through the secondhand books. The owners' previous business was the Skye Bakehouse, famous for its sourdough bread and homemade cakes. On offer are warming bowls of soup (spicy Moroccan harira, say) as well as chunky sourdough sandwiches – the Scottish 'Reuben' perhaps, filled with Great Glen venison salami and Comté cheese. Also look out for unusual blackboard specials such as Burmese chicken curry with lemongrass and jasmine rice.

Shed-chic is big on Skye. This contemporary, tin-roofed wooden building, overlooking Loch Harport and next to the Talisker Distillery in the picturesque village of Carbost, is one of the island's hippest coffee shacks. Jamie Fletcher's bijou café/takeaway – complete with moreish cakes, traybakes and top toasties – is also big on principles. That means ethical trading, local sourcing and sustainability across the board: beans from Edinburgh-based Artisan Roast; tea from loose-leaf specialist Eteaket; hot chocolate from Coco Chocolatiers. Caora dhubh is Gaelic for 'black sheep' and this speciality coffee hub stands out from the flock.

There’s more than one reason for taking the winding single-track road to Elgol in the south-west of Skye. A climb to the summit of Blà Bheinn, one of the island's most spectacular mountains, a boat trip to the lovely Loch Coruisk within the magnificent Cuillin range, or simply a shoreline walk with views to Canna and the smaller isles. And then there is Coruisk House, the boutique hotel with five immaculate bedrooms, warm fires and a set dinner every night for both residents and non-residents alike. In this wild corner of Skye, Clare Winskill and Iain Roden have created a magical retreat where cocktails can be taken before dinner in one of their ‘rustic chic’ lounges ahead of a five-course menu that changes from day to day, season to season. Begin, perhaps, with a fluffy little celeriac zabaglione, follow with an intense shellfish bisque served with Clare’s own walnut bread, then a dish of sea trout alongside a plump Skye scallop, a trout and pepper mousse and sweet pickled cucumber to cut through the richness. Loin of Hebridean lamb arrives with a serving of slow-braised shoulder, fennel purée, wild chanterelles and – the highlight – a mini shallot tarte tatin. The one unsteady note comes from a coffee and Laphroaig whisky soufflé (two flavours fighting each other), though it is saved by a splendid cardamom ice cream. The thoughtfully composed (and pricey) wine list includes some fine Burgundies, selected by Iain and Clare during their travels across Europe in the closed winter months.

Veer off the Portree to Dunvegan road in northern Skye to find the leafy little hamlet of Edinbane and what was, until 2017, a derelict 16th-century hunting lodge on a shaded riverbank. Converted into a restaurant with rooms by a young local chef, it is now one of the most talked-about kitchens on the island. The decor is traditional, cosy but understated design-wise, ranging from low-beamed ceilings, dark wood panelling and teal paintwork to tartan carpeting in muted hues and chocolate-brown leather chairs. The background music steers a similarly safe course, a medley for the middle-aged. The interiors might not make your pulse race, but the menu will. Immediately attention-grabbing is Calum Montgomery's focus on provenance. A separate sheet accompanying the 10-course taster lists the fishermen, foragers and crofters by name, many of whom are friends and family: Calum’s uncle Alasdair caught the hake and monkfish, while his cousin Peter MacAskill harvested the rope-grown mussels (served barbecued and topped with a silky potato mousse). The distance from producer to plate is noted too, with the wagyu beef from Perthshire the biggest schlep (198 miles). At our test meal, this arrived with truffle and red wine jus, plus a solitary chip-shaped, satisfyingly crunchy roast potato and carrot (puréed and pickled). Equally impressive was a giant scallop, hand-dived and plucked from the waters off the small island of Rona, meaty and tender, served on a smoky seaweed butter sauce laced with diced cucumber. An unexpected highlight was the bread course. The warm, steamed brioche with its sprinkling of crispy ham and chives was soft and moreish, smeared with an unctuous wild black-garlic butter, the herb gleaned from the lodge's grounds. Another wild picking, meadowsweet, features in the pre-dessert ice cream and is also one of the botanicals in the house gin, made by a local distillery. Even the 'handcrafted' tonic water, (from Walter Gregor in Aberdeenshire) has well-documented provenance. There's a wine flight matched to the tasting menu, of course, while the carefully curated list focuses on the Old World with nine by the glass – although the signature cocktails and local beers (try the Cuillin Brewery's Seaweed IPA) are every bit as noteworthy.

Once the hunting lodge for Clan Macdonald's ancestral seat, this 17th-century house has, for the past half-century, been a hotel established by the doyenne of Scottish cookery, Lady Claire Macdonald – and now run by her daughter, Isabella. Needless to say, the setting by the foot of a hill on the shores of dreamy Loch Na Dal, is magical. Chef Jordan Webb's daily changing, three-course dinner menu showcases contemporary Scottish cuisine, with regional ingredients firmly in the spotlight: cured Portree mackerel with scallop mousse, langoustine mayo and pickled vegetable salad is typical, while mains might bring Skye roe deer with turnip, leek and locally foraged bramble jus or ribeye and sweetbread of rose veal with pot-roast cauliflower, walnut crumble and Blue Murder cheese (handcrafted in Tain). Desserts also highlight Scottish specialities such as Perthshire strawberries. By contrast Sunday lunch is strictly old school – a mighty meat fest taking in everything from shoulder of Beauly lamb to aged sirloin of Highland beef: our haunch of venison was exquisitely cooked, slices of succulent meat with just a hint of pink, on a bed of sweet red cabbage plus a host of vegetables. For pudding, crème fraîche and yoghurt panna cotta with pepper meringue and raspberry sorbet was built for sharing, creamy comfort food rather than a refined dessert. The setting matches the food to a T, with gilt-framed ancestral portraits in the sage-green, wood-panelled dining room, the gentle hum of family chatter, soft jazz in the background and ever-welcoming Isabella whizzing around the room. To drink, you might opt for a stone-fruit and citrus-laced Albariño by the glass or a spicy Périgord Merlot from a wine list that is reassuringly lengthy, with a smattering of biodynamic labels adding interest; also check out the whisky bar, which boasts more than 120 Scottish beauties.

This seasonal and ‘most Instagrammable' speciality coffee shop is part ruined cottage, part converted shipping container (clad in wood). Expect a mix of benches and reclaimed chairs, makeshift tables and old barrels, some under a makeshift Perspex roof, others open to the elements. Along with terrific coffee, Lean To deals in traybakes, cinnamon buns and assorted cakes, plus breakfast bowls featuring their own granola (served until 11am), and various toasties (cheese, wild venison salami, pickled red onion and tomato chutney, say) made with sourdough from the Skye Bakehouse. Seasonal opening hours.

‘Seafood straight from the loch… creel caught… shell recycling… local organic produce’ – some notes from an effusive report on this stunningly located restaurant at the northerly reaches of the Isle of Skye. Located in a terrace of whitewashed cottages on the shores of the eponymous loch, it has been home to Michael and Laurence Smith since 2016 (readers may remember Michael from his time at the acclaimed Three Chimneys, Colbost). In contrast to his previous posting, petit Loch Bay has no more than half a dozen tables in a charming, informal dining room that's somewhat at odds with the chef's refined cooking.

Delivered across a multi-course ‘Skye Fruits de Mer’ tasting menu that is described as ‘contemporary Scottish with a French twist’, the Gallic influence shows in a warm, freshly baked French baton served with smoked Crowdie cheese, followed by a terrific, crunchy oatmeal-coated oyster ‘mignonette’. After that, plump 'twice-dived’ Sconser scallops – fished from deep, more nutritious waters for a fuller, fatter bivalve (a system unique to Skye) – might be seasonally teamed with chanterelles and Orbost sauce vierge. A substantial pot-au-feu arrives with butter-grilled langoustines in a pot bursting with prawns, braised vegetables and, tucked in the bottom, crunchy little potato curls. Other seafood courses might bring a gratin of cod, clams and mussels or Bay lobster and monkfish with shrimp sauce and green apple.

Depending on the season, you might finish with a warm tart of Scottish strawberries, raspberries and brambles with yoghurt ice cream and Kir Royale jelly. It’s a glorious tour de force, aided by accommodating service and bolstered by wines from an impressive Francophile list.

An Argentinian fire restaurant overlooking the steely waters of Loch Dunvegan is intriguing and unexpected, but sadly not a well-kept secret if you’re after lunch on a rainy Saturday. Though booking is essential for dinner, at lunch it’s first come, first served. On arrival, the car park may be heart-sinkingly full and the restaurant heaving (12.30-2pm can seem a small window), but it's worth hanging around for a table. The interior is rustic chic – think windows strung with fairy lights, mismatched furniture, bright paintwork, pot plants, cacti in teacups and jars of wildflowers. Owners Tim and Blair Hunter-Davies bought the place in 2019, with family links to Patagonia triggering the cooking-with-fire concept. The inspiration might be from a far-flung continent, but the produce is unequivocally local – farmers and fishermen are even name-checked on the menu. In the evening three- and five-course 'fire dining menus' are built around the asado grill and wood-fired oven, kicking off with ‘pan a la parrilla’ (charcoal-fired bread with seaweed butter) and hot-smoked mussels with garlic, cream and a splash of Torabhaig whisky. Next up might be ‘Hebridean kofta’ – a pairing of Highland hogget with barbecued celeriac, Rora Dairy yoghurt tzatziki and wild garlic aïoli. By contrast, lunch is more pared-back. Local langoustines sell out quickly, but for the full Argentinian experience try the 'steak churrasco with frites' – a skewer of six-week aged, grass-fed Highland rump (the outside crisp and charred, the flavour subtly smoky), with a homemade chimichurri rub, hand-cut chips and salad from a local croft. Dessert? Slim pickings at lunch, but evening brings wood-fired burnt Basque cheesecake. There’s a nod to Argentina on the well-priced wine list, although ales from the Isle of Skye Brewery and some decent Scottish malts bring it all back home. 

* Paul Green (ex-Driftwood Portscatho) has been appointed executive head chef to replace Scott Davies, who is now at the Old Manse of Blair in Perthshire.*

In the far north-west of Skye, on the shores of Loch Dunvegan, stands a whitewashed cottage – one of the most far-flung restaurants in Britain. Remote it may be, but down the years the Three Chimneys has earned an unrivalled reputation for fine cuisine, ever since Shirley Spear arrived in the mid-80s to cook the kind of homely food she liked to eat herself. Its reputation grew under chef Michael Smith (now at Loch Bay) especially when its starry clientele, with no enthusiasm for the long and winding road to Colbost, found they could land their helicopters on the edge of the loch. Chef Scott Davies followed Smith in 2015 and has maintained – and arguably improved – the restaurant's reputation. Using Skye’s superb produce, he creates light, refreshing dishes with flavours that ought not to work, such as his alder-wood smoked salmon with Bramley apple purée or – wait for it – pickled herring ice cream. Suffice it to say that they work superbly. He has abandoned the popular seafood platter but there is no shortage of fish on offer: oysters, scorched langoustines and oyster mousse; a soothing smoked haddock raviolo with mussel and horseradish velouté; halibut (reared on the Isle of Gigha in low-density inshore tanks) – a beautiful fish, served with brown shrimps, tender autumn vegetables and a side dish of smooth whipped potato with an umami hit of ‘bacon jam’ lurking in the base. It's not all fish, however: red deer is generously served with a faggot, sausage, dumpling and elderberry sauce; partridge is roasted with honey and spices; a crisp tart is filled with foraged mushrooms. It's a celebration of wonderful Scottish produce. Davies' cooking is technical and rigorous but never overblown. He keeps his flavours pure so that everything tastes of itself yet retains traces of the satisfying, homely cooking that was Shirley Spear’s hallmark. As for wine, expect an intelligent list of carefully chosen bottles with the emphasis on provenance, quality and terroir. The limited-edition Three Chimneys gin and Isle of Raasay whisky are also worth a punt.