Aaron Sneddon, 17th December 2007

What Mountain Cafe has to say:

"Mountain Café Restaurant Aviemore - Scottish restaurant was taken over by Kirsten Gilmour in December 2004 who has many years of experience in the outdoors, tourism & hospitality industries. Kirsten has now extended her experiences to running the mountain café, restaurant in Aviemore, with the aim right from the start of firstly pleasing the locals and outdoor participants to backpackers and tourists. When taking over the business Kirsten decided that it was essential that the business was to have as little impact on the environment as possible"

What we have to say

There's something strange about walking through a sports shop climbing stairs and into a cafe, of course you can go round the side then its not so strange, but there you go.

Last time i tried to get into the Mountain Cafe, it was full, i don't have patience so went to another eatery on the Cairngorm Road instead, but i didn't know what i was missing. Last week we were hungry, Charlie Parkers wasn't open, it didn't open till 10, so we sauntered back up into Aviemore "As a last resort".

The first thing that hits you after walking in with a Botox-like face (-3 outside) is the nice warm radiating log fire, and great views toward the Cairngorm Mountains, then the smell of the food hits, and it aint bad at all.

I had breakfast, Gluten Free. Although the menu said "GF" for Gluten free, i assumed that there was no gluten in it, although couldn't work out how the bread was going to come out, if at all. A gluten-Not-Free breakfast came out, so i mentioned this to the waiter, who couldn't be more helpful. 5 minutes later, a nice big completely gluten free breakfast came out, it looked just as yummy as my wife's and smelled very good too.

Along with a big wild mushroom, a couple of tasty rashers, loads of beans, and a couple of hash browns, along came some Rice bread, i know of nowhere else that doesn't compromise on the gluten free food, so 5 stars there. The breakfast was great, the member of staff who served (you know who you are) was brilliant, and couldn't be more accommodating, and the clientele were a friendly bunch, walkers, outdoor types, locals and tourists, all looking like they don't just eat anything, they know what's good.

The Coffee wasn't great, i think it was filtered, a little bitter, but then you can get a decent Coffee at Bleu down the road, shop around! Since Bleu are mainly a coffee and cake shop, and don't cater for breakfast types, who like a hearty breakfast, its advised to sneak the Coffee in by pocket, into the Mountain Cafe, drink it in the loos, just don't forget to eat at the Mountain Cafe, because its well worth the treck up the stairs!