Argo's Bakery in Orkney Islands

Myself and my family, along with some family friends visiting us were recently in Argos. My family and I, I am sad to say, try to avoid this shop at all costs as a consequence of mistreatment by staff (many, not all. Some are lovely but unfortunately they are overshadowed and, in time, are corrupted by the negative, toxic work-place culture at Argos). Firstly, I echo a sentiment felt across Orkney. The staff are incredibly rude, unhelpful and lack any awareness or simple understanding disabilities. Unless you are ‘one of them’, whatever that means these days in Orkney. Numerous visitors to the island have fed back this information. My own experience has been predominantly been incredibly negative, despite my efforts to be patient (you have to be) and friendly. I am afraid that ARGOS management team are stuck in the 80s. Totally inadequate and have failed to provide essential lifeline in a small town. If you’re not from here, the present culture in the shop is at best sub-standard, and at worst it is toxic. Sensitive information such as where I send letters and communications to how much I spend on certain items have been made public knowledge in the community in the short time I was there. Let’s hop the feedback is heard. PS. Every single other shop and service we use in Orkney is fantastic with locals and, as Argos would say, with ‘ferry loupers’ alike.

This is not just a bakery in fact most but not all of the baked goods had gone when I was there about 5pm. They did have everything else a good convenience store should have and some great Orkney ice-cream all served by a friendly happy person.

I love this place! If i lived in Stromness i'd be here everyday! Everything they make is amazing. My favourite is the cheese savoury roll/sandwhich cannot recommend enough.

I went for sandwiches and snacks for on the dive boat there is a good selection of sausage rolls and pies it is also a general store so you can get other essentials

Helpful, friendly staff and a lovely assortment of fresh produce. A big shout out to Argos - staff in their Stromness store helped me out a few years back and moved heaven and earth to contact local shop keepers when I’d left my car keys behind in another shop and only realised after hours. Lovely fresh bread, cakes and coffee, post office, groceries and more at their Stromness store. This week Argos’ Kirkwall shop was the saving grace when none of the ‘jobsworth’ cafes in town would serve a breakfast roll at 11:04am. Apparently no one will cook an egg after 11am. It must be an Orcadian tradition that has escaped me in the decade that I have been spending my summers here…. 🤣🤣 Argos, I discovered, not only has the best selection of breakfast or freshly baked goods anywhere on Orkney (I’d wager the best selection across all of Scotland judging by this week’s fabulous offerings 😊), but they also offer the least expensive, tastiest fresh food, fabulous fresh coffee at half the price offered anywhere else, and have wonderfully friendly staff. Even offering ideas of where to get certain goods in other stores if needed. 10 out of 10. Will be returning often 😊

Excellent choice of pies and pastries/cakes. I tried to eat most of them couldn't fault anything we had. Very friendly staff

Fantastic little bakery with shop in the centre of stromness. We got a haul of pies to take home to Edinburgh. Mince pies, steak pies and macaroni were fantastic! Also great for eggs, tablet and fudge. Will definitely be visiting on our next trip to Orkney! Treat yourself before you head on the ferry

Too tempting if you're watching the calories but hey ho we're on holiday. Good fresh morning rolls, selection of lunch items, and plenty of sweet treats.

Over a year I’ve seen consistently unfriendly, unwilling service from the young-ish women working in the shop and the mini post office inside it. I'm talking slow to attend to you (even if there's no-one else to serve) and then unfriendly, unhelpful, unsmiling service. Awful vibe in there along a quaint and pretty cobbled street.

Stopped in for a quick breakfast sandwich. They have a bakery and small selection of groceries, and a very good "hot" section for quick takeaway breakfast or lunch. Delicious, well-priced.

A lovely choice & range of products. Produced locally & using local products - choices of bread, rolls, cakes, pies. Also offering local sweets & drinks. We'll worth a visit for a taste of Orkney baked products

Very good pies sorted us out for a lunchtime snack last week. Also picked up a loaf that the owner offered to slice before we left. There seemed to be a selection of freshly-made-to-order sandwiches on offer too. Looked a popular place.

The salted caramel shortbread is magnificent, decadent, moreish. It is now obvious that the ultimate thing to do with shortbread is to sandwich two together with salted caramel cream, drizzle more over the top, and launch them at vulnerable stout ladies. Apparently they also sell them in Aldi doon sooth.

Argo's is the main Orkney bakery with shops in Kirkwall and Stromness (and possibly elsewhere). It's a fine bakery which provides all the usual things - bread, tray bakes, scones cakes - that you expect to a high standard. There are traditional Orkney products - bere bannocks, flour bannocks and so. It's all reasonably priced and very good.

Busy Bakery with lots of goodies on sale. We chose a sausage roll which was just superb - very hot and tasty.

They have a lot of Orkney specialities - biscuits, fudge, etc. If you're after the bere bannock, get there early, because it sells out.

Afternoon tea, with a great range of cakes and pies with coffee. At least the people here talked to us, unlike the ones in Kirkwall

Excellent service and great, original produce. Their wholemeal loaves, produced totally in their own bakery were a particular with my family

I stopped off at Argo's before boarding the ferry to Scrabster. There was a good selection of bakery items as well as a wide range of locally produced speciality items. I wasn't too sure what to expect due to some negative comments on TA but I found it a nice place to buy good quality products whilst in Stromness.

The information lady advised us for a place to get a quck cob to eat on the go as we needed to get bus later . The crab cob was so stuffed it oozed and tasted of crab as well , some dont! So had this plus prawn one and a drink for less than £7 deal

After visiting the shop in Stromness I expectedly something great, it wasn’t, the staff were happier chatting to each other rather than serving customers. Stop ck to the shop in town which is far better!

Local pequeno com atendimento atencioso. Fazem um delicioso lanche de caranguejo marrom desfiado com maionese. Você escolhe o pão e eles montam na hora.

Argo's is centrally-located and offers a wide variety of biscuits (sweet & savory) and other bakery products. Try some oat biscuits! Local ice cream is also available.

This bakery is really really lovely and has some amazing Orkney produce. The rum and raisin icecream and also the caramalized onion crackers are MUST tries, (though of course not together!)

Conveniently located only a couple of minutes walk from the ferry terminal and several of the hostels and self-catering houses. A wide selection of baked goods and cold sandwiches (hot fillings are available through the morning but after (I think) 1PM only cold fillings are available) are offered. Cold drinks, candy, and other snacks are also featured. The bakery is also home to the Stromness post office.

Flying visit to Stromness to see a rare bird was topped by our brunch of coffee and cake. Homemade apple pie and ice cream was delicious.

Whenever you may need a special Birthday cake in the Orkney Islands go to Argo's Bakery for a delicious home made cake and great service!

There are two Argo Bakeries in Stromness, but the one I really love is the one in the heart of the town, where there is also a convenient Post Office inside, and were you can also buy great Orkney whiskey, gin and other Orkney produce. A shop stepping back 5 decades ... perfectly preserved with the best of the era. A real happy charm!

First day I tried the coconut ice cream, second day I tried the fudge and when I left I purchased the carrot cake to take back with me to the mainland. All were wonderful! The staff were so friendly and the treats tasted great!

Went to the bakery rather than one of their shops - in the industrial estate in Stromness. Shop has full display counter and tables/cafe. Friendly staff and good service. Products are great as well! Good parking

When I was out West in the mainland I always pop past here. On this day I decided to have two bacon rolls and a loaf of bread. The bacon was cooked to perfection as usual.

Argo's bake their own bread fresh every day and it really is worth paying more than you would for a supermarket loaf. We had a couple of wholemeal loaves from them while we were staying in Stromness and it was the nicest bread I've tasted...

The bakery itself is on the edge of Stromness, but there is a shop near the ferry terminal, and I think, one in Kirkwall. The Stromness shop has lots of great stuff, but for us what was ideal were the bacon rolls. We had a...

Un rollo de salchichas para un aperitivo era muy buena relación calidad-precio. La tienda tenía una buena selección de Orkney ginebras a un precio razonable.

El mejor pan/rollo/tarta y pasteles en el norte de Escocia, empresa familiar que de apoyo a la comunidad local, asegúrese de ver si siempre argo para hornear y disfrutar comprar algunos.

Very good food with a good selection, we took home about a dozen packets of their flaky biscuits, got our lotto tickets and drinks.

I nipped in here to get a morning roll when I was camping nearby. The freshly baked rolls just made the bacon even tastier. The shop has a great selection of freshly baked products as well as shelves stocked with staples. Their granary loaf is one of the best I have ever tasted.

More like a sort of mini-market. Bakery is small, but has a good selection of snacks, with some local specialities.

The food that comes from here is excellent, the range is great from bread to biscuits to boiled sweets, a fantastic range and tastes brilliant the biscuit are fab but noticed over the years the flakey biscuits are less flakey but other than that I find no fault from anything, love the battenburg cake but goes really quick so hard to get

Good old fashioned and quality bakers. Friendly and efficient staff who were helpful when we were deciding what to pick from the good selection. No issues at all

We were recommended Argo's when we asked around Kirkwall looking for sandwiches to take away. We weren't disappointed with our choice. The bread was homemade and the sandwiches were 'choose your own filling' fresh filled. The fillings were yummy and the bread was just as it should be - what a lovely change to plasticky Supermarket style sandwiches! The cakes are also all homemade and delicious - this is a proper old-school bakery, sadly a spot in Britain's high streets that is no longer there in so many places. We're pleased that in Kirkwall it still is!In fact, we decided the sandwiches, hot take away pasta and cakes (especially the 'Jelly Bellies') were so good that we returned a few times during our stay in Kirkwall!

I think it's great that Kirkwall is a bit laid back, but when you order two teas and a cheese bap and the server takes over five minutes to make take out tea and has then forgotten what sandwich you wanted. Hmm

Was very impressed by the range of food available here - especially there own baked products (shortbread YUM!). The staff were especially knowledgeable and helpful.

This is a quality bakery with quality products,if you go to Orkney you must visit this shop.If you go self catering this is the bakery for you.

Rather than picking up pre-packed sandwich from co-op, we popped into Bakery for freshly made between events. Fresh, quick service and good value for money.

Quick friendly service at reasonable cost.Very popular but rarely have to queue for long. If the weather is fine it is great but many want to shelter in one of the sit-in eateries.

These guys gave me a big bag of tasty pastry they make, after they found out about my charity trip. And what can I say, the stuff was so tasty!Please support this local bakery, as they are amazing people.

Bread is supplied to Tesco...nice but a litle dry. Not what we're used to but is probably good for the locals.

It may seem to be a plain shop, but the bread and pasties are superb. Highly recommend them as part of a self catering week in Stomness.

We called in for a little cake to eat by the harbour and found a very limited choice, but opted for two muffins - one blueberry and one toffee. Both were absolutely awful and not at all what I would call a muffin - they were completely sunken, solid texture, wet and soggy and just nasty. Staff could hardly be bothered to serve us. Would never go here agin and definately not recommended.

Fantastic food hot food to take away and bakery product are great would defiantly recommend. Please try the steak bridie it is the best I have tasted along with their home made soup.

Lucky Orcadians and I am one, Argos bread cakes and biscuits are the best, I have just stocked up with them before returning to Edinburgh.

Local small bakery and food store. The bread is always nice as are the bannocks and the selection of pies and sausage rolls etc. You need to try abeef and tattie roll. A good option for lunch on the move or a picnic. They also supply many of the small shops around Orkney

This isn't the type of bakery where you can get fancy pastries or breads, but they do have a selection of simple foods you can buy for a light (albeit greasy) lunch -- buns with hamburger, sausage or bacon, or curry chicken with rice. The taste is mediocre but the price is right.

Bought our take-away lunch here every day. Excellent choice of fillings, Orkney crab being the favourite.

They have a shop in on the main streets of Stromness and Kirkwall but we went to what we thought was the Factory Shop in Stromness. It turned out to be what looked like a works canteen with a couple of shelves of fudge and tablet. It smelled like a school dining room and did takeaways. Bizarre use of what is supposed to be a factory shop.

Local prawns and crab rolls are definitely worth sampling. There are plenty of local beremeal beauties and national treats to eat too. The service isn't always that great but the produce is definitely worth it. Nom.

Fresh baked island treat are available at two places in Stromness, every grocery store, and in Kirkwall.

This bakery is a small shop with limited stock but we went in looking for Biermeal shortbread and found it.

In the search for Orkney Fudge and Tablet where else would you think of going but Argo's Bakery makers of this lovely indulgence and the only supplier of all available flavours?I experienced the worst service I have ever had in Orkney. Instead of the friendly welcome I was expecting on entering the premises I was ignored and even "walked through" as if I wasn't there. And then when I took my purchase to the cash desk the server took her own sweet time in getting to the till and grudgingly served me. [I was later told that the reason for the poor service was because I was not wearing a boiler suit!]If there had been an alternative I would not have spent my money in this poor excuse for a shop. It might be worth the management's trouble if they were to make the shop completely self-service by adding self-scan tills then the staff would not have to be troubled by customers.