Hunters Lodge Hotel Restaurant in Dumfries & Galloway

As it’s a small popular place booking in advance is probably recommended. We were looking for a table on a Saturday night during the Spring Fling event in the region so left a message with the restaurant whilst traveling to Kirkcudbright. The owner returned the call and fortunately, thanks to a cancellation, was able to arrange our reservation for dinner the following night - a promising start. On the evening of our visit the bistro was busy however there was still a relaxed ambiance about the place. The sole waitress taking orders and attending to the tables was pleasant and seemed knowledgeable about the menu and the only other member of staff appeared to be the owner/chef. He popped out and chatted with us towards the end of service to allow the waitress to get home as a few diners like us were finishing off drinks and still to receive their desserts and settle their bills. He seemed sociable and relaxed and clearly hadn’t adopted the Gordon Ramsay approach to the restaurant business. Being a small place we were not surprised at the outset that the menu was limited to about half a dozen items per course including specials however it gave a decent choice in our view. We both ordered a “special” for starters - Tempura Battered Prawns (£7.95). As was the case throughout the evening, the dish was served up to the table in good time. Six king prawns each with a sweet chilli sauce with a salad garnish and balsamic. It was a tasty start. For mains my wife ordered the Seabass, served with king prawns, a white wine & tomato sauce and fresh vegetables (£21.00). I had Duck a L’Orange (£21.95) which was another item from the specials board. Neither of the mains dishes would be winning prizes for presentation however most importantly they both tasted good. The fish was nicely cooked and my wife enjoyed the other parts of the dish. The duck was also good albeit the chef was later surprised I’d left the fat on the plate. I queried if people normally ate the fat and he commented that they often do and that he rendered it to make it more appealing. Thankfully this was not an overly fatty duck breast in any case but I was quite happy to leave the small amount I did on the plate. For dessert my wife had Sticky Toffee Pudding with ice cream and I had a Citrus Tart served with a small selection of fresh berries and cream. The puddings were £6.50 each and both enjoyable. Overall we liked our experience at the bistro and with our three course meal for two costing just under £72 we thought it was reasonable value for money. We had added a bottle of NZ Yealands Sauvignon Blanc wine for £25 only just keeping the bill under £100. A walk to the harbour to watch the sunset as we headed back to our accommodation rounded off the evening well.

Really beautiful hotel. The Torr kindly hosted a funeral tea for our family and were so welcoming. The food was lovely (especially the sausage rolls!), and the service was excellent.

This is a lovely welcoming cafe with great choice of food and coffee. The falafel sandwhich and pancakes were delicious

Being a dog owner we regularly use Google reviews to check if dogs are allowed in, especially when we are visiting an area for the first time. We therefore checked The Riverbank out and saw, in the Gemini generated summary as well as several reviews ( one 2 months ago) that it was dog friendly. On turning up earlier today we noted a 'no dogs' sign on the door so I popped upstairs to check....and apparently the answer is 'it depends!', ie whether busy, how they feel on the day. This is completely unhelpful to customers as it either is, or isn't and should be up front about this. If you let dogs in it will appear in your reviews! Anyway your loss and another cafes gain as there are other lovely dog friendly places in the town (Lime Bothy, Belted Galloway) so I'd suggest you take your business elsewhere if you have a dog.

This cafe has a really distinctive menu for its size with a choice of meat- fish- and plant-based dishes. They were extremely attentive to a very unusual dietary issue which involved them adapting several elements of one of their menu items. Both waiter and chef spoke to me before we settled on a dish. This was all handled in really friendly manner.