The best restaurants serving British food in Dumfries & Galloway Lowlands

What a lovely group of people offering a fantastic service. Food was excellent. Nothing was too much trouble. Would highly recommend.

My husband and I had an evening meal at The Smithy with a couple of friends on Saturday evening. The meal was excellent, as was the welcome and the service. The menu was imaginative and the atmosphere was very good. We would certainly eat there again if in the area and would thoroughly recommend it.

Just stopped off in passing for a coffee and scone. Excellent. Not one of the oversized scones that you often find nowadays. Very friendly and welcoming. Nice selection of gifts available too many of which are locally made. Will definitely be back.

A small but perfectly formed cafe serving first class gluten free options for lunch. Delicious toasties and the home made (gf) lemon meringue pie is outstanding. Highly recommended.

We stopped in for lunch and felt bad that the kitchen was just about to close. They were lovely though and didn't rush us. My friends weren't that hungry and decided to split a meal. They loved it so much that they ordered a second portion! I had a veggie burger, even knowing they can be dry and not great - this one was lovely. All the food seemed homemade.

Brilliant customer service, staff very attentive!! Will definitely be back lovely end to my birthday day out!! Thanks so much

You know when your wife takes a photograph of the room key and sends it to you with a caption "Please can I come here again" you know it's a success. Great find by my wife for out wedding anniversary and visit to Glasgow. Great location, fabulous food...

Good food, well served but if there is a large party in, it can be a bit noisy

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.

Amazing little treasure of a place with an array of delicious cake. My partner and son had the peppermint slice that they enjoyed. I had a slice of the best cake I have ver tasted in my life. Lime and coconut sponge with passion fruit. AMAZING!!! lovely little cafe with lots of books, staff super friendly and welcoming. Highly recommend and will definitely be back. Do visit this place!!!

The restaurant was pretty average, the service a bit of a letdown. 3 of our 4 main nears arrived at the same time the 4th was another 5 minute wait. The same with our desserts, when 2 arrived, and again a 3 or 4 minute wait for the other 2. To top it off our teas and coffees arrived just as we had started our desserts. I had a nice curry, my wife's beef was tough.

What a lovely place this is , stayed a couple of years ago when attending my cousin s wedding but called back in on Wednesday as we d just been to a funeral and the tea was back at the hotel,my dad was waiting for my sister and I in the car with his wee dog, Kenny who works in the bar very kindly took some food and drink out to the car for him , fantastic customer service from him so thanks again Kenny 😄 the food was lovely too

Really nice restaurant with friendly staff, i am here with my elderly parents, the staff couldn't of been more helpful with my dad who struggles with his mobility, food was tasty, restaurant in general was really modern and very clean, toilets were immaculate, i couldn't of picked a better venue for Sunday dinner, a big thank you for a lovely visit.

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.

I have been here on numerous occasions when visiting this part of Scotland, I have written a review about Loch Arthur before, but do you know what, when a place is good then why not praise it again. As usual the cafe and shop are well organised with plenty of freshly made foods as well as freshly home grown vegetables and fruit, not forgetting the locally handcrafted goods. The whole place is immaculately clean. The cafe serves amazing home cooked food, do try their soups, they are just scrumptious. The staff whether in the cafe or shop are courteous, smiling, friendly and willing to help. Too good to be true, NO, this place is amazing, if I were able, I would move near there to be able to go more often.