Aye Eat Restaurant, owned by husband-and-wife David and Roberta Shayer opened in Inverness last month. The couple, who also own Aye Stay Guest House, have designed the venue themselves and describe it as ‘a Scottish restaurant using great local Scottish produce’.
David explains, “We wanted to make it an experience as well as a restaurant – so it felt like you are in the Scottish Highlands when you come in the door. The venue used to be an electrical store, so we had to build it from scratch.
“The interiors are all custom made by local tradesmen. We have two custom built lodges which act as private dining areas. Plus, we also have a feature wall of 160 different sporrans This creates a great feature for photographs and social media moments.
We are open 7 days from noon to 11pm. One unique thing we have here is a Josper Grill, it’s a real charcoal oven, so you get a unique BBQ flavour taste. It’s the first one in the Highlands. We even do Highland Cow steaks cooked on it. We also like to do twists on traditional Scottish dishes like stovies, cranachan and we even have an Irn Bru cheesecake.
“Our guesthouse is only a 10-minute walk from the restaurant, and we can do up to 800 guests a month there, but the restaurant is not just a tourist place, we want it to be for locals as well.”