Our favourite foodie spots: Scotland’s coastal seafood

If you’re passing through the capital at any point, maybe on your way north to the highlands, west to the coast, or just to ramble round the city for a while, head down to Portobello and visit the award-winning Shrimpwreck, as seen on tv! It’s right on the waterfront and serves a range of great options. The doorstep fishfinger sandwich and buffalo shrimp are always on, but keep an eye out for guests dishes like crab meat fries and prawn popcorn. Add some fries, sprinkled with Shrimpwreck’s addictively spicy seasoning, then settle down on the beach for lunch.  

Complete the beachy feel with a firebox, bought from either the pizza place next door or the Esplanade, the pub just down the prom. They come with everything you need to get a campfire going on the sand in minutes.

East of Edinburgh, on a shoulder of land that looks out to Bass Rock, you’ll find a simple cargo container, or so it looks. This is Drift, a small, glass-walled café and restaurant that serves anything from coffee and cake to a peppery and perfect smoked haddock chowder.  

The setting is stunning and, if you aren’t relaxed enough just looking at the sea and sipping your spicy soup, book the Escape sauna, a few yards away on the cliff edge. Make a day of it by bundling in a trip to Tantallon Castle and Seacliff beach, or any of the tiny fishing villages that dot the coast.

Take everything that the phrase “oyster bar” conjures up and heave it into the sea as you cross over to Skye, because this place shucks all the fuss from great, simple seafood. High on a hill above Carbost, indicated only by an easily missable sign, the The Oyster Shed is a small shack that serves freshly shucked oysters, garlicky langoustines and heaving seafood platters, with views of the loch and snowcapped mountains thrown in as a free garnish.  

Skye is obviously a popular place, so we recommend going out of peak season, for smaller crowds, less desperate reversing down narrow hill roads to find a passing place and quicker access to those fresh oysters.

The all-female owned and run Bute Smokehouse cures some of the finest salmon you’ll ever taste, among other things. It’s a wonder in its own right but massively enhanced by the setting in which you find it. At Bute Yard, a local brewery, distillery and restaurant sit alongside the smokery, offering you a very pleasant few hours of fine food and drink. It’s the sort of community endeavour that makes you wonder if island life could be for you.  

Bute might not be top of your list if you’re visiting the western isles, but with relatively easy access (less than an hour’s drive from Glasgow to the ferry) and far less tourism than some of its more famous neighbours, there’s a case for saying it should be.

The long road down the coast to the ferry ports for the western isles is a truly stunning drive, as you slide round lochs under hillsides covered in heather. Inveraray is a traditional stop to break up the journey from Glasgow or Edinburgh, but for something a bit more special, take a break a little earlier and drop in at Loch Fyne, the legendary Oyster Bar and Restaurant. The setting is immense, right on the water with the mountains as a backdrop, with food to match. Freshly shucked oysters, hand-dived scallops and huge seafood platters laden with langoustine, oysters, mussels, scallops, lobster and crab are all served in the bright bar.  

Alternatively, you can get takeaway and roll down the road to the Fyne Ales brewery, to sit in the tap room courtyard and wander in for a superb beer to pair with your fresh fish.