St Abbs Scotland - Scottish Borders

My husband and I had lunch here today and it was wonderful! A huge menu with local, fresh food. I had one of their paninis which was super and my husband had the crayfish salad. Would definitely recommend

At first glance you might blink and miss this simple little cafe, but it really is a hidden gem why? There is no better pleasure than a mug of tea outside on one of their seats (whatever the weather) with one of their stunning kipper rolls, no frills just a fresh roll, packed with amazingly smoked, salty, lightly buttery and delicious, meaty kippers. How good are they? Today we drove from Fortrose (just North of Inverness) back home to East Yorkshire a journey that took around 9.5 hours and we planned it specifically so we could drop in for a kipper roll for brunch! They really are that good! Once tasted, never forgotten!

During our visit to St Abbs, we stopped at a cafe located by the harbour for a quick break. It was late afternoon, so we were not in the mood for a full meal but decided to have some coffee. The menu offered a variety of options, and we were pleasantly surprised by the extensive selection of homemade sweets, treats, and cakes. We had a hard time choosing, but eventually settled on Turkish delight tray bake, lemon meringue pie, Victoria sponge, scone with cream, and Tottenham cake, all of which were delicious. The staff was friendly and efficient, even taking care of our dog by providing water. The only downside was the coffee, which was not very hot and served from a machine. Nevertheless, it was still enjoyable. If you find yourself in the area, make sure to treat yourself to some cake at this cafe.

We ordered a crab sandwich. However, the crab meat seemed to be all brown and had a sharp taste to it, with no sign of any white meat. To make matters worse, the sandwich bread was hard and seemed stale. When I brought this up to our server, I was told that they were fresh and crispy when prepared in the morning. I was left confused by this explanation. On a positive note, my wife and granddaughter enjoyed their meals, so perhaps I just had a bad experience. Overall, the restaurant was nice, but it's important to remember that "crab" ends with a 'b' and not a 'p'.

The food and cakes at this restaurant were excellent. The outdoor seating area is dog friendly and they have large umbrellas in case of rain. Unfortunately, our holiday cottage was just across the road so we had to keep going back and forth to enjoy our cake and coffee on the balcony. It was a shame, but we still had a great experience at the restaurant.