Highland Dining Experience: Slow Food and Storytelling in Inverness

Indulge in a Highland dining experience in Inverness, featuring slow food and captivating storytelling. Discover the best of the region’s traditional recipes and immerse yourself in the rich history of the Highlands.

Duration: 2 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • 9 Balnakyle Rd - Taste your way around the Highlands, enjoying food that is good for you, good for those who grow or rear it, and good for the planet. I aim to safeguard “forgotten foods”, the recipes you only find in real family cookbooks.
    The first thing to remember is that I’m not about “putting dots” on plates, I’m about real home cooking,…
What's Included
  • Dinner
What's Not Included
  • Private transportation
  • Alcoholic beverages
Meal Options
  • Partan Bree - A rich, creamy crab soup: Partan means crab, and bree means liquid.
  • Cranachan - “The uncontested King of Scottish Desserts”: cream and seasonal raspberries, Scottish honey, oatmeal and Whisky.
Additional Information

I believe high-quality, regionally-focused cuisine is essential when visiting the Highlands, and I assure you a genuine Highland experience. The dining style of The Cleikum Social Eating Club is inspired by the Cleikum from Sir Walter Scott’s ‘St. Ronan’s Well,’ a figure who greatly popularized the Highlands as a romantic travel destination.
Born and…

Location
9 Balnakyle Rd
Balnakyle Road
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.4
(23 Ratings)
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Greg_d
Aug 13, 2025
Karen rocks it! - Karen. was a joy of a host and her food was plentiful and uniquely good. She is very facile with Scottish and Italy/French cuisines and went out of her way to pair the elements. MAKE SURE to take the wine pairings as well. Very fair value. Very cozy setting. Loved out time there!!
Review provided by Viator
Q2469vunancyd
Oct 7, 2024
Tasty evening with Chef Karen - We had a delightful evening with Chef Karen...what a lot she has to share -- foraging, travel and good tastes. Her wine pairing was beautiful.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Katie_b
Sep 14, 2024
Truly Special Dining Experience - Absolutely loved every minute of this dinner with Karen — truly, this was the highlight of our trip. An easy and fun conversation with so many great stories shared over an amazing Scottish meal. 20/10 would recommend to anyone and everyone.
Review provided by Viator
Elizabeth_a
Sep 9, 2024
Excellent food with entertaining host - Karen is an amazing host , highly recommend this experience. She told us stories that brought the food to life and made every bite a part of the journey . The food itself is worth the price of admission but Karen’s story telling skills were the cherry on top.
Review provided by Viator
Kelly_m
Sep 4, 2024
Great evening - Karen was a warm, friendly and engaging hostess! She made us feel very welcome in her home and was so kind to accommodate special dietary needs. Her stories were engaging & her love of slow cooking is obvious. The food was outstanding, highly recommend!
Review provided by Viator
Stacy_w
Aug 28, 2024
Fantastic experience! - Karen was not only friendly, welcoming, and very interesting, but she also cooked us a fabulous meal. Absolutely LOVED IT!
Review provided by Viator
Yana_g
Aug 18, 2024
Fabulous food and conversation! - The food definitely and the conversation! We both really enjoyed learning more about Karen and also loved the recommendations:)
Review provided by Viator
Catherine
Jul 7, 2025
Overpriced and Misleading — Would Not Recommend - We booked this experience based on glowing reviews that described an evening of being “wined and dined” with “slow food, Highland dining, and storytelling.” Unfortunately, the reality fell far short of that promise. The “storytelling” was mostly our host sharing personal anecdotes about living abroad and why she prefers Italy over Scotland, instead of sharing local history, culture, or Scottish traditions as we expected. For £385 (about $525 USD) for four people, the meal was incredibly basic — just soup, meat, potatoes, and a simple dessert — with only water offered. Before we arrived, our host offered us a whiskey flight by email. We agreed, thinking it would be a nice addition to the dinner, but it turned out to be tiny sips (less than an ounce each). After the meal, we were unexpectedly charged an extra £105 (about $143 USD) for what was barely a tasting. Directions to the house were also unclear, which made getting there stressful. The evening felt rushed too — we were told to have a taxi booked for 8:30 p.m. so our host could prepare for other guests, which made it feel like we were on a strict schedule rather than enjoying a relaxed meal. This was the most expensive dinner of our trip — and by far the simplest and most disappointing. Overall, we felt the experience was misrepresented, overpriced, and did not deliver what was advertised. I would not recommend this experience to anyone.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jason_b
Sep 30, 2024
Extremely poor customer service: beware of unadvertised extra charges! - The experience itself was fine, good food and good conversation. The problem we had was when we were finished, Karen requested we pay an additional $40 per person for wine. This was a surprise to us as there was nowhere in the experience description that we would be charged extra. When I politely questioned this charge, Karen insisted that it was “implied” so I should have known. She then went on to say that I was the first person to ever bring this up and that we had stayed for an extra 30 minutes at her home (timing of which we had no control over). Her demeanor in handling our inquiry felt very rude and unprofessional, as there was no reason to make us feel as though it was our fault for asking about this. (I did not demand a refund, I only asked politely if she would consider refunding the add-on charges.) Therefore I would not recommend this experience, as Karen appears to not care about her customers. We were disappointed that she went out of her way to provide such rude customer service, rather than simply acknowledging this charge wasn’t clear in the listing and perhaps updating it so others will understand in the future.
Review provided by Viator
Eve_r
Sep 13, 2024
Very disappointed - Very disappointed, not value for the money we paid, either the food or the environment We had muscle soup and bread for starters followed by mackeral and potatoes with cranockan for pudding, only water to drink( although we did say we didn't want wine) and were not offered coffee and there was no story telling. This is the opinion of my friend who I went with and myself
Review provided by Viator