Lochleven Seafood Café
Fort William, Highlands & Islands
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On the northern shores of Loch Leven, this big, brightly lit space with wipe-clean tables and café chairs is the go-to spot for shellfish in the region. It’s also a showcase for the family-owned Lochleven Shellfish Company next door – which dispatches crabs and lobsters, langoustines and oysters across Europe and Asia. There are meat dishes for those who must, but it’s the simply prepared seafood, presented without fuss, that brings customers here. A table of returning German visitors were working their way through the menu on our visit: a dozen Loch Creran oysters, followed by shellfish bisque with aïoli, then the mighty shellfish platter on ice made up of lobster, brown crab, Loch Linnhe scallops and oysters, which they declared the best shellfish in Europe. Expect too, lobster served cold with mayonnaise or hot with garlic butter, and whole brown crab – all to be eaten hands-on with crackers and shellfish pickers until the table is a pile of shells. A little less messy are grilled clams with garlic butter, diver-harvested scallops, razor clams poached in white wine, and buckets of steaming mussels in cider. To drink? Expect a standard list of predominantly white wines as well as local brews from River Leven Ales in Kinlochleven. There’s also a daytime coffee shop and a deli where fresh, frozen and cooked seafood is on sale.
