Ness Walk

I have to say this is the best customer service I have experienced from a hotel. From the welcome to checking in, to the end of our stay. Sorry I don't know the name of the lady on reception but her customer skills were exceptional - you helped check in a family of five on the 29th. Another name to mention was a gentleman called Steve, again he had exceptional customer service skills, he even explained how to use the air conditioning in our room. There was also a lady at breakfast helping us very early in the morning on the 30th, very friendly service. Nothing was too much trouble especially helping us organise a take away breakfast as we had a tour to go on which involved in an early start. Asking us how our day was and remembering what we did on the day. The room was extremely clean and well apportioned. The hotel had beautiful Christmas decorations. About a 15 min walk to the town centre of Inverness. I would strongly have no problem in recommending this hotel for your stay in Inverness, you will experience exceptional customer service and hospitality. We throughly enjoyed our stay - thank you.

We stayed at the Ness walk hotel for four nights and had an exceptional experience from start to finish. The customer service was outstanding — the staff were incredibly attentive and genuinely went above and beyond to assist us in every way. They even remembered us and the conversations we’d had on previous days, which really added a personal touch and made us feel very welcome. The staff are without a doubt the hotel’s biggest asset and should be extremely proud of the team they have. Breakfast offered a range of both hot and cold options, including a full Scottish breakfast alongside pastries and cereals, catering well to all tastes. The hotel itself was beautifully decorated with Christmas decorations, creating a cosy and inviting atmosphere throughout our stay over the festive period. Our room was spacious, clean, and very well maintained. We also really appreciated the evening turndown service, complete with onsite-made fudge — a lovely touch. The only slight downside was that parking was a little limited and occasionally overbooked, meaning we sometimes had to visit the concierge to help find a space. Marked bays could help resolve this, but it’s a very minor suggestion in the context of an otherwise excellent stay. Overall, this was an exceptional experience and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the hotel to anyone.

The background to this review is that two friends and I booked well in advance (July 2025) to dine in the Torrish restaurant for the festive a la carte menu, for our annual Christmas night out. We’re all mature ladies and appreciate good food, great service and lovely surroundings. One of my friends and myself had already visited for both the standard afternoon tea and the festive one. She had also been with her husband for the tasting menu. Apart from a couple of minor issues we were hugely impressed so suggested to our other friend that it would be ideal for our special Christmas meal and evening out. All of us had perused the menu several times before the night so were well acquainted with the choices on it. As usual, on arrival the welcome and attention from the staff was what you expect in a five star hotel, faultless. Also the hotel was beautifully decorated for the festive season, absolutely stunning. We were shown to our table, asked if there were any dietary or intolerance issues they needed to be aware of, and then menus were brought. At this point we were provided with clip on lights as it was impossible to read the menus otherwise, given the dim lighting in the restaurant. And then the issues began - the first thing we all noticed was changes to the menu from the one we’d originally been sent. There was no mention of this by the waiter nor had the person booking been updated. That would have been acceptable to a point except that substituted courses, at least one starter and one main, now carried surcharges, whereas the original courses didn’t. Bear in mind this is a menu with a basic price of £65 for three courses. For example the original beef main course had been altered to a subtly different beef main and a surcharge added!! Call me cynical but I feel its enticing you to book thinking it’s reasonably good value for money but then the changes are made and surcharges added! Add to that, the original menu was still showing on the website later that night and at least on the next day too. Now to the actual food. Firstly we were served with an amuse bouche along with a small brioche or petit pain. Very nice but we were literally still eating them when our plates were whipped away!! The only black mark against service but it shouldn’t have happened. My starter of winter vegetable salad with Comte cheese was a huge disappointment- basically vegetable shavings with a couple of 2p sized discs of beetroot and I’m still searching for either sight or flavour of the cheese, it was non existent. One friend had the same starter and exactly the same view as mine. The monkfish main was a massive letdown, two small round pieces of fish, two mouthfuls in each, flavoursome enough but that was all. There was a very small croquette which was tasteless, a swoosh of very mild curry sauce (missing from a friend’s plate!) and I think there was veg but totally unmemorable. We also ordered a side of new potatoes and garlic. Now bearing in mind there were three of us what did we get? A dish with 5 (yes 5!!) miniature new potatoes languishing on it. For the princely sum of £6!!! Yes you read it correctly - £1.20 per potato and not even enough for 2 each. Shocking! So let’s go to dessert. Two of us ordered the pear and caramel entremet. Well it arrived marooned in the centre of a large plate looking very lost and lonely. Textures etc delicious and definitely pear flavour but the caramel? Unfortunately neither of us could discern any caramel flavour whatsoever and we both have pretty good palates. Our other friend ordered different courses and was similarly unimpressed but I’m concentrating my review on what I personally experienced. I don’t expect or look for a huge plateful of food, that’s not what I want, particularly in the likes of Torrish, but having experienced tasting menus in some top quality restaurants both in the UK and abroad, the portion sizes here were definitely more akin to a tasting menu. They certainly weren’t what I expected or have ever experienced previously from an a la carte menu. Combined with the major let down in flavour it made this a very expensive and hugely disappointing experience. We had all been so looking forward to it and had intended having cocktails before we left to finish off what should have been a most memorable night. As it was we left immediately after our meal, we all ate later as we were actually still hungry and had cocktails elsewhere too. It’s all very well relying on rich foreign tourists or non Inverness visitors, but alienating your local trade, especially in the winter months might be very shortsighted in the long term. Since our experience I’ve spoken to a number of locals who’ve had similar experiences and all of us have said the same thing, no way will we ever be back. I would strongly suggest to Ness Walk that they take a very close look at what they’re doing and actually act on genuine complaints rather than just paying lip service to reviews. I’ve seen a reply from Ness Walk on at least one review that “many” of our guests are happy. Well I would suggest that “many” is not the top level to which true five star hotels would aspire. I’m happy to pay for quality food in superb surroundings with first class service but I’m afraid this fell way short on the first part and a very important part at that. I’m left feeling I’ve been ripped off and that’s not pleasant.

The 3rd time we have stayed here and its just a great place to be with superb staff notably Steve, Grace and others showing yet again what a great team they have. Trying their very best to make sure you have relaxed and memorable stay We will be back there again I am sure & would recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a bit of luxury when staying in Inverness

Visited for our third time and probably our best stay so far! A lovely luxurious spotless terrace room was ready and waiting for us after our glass of champagne by the fire. We had chosen the 2 night tasting escape which included a brilliant whisky tasting, and then thoroughly enjoyed the tasting menu in the Torrish restaurant which we would highly recommend, along with the accompanying wine flight. It really is the most luxurious place to stay - peaceful and relaxing despite only being a 15 minute walk from the centre of Inverness - with fantastic food, and a welcoming well stocked bar, however the element that sets Ness Walk apart from other hotels are the staff. Every member of the team is highly professional, but with a lovely informal approach, and are happy to stop and have a chat, whilst always being keen to ensure we had everything we needed - a huge shout out to Kevin and his team for making our stay so enjoyable. We are already planning our next trip!