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Restaurants
in Aberdeenshire.

It’s 20:59 in Aberdeenshire.
Aberdeenshire

Dinner by the Dee and the sea.

Eating out in Aberdeenshire covers everything from a tasting menu by a waterfall to fish and chips on the promenade. Along the Dee there are country house hotels and riverside inns, and in Ballater a fishmonger with its own restaurant. On the coast, look for seafood in a town's oldest building and lobster eaten on a bench by the harbour. Aberdeen adds family-run Italian restaurants and lively bars. Book ahead for dinner, particularly at weekends.

St Machar Bar→
Steading Bar→
Cowshed→
Balmoral Arms→
The Bay Fish & Chips→
My Beautiful Caravan→
Sea Salt + Sole, Bridge of Don→
The Boat Inn→
Duncano’s→
Maryculter House→
Fierce Beer→
Smoke and Soul→
Restaurant of the day20 hours ago

Bertie's Whisky Bar.

The whisky library of the Fife Arms in Braemar, named after King Edward VII, with more than 500 whiskies shelved like books by flavour, open every evening.

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Tonight19 hours agoAberdeenshireThe Pennan InnRestaurantAberdeenshireMorgan McVeigh'sRestaurantAberdeenshireTolbooth Seafood RestaurantRestaurantAberdeenMa Cameron'sRestaurantAberdeenSt Machar BarRestaurantAberdeenshireCowshedRestaurant

A table for tonight.

Restaurants to book ahead, and the ones you can still walk into.

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From our guide18 hours ago

Buchanan Bistro.

This alliterative Banchory restaurant describes its passion as ‘Honest Thoughtful Food’, which translates into warming dishes such as spiced root vegetable hotpot and Deeside venison casserole. The drinks menu showcases local gins and craft beers, and the venue itself is airy and attractive. What’s not to love?

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Stay17 hours agoAberdeenshireNorth Lodge and River Cabin13.8 milesAberdeenshireCuttieshillock13.8 milesAberdeenshireGamekeeper’s Cottage13.8 miles

Stay near The Bay Fish & Chips.

The three good places closest to it: North Lodge and River Cabin, Cuttieshillock and Gamekeeper’s Cottage.

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Restaurants16 hours ago

St Machar Bar.

A friendly, independent pub on the High Street of Old Aberdeen, with a remarkable wall of whiskies and good cask ale.

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Coming this autumn15 hours ago

Macduff Aquarium reopens this autumn with a café-restaurant upstairs, looking out over the Moray Firth.

Maré Brasil, a mother-and-son business, will serve local food with a Brazilian twist, with views out to sea and down into the aquarium's main tank.

Photograph: Wojciech Suszko on Google MapsSee Macduff Marine Aquarium · Aberdeenshire
Restaurants14 hours ago

Steading Bar.

The Steading is a bar in Strathdon, in a quiet part of the Cairngorms.

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Restaurants13 hours ago

Cowshed.

A family-run restaurant in Banchory since 2010, cooking local, seasonal Scottish food simply, with a conservatory dining room, Scotch Beef and a takeaway.

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Restaurants12 hours ago

Balmoral Arms.

A traditional country inn in the centre of Ballater, formerly the Deeside Inn, with rooms, the 1852 brasserie and grill, and the Ghillies Bar for real ales.

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Restaurants11 hours ago

My Beautiful Caravan.

A quirky independent gift shop on the Market Square in Stonehaven, packed with design-led souvenirs, cards and unexpected finds, open every day.

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Restaurants10 hours ago

Sea Salt + Sole, Bridge of Don.

The Bridge of Don shop of Sea Salt + Sole, an Aberdeen fish and chip business since 2014, frying haddock bought fresh each day with double-cooked chips.

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From the magazine9 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 04Issue 04Spring / Summer 2022

The Bay, a fish and chip shop on the promenade at Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, has been named the best independent takeaway in the whole of the UK.

The magazine calls it a legendary chipper, and says fish and chips don't come much better. Its haddock and scampi are cooked to order, and they draw in hungry locals from miles around. Real effort goes into keeping the fish local and sustainable, too. Stonehaven lies just 15 miles south of Aberdeen, and over the centuries it has grown from a modest fishing village into a proper beach resort, complete with an Olympic-sized open-air pool next door to the Bay. Take your supper along the promenade and you have one of the best evenings on this coast.

See The Bay Fish & Chips · Aberdeenshire