The Mountain Cafe, Aviemore

This place is the best!

You always have to queue to get in but it's completely and utterly worth it for the delicious food.

This time I was in Aviemore for a hair and makeup trial ahead of our upcoming wedding.  I was driven by my mother in law, Jo, and we were accompanied my own mum, Linda.

We were famished by the time we were finished and with our full faces of make up we sought out a place to eat.  I had been to the cafe previously so I was interested in going back.  As we arrived at around lunchtime we soon realised that there was a massive queue - almost out the door.  With it being May Day, I wonder if they were busier than usual.  We were so hungry we felt we couldn't wait and continued our search for food.

We ended up going up the funicular railway to the Ptarmigan Restaurant (our wedding reception venue as it happens!) and I have written about the experience here.

After coming back down to ground level, we were in need of tasty cake and thought that perhaps the lunchtime rush would be over at The Mountain Cafe.  We were right.  We only queued for around 10 minutes before being offered a table in the corner.

I should mention that this cafe is above a shop (outdoorsy stuff) and is accessible via the shop itself.  The queue starts at the top of the stairs, where there is a door to enter the cafe and continues down the stairs where the walls are adorned with local business cards and posters advertising services and local events - so lots to read as you are waiting patiently for your table.  The benefit of this is that as you are not queuing in the cafe itself, diners do not feel 'watched' by hungry customers awaiting them to finish in order for them to make use of the table, leaving you feeling as if you could perhaps have another cup of tea and yet another cake.

We were served quickly by one of the busy waitresses and were shown a plethora of cakes near the till from which we could choose from.  The selection is amazing, with all different combinations in flavour and many gluten, dairy and wheat free options available.  There are scones, muffins, cakes, cookies, biscuits, tarts, pies, brownies and cheesecakes in various styles and flavours.  I selected a vegan chocolate brownie and an anzac biscuit (which I enjoyed so much I have successfully attempted at home!) because I couldn't choose just one.  Mum had a passion fruit custard cream and Jo had a great big slab of cake - I forget which flavour.  The portions are all massive!

They also offer delicious breakfast and lunch menus which states the 'bread of the day' and a lovely footnote encouraging the sale of yesterdays bread of the day to be toasted.  I particularly like this thought as I often wonder how much food is wasted in restaurants and it's really refreshing to see an attempt at using up food which may otherwise be discarded.

We all enjoyed our food thoroughly and will most certainly be back.