First review - new Sun Dancer restaurant and bar in Nairn

(Please see UPDATE at end)

The new Sun Dancer restaurant and bar in Nairn finally opened a week ago yesterday (i.e. Sunday 14th August); I do not think it has yet been advertised in any way, certainly it was not in last week's Nairnshire on Tuesday 16th, so it seems to have undertaken what is usually known as a "soft opening". Rumours locally are that it was originally scheduled to open in May, presumably in order to catch the late-Spring and early-Summer trade, but local rumours are that its opening was delayed for various reasons; I will not repeat any of the reasons I heard about though, as this is mere hearsay and the important point, as I see it, is that it has now opened.

I visited with my partner yesterday Sunday 21st August around lunchtime and we had ice cream milkshakes in the ground floor cafe - very nice they were too and the interior is bright, cheerful and modern in feel and the young lady serving us was pleasant and friendly. We asked if we could visit upstairs to see the bar/restaurant and being told "yes" went up to take a look.

It was much more spacious than I imagined it would be (I live close by so have followed its progress over the months). It is well laid out and the tables are not too crowded together. There is a bar area in one corner, with comfortable and quite smart furniture in that part of the floor. The tables and chairs of the main restaurant part are also quite smart and the balcony at the front has some tables and chairs, pleasant for a drink on a nice day or evening. We asked to book a table for the same evening and returned for our meal later with time for pre-dinner drinks.

The staff are friendly and pleasant, although still obviously learning their jobs and getting comfortable with their work environment, drinks and menus, etc. We had a very nice meal indeed, broadly comparable with the two other what I consider decent eateries in Nairn (The Classroom and The Bandstand) and the cost was broadly similar too; the Sunny Brae is lovely too of course, but is rather more refined in many ways than those three (including the Sun Dancer), only being a bit more expensive.

There was a Sunday menu on offer, 2 courses for £15.95, with 3 courses being a few pounds more; there was a small but sufficient range of options for starters, mains and puddings/desserts, although we understand there may be a more extensive menu in due course, but that they are trialling a slighlty more restricted menu, at least at the beginning, not to over-complicate matters. The food as mentioned was pretty good, so this represents good value I think, specially for an evening meal, with drinks (campari/soda, guinness [2 pints in all], a large glass of white and a small glass of red, for the cheese we had for dessert), the total bill was about £66-, rounded up to £71- (for 2 persons) with tip, a bit less than we would normally have added, for the reasons mentioned later in this review.

The table settings are nice (white quality table cloths, decent cutlery and crockery, high quality cloth-like paper napkins) and the dining table seats are quite comfortable and smart. It is obvious considerable care has been taken with designing a very pleasant venue to take full advantage of the lovely views out over the Firth; we had a corner window table just inside the outdoor balcony so the views were excellent, but most tables (even those not directly adjacent to the large windows) will have good views of the Firth.

The only criticism I would have is that the service was very slow and somewhat disjointed, but always pleasant and friendly, although it did require us on several occasions to try and attract the staff's attention after we had been waiting for lengthy periods, both to place our orders and to receive each course, requiring us to query the delays throughout the evening. For example we had to wait 15 minutes after finishing our main course before managing to attract the attention of someone to take our dessert order (the cheese board for both of us, which was excellent when it came, but obviously required no "cooking"), then after 25 minutes of waiting for it to be delivered, we managed to attract the attention of a waitress returning to the kitchen with used crockery from another table, when it was delivered rapidly; probably it had been waiting for delivery to us in the kitchen for some time, I suspect.

Getting the bill took another while, a pattern throughout the whole evening. However, I think this will become a great place to eat in Nairn, assuming they maintain their initial food standards (which are quite high in local terms I'd say), once they become rather slicker in the service area. I put the delays down to the staff still becoming familiar with their roles, so expect and hope this is merely a "teething" problem. I think they have been quite busy during their first week of operation, from what the lady who appeared to be in charge indicated to us, and it was certainly pretty busy on Sunday evening when we were there, so everyone there was flung into the deep end whilst still learning their jobs. We shall certainly visit again in a month or so (rotating it in with the other places already mentioned, which we will undoubtedly visit again in the intervening period), and hope we will have an equally enjoyable meal, but experience somewhat slicker service, once the staff have become more comfortable in their jobs. However, first impressions are that it is a very welcome addition to Nairn's dining scene.

NB/ This review is a slightly more detailed version of one I have already placed in the restaurant's own recently-created Facebook page here.

My aim here, as with all reviews of restaurants and hotels which I add in various places (my own blog or 'social media' or specialised review sites), is to be honest and completely fair. I do not think the Sun Dancer yet has a listing in Tripadvisor, but perhaps that will come in due course.

UPDATE (Sunday 19FEB17 16.50 RST [GMT+1]) A rather tardy comment, but my partner and I, together with a friend, visited the Sun Dancer for a second time on Tuesday 10th January 2017, this time for lunch. The lunch menu offered a reasonable range of choices and all three of us had enjoyable meals, nicely presented. The cost was again pretty reasonable too. Happily, the service on this second visit was much slicker than on our earlier visit, whilst still retaining a friendly atmosphere, without being "over familiar" in any way. The restaurant was fairly busy too, for a Tuesday in the middle of winter, with roughly two thirds of the tables being occupied in the main part of the restaurant (the smaller end part was screened off that day). We again occupied a very nice table by the windows at the front of the restaurant so had excellent views out over the Firth. In summary, I'd say we all three were quite happy with our meal and will certainly return in due course, rotating this newish restaurant with the two or three other pretty good eating places in Nairn.

V for Vendetta - future documentary or fiction?

I had not seen (or indeed heard of) the wonderful film V for Vendetta until yesterday evening when it was shown on BBC3 - I have recorded it and am watching it now whilst recording it onto DVD for my film library. Here's a video-clip of the speech made by 'V' over the hijacked 'British Television Network' near the beginning of the film, where he reveals to the whole nation, and its infuriated dictatorial rulers, what his plans are to bring to an end the dictatorship the country labours (*) under:



It is scarily like what Britain, after 12 years of an increasingly authoritarian Labour government, is in process of becoming. Of course the old canard (i.e. nakedly propagandistic lie) runs through the movie that the authoritarian regime portrayed in it is somehow extreme 'right-wing' (even going so far as to portray the instigator of it as a former member of the Conservative Party), when in fact it has much more in common with real-life extreme 'left-wing' authoritarian regimes of the past - notably the former Soviet Union and even more the National Socialist regime that seventy years years ago ruled Germany. I do not say, or believe, that we in Britain are currently anywhere near reaching the level of authoritarianism portrayed in this film, but the building-blocks to take us there are indeed being put into place by our current Labour government - to mention just a few these include a number of 'enhancements' such as an ever-growing DNA database, a national population database register, ID Cards and massive use of CCTV surveillance (the most extensive of any country in the world). Getting rid of Labour at the next general election is only the first step necessary to put the country back onto a better path - a lot of legislation put in place since 1997 needs to be repealed and we must ensure than whoever forms the incoming government (most likely, on current trends, to be from the Conservative Party) does this and we must use any opportunity between now and the election to cajole and badger them into committing themselves to do so and to fulfill commitments already made in this regard.

(*) - and I use that particular verb quite deliberately.

A review of 'The Uncommon Reader' by Alan Bennett

I received my copy of 'The Uncommon Reader' by Alan Bennett only a couple of days ago and have already devoured it - it's a delightful little book (only 124 pages, those pages somewhere between A6 and A5, using a largish typeface) whose premise is that Her Majesty the Queen has an interest in reading ignited by a freak concatenation of circumstances, which start with some of Her corgis taking an unexpected turn when returning to Buckingham Palace after a walk in the gardens, thus bringing Her into contact with the Westminster Mobile Library which, unbeknown until then to Her, visits the Palace every week. To be polite She borrows a book - and this is the beginning of a whole new phase in the life of Her Majesty, culminating in ... well the punch-line at the very end is very clever and creeps up on you only once the significance of what She has just said sinks in.

Naturally, as it's written by Alan Bennett, the prose is simple, straightforward, mercifully concise and elegant. It's a clever little book that quickly draws the reader in, well worth the few hours it will take most readers to zip through it.

'The Bourne Ultimatum' - a review

I went to see this film on Thursday afternoon. The third episode in the film adaptations of the Robert Ludlum Bourne series of espionage novels, The Bourne Ultimatum is a roller-coaster of action, blood and guts from beginning to end. Jason Bourne is still trying to find out who he is and where he came from and this film, with much [realistically] simulated bloodshed and general mayhem leads him to fulfil his quest. It's every bit as exciting as the first episode, The Bourne Conspiracy, although I'd say the determination to 'thrill' the audience with an almost non-stop series of derring-do and jerky camera effects is so over-the-top it nearly gets in the way. Without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't yet seen it, the ending leaves open the possibility of a fourth episode in due course - no doubt this will utimately depend on an assessment of its bankability and the continuing ability of lead actor, Matt Damon, to appear youthful and convincingly indestructible. I was laughing more or less throughout the movie and I found the whole thing commendably cathartic. If you like mindless escapism (as I do!) then it's worth a couple of hours of your time.

'Second Lives' - radio adaptation review

I've been listening to a radio adaptation (Radio4 9.45am - FM only) every morning this week - there is one more episode tomorrow - of a novel by Tim Guest called Second Lives and have found it a fascinating glimpse into a 'world' I know very little about, even if I've heard of the Second Life eponymous website; apparently there are many other similar websites. In any case I've just ordered a copy through Amazon here. Also available through the RadioTimes website here (main access page here), although it is cheaper at Amazon.

So far this week I've been taken through:
- nine cerebral palsy sufferers inhabiting one body to 'experience a life they could only dream of in the real world' (text from RadioTimes article);
- a trip in a hot air balloon to se what this new life has to offer ( - ibid - );
- as the economies of the virtual world have grown so has the demand for an "online mafia" ( - ibid - );
- with developments in computer technology, the American miltary have adopted the concept of virtual worlds for their own practical purposes ( - ibid - ).

Tomorrow we are promised:
- some of the world's largest corporations are seeing new business opportunities within the online craze, and are keen to establish their presence on the other side of the electronic looking-glass ( - ibid - ).

I have found it so far to be a fascinating, possibly frightening, glimpse into a completely new kind of world and I hope that by getting the book I will be able to understand it all a little bit better. I did look at the Second Life website a few months ago, with a few to setting up a profile for myself there, but so far haven't taken the plunge. I suspect, however, that this kind of thing is not going to go away and may eventually come to have a pretty direct influence on how we all (at least in the richer countires) live our lives; maybe the kind of existence imagined in the Matrix films might eventually come about, even if I hope it won't arise from such malign influences - although the attacks on our own personal freedoms by our own governments in the past few years in the guise of combatting terrorism leave me a lot less than sanguine.