Q: It's back up to the sexy five stars after my most recent lunch here. When a friend asked for my recommendation on where to get lunch, and knowing said friend is perhaps more of a fine food aficionado than I am (a hard thing to do) I did proffer several suggestions of my favourite lighter eateries in the area. But The Outsider came up trumps, despite that their menu isn't available to peruse beforehand online, as their menu is seasonal fresh, and ever-changing. We arrived at 12.30pm and it was almost empty. By 12.45pm it was full. Luckily, as we hadn't booked. But my advice would be to book or arrive early! Read my earlier reviews for a description of the atmosphere and setting, but it's basically very lovely, modern, stylish, warm and wooden with beautiful views over the chimney-topped Old Town and Castle, but as Anna F has said despite it's style it still has substance. I do like their CHL (Chunky Healthy Lines) which are grilled skewers but it took me a good 10 minues to decide what to have. The waiter was very bouncy, friendly and good-humoured after he asked us for the third time if we were ready to order. Torn between the lamb burger with an intriguing sounding rhubarb and ginger chutney, the sea bass, the bream salad with quails eggs, and the chicken I opten for the CHL spiced lamb meatballs that are served with a pitta and coleslaw. My friend had the CHL haloumi and vegetable. And oh, what lamb meatballs they were. Ironically we had just been discussing lamb, and vegetarian diets, and I had explained as much as I love animals...I love lamb (nom nom, not pet pet). This lamb had SO much flavour. I had also asked for a side pot of the rhubarb chutney, rather cheekily, and they were more than happy to oblige. I couldn't actually taste the chutney with the lamb as that beautiful lamb meaty flavour was so overwhelming. But alone, or with some potatoes, the chtuney was also very unique and different. I've never had rhubarb in a savoury dish before, despite that is is a vegetable. It's this sort of quirky, never-tried-before, nature of The Outsider menu that I like. The portion size was very hearty too (or Chunky as they describe it). Five huge meatballs, new potatoes, cherry tomatoes and spring onions, on a bed of salad. And a really kick-start coffee to follow. Pleasant surroundings, very pleasant conversation, a super pleasant waiter who had a 'thing' about saying 'baawwwwwllls' in a funny accent whenever he took my order and served my meal. It made me laugh. For really lovely, fresh, seasonal and Scottish food in a very trendy, stylish yet not too pretentious restaurant, slap-bang in the middle of the Old Town, head in to The Outsider.

A: positive

Q: It was a night where the BF and I talked of Scandia and wanted to mini golf and decided to give this a shot. I like that everything is glow in the dark, but it was kinda meh. Small and it was crowded with kids and we had a big group in front of us and impatient jackasses behind us who don't play right- we actually take our proper turns and keep score so we jumped ahead and came back to holes when they were empty. Kinda think that will be a one time visit. Instead of building a second location (on Lake Mead Blvd by Whole Foods), they would've done good with an expansion. The small course made it not worth the price and definitely not worth coming back. We can't wait to go to Scandia in Cali again. WHY THE HELL did they ever close the one here in the first place??!!!! REBUILD REBUILD!!!!

A: negative

Q: The AC was enough to cool off the room and it was "operating fine" the handset on the phone didn't work either. It took 45 mins to check in, and very impersonal. No fridge in room, staff coming in room multiple times even with do not disturb sign on door handle. 1980's carpet smells horrible. Pool side snack bar didn't open until 1130. 2 star hotel IMO

A: negative

Q: I really really want to give this place more than 2 stars because I have been to other locations and liked them quite a bit. And truthfully the food was quite good. However the service was severely, SEVERELY lacking. Positives: Like I said, food was good. Drinks were brought promptly, etc. etc. Negatives: Our waitress. She said she was new, so maybe the blame should ultimately be placed on the management for lack of adequate training. First off, we had a table of 7 and she said for tables of 8 or more they don't do separate checks. So when we repeated that we only had 7 at our table, she still gave us attitude about having to split checks. I know it's a pain in the butt but no one in our party had cash.... Then she forgot a few of our drinks. They were brought promptly but when you forget a few, and also forget the waters we ordered and never come back to check on us again until you bring our food out, we may have a problem. So 2 people we were with went about 20 minutes without drinks while the rest of us were sipping our beer and wine (and missing our waters.) When we went to order our food, a guy we were with asked what came on his sandwich and she replied "well you can read can't you?" Um. Ok. Then our food came out. We ate it, liked it, and then sat there for about a half hour after we had all finished eating. We were upstairs and there was almost nobody else up there so I'm not sure why it took so long for her to come back and pick up our plates (or ask us if we wanted more drinks?) She finally came back and we asked for the checks, she brought them and we paid. And then sat there again for about a half hour. At this point we were all super frustrated. It took a bartender to realize how long we'd been sitting there and he finally came and took care of our checks. UGH. All in all, I love there food and that they cater so well to us gluten free folk. But I probably won't be back to this location for a while.

A:
negative