Ochiltree's Dining - Scottish Borders

I had an enjoyable meal.and coffee in agreeable surroundings with a pleasant view , in rare Spring Sunshine. Meal was tasty. Parking is 1 for a huge car park near the Visitor Centre and House

This café is within the visitor center building, with a wonderful view of the estate. Great for a light lunch or something a bit more substantial. Try the soup and salad combination...a good sized sandwich, nice bowl of soup, crisps, green salad and coleslaw. Nice staff too.

After very much enjoying visiting the house, we stopped for a bite of lunch. Pricing was reasonable but, the soup portion was rather small and was served with extremely dry and stale rolls. We weren't offered the choice of white or brown, stale white it is. Our dessert choice from the menu was not available and so we left it at that. What was particularly poor show was, whilst waiting at the till to pay, we were totally ignored by the older of the three young girls coming and going behind the counter. Not even an acknowledgement as she walked past us and proceeded with her various transactions, punching information into the till in front of us. There was even a cross-ways glance from one of the other staff. Eventually, a head-up but no apology or smile etc. I get the impression that someone was perhaps called in to work today and clearly didn't want to be there.

Lovely setting but badly let down by poor-quality food. Sandwiches £8-£9) consist of 2 slices of pan loaf the cheapest of white bread) and fillings are on the mean side; a ham sandwich contained perhaps 1.5 small slices of ham. The ‘side salad’ was actually just a small garnish of browning lettuce, a couple of bits of cucumber and a halved cherry tomato. Coleslaw was cheap and vinegary. Hardly local produce. I see another reviewer has left similar comments so clearly this is a long-standing issue. To clarify, we already knew that the menu would be limited owing to staff shortage, so no hot meals, but this does not excuse such poor, cheap food and actually feels somewhat exploitative. Photo attached of the limited menu.

Visited here while at local sights. Gluten free menu excellent and staff very friendly. Despite being busy service was excellent and cafe clean and spacious. Would highly recommend and definitely visit again if in area.cream teas top class