Bridge House Cafe

Very nice cafe and attached gift shop. First time ever seeing a menu for dogs. How much fun for pet owners.

Nice place. There's not much to see, but pretty, and the people are friendly

Food, coffee and service always great and super dog friendly. Barkin brunch and dog friendly pancakes always a favourite when we visit.

The Full Scottish Breakfast we had this morning was very nice, very fresh tasting and well cooked. The staff were friendly and there’s a nice atmosphere. We will definitely return the next time we are in Ballater. Highly recommended.

In summary, the worst breakfast I've ever ordered! Overpriced, stingy and luke warm. One egg, one tattie scone, one sausage, one slice of toast and half a raw tomato for ten quid (the photo tells the entire sad story). We both left still feeling hungry, which is the opposite of what you'd have hoped from a cooked breakfast - we ended up stopping at the Bothy in Braemar afterwards as we were still hungry (wish we'd went here for breakfast instead and can highly recommend here as an alternative to Bridge House!!). No beans or mushrooms, and excluding the toast that you'd expect as standard with any breakfast, there were only three and a half items on the plate! A pack of six tattie scones is 90p, box of six eggs £1.50, four pack of veggie lorne sausage is £2.25, six pack of tomatoes 85p and a loaf of bread £1.60 from the supermarket - so one egg, one tattie scone, one sausage, one slice of toast and half a tomato adds up to about £1.22. I know we're in an cost of living crisis but who is suffering from this the most? Certainly not the Bridge House Cafe, and definitely the customer. To top it off, it was luke warm. My friend also had one of their fancy hot chocolates - watery and tasteless. Ultimately, this place is all style and no substance. I, however, cannot fault the waiting staff who were the only saving grace as they were all lovely and this is clearly a management issue (if management say otherwise then it only highlights that management are the issue). You have to order at the till and so we had already paid by the time our food arrived, which is very sneaky of management as I would not have paid for this if I hadn't already! The staff were lovely and we didn't want to further ruin our experience by having to have an uncomfortable conversation with them about the management's decision to offer up such stingy portions for their breakfasts. I actually left feeling ashamed, knowing that so many tourists pass through Ballater and this pathetic breakfast is the impression visitors will have of a "full" veggie Scottish breakfast. Needless to say, we won't be back.

It is vey handy that this cafe is dog friendly. It even has two or three products for dogs to eat ( chicken pancake, ice cream etc).

The menu is a bit limited. It could do with some more options. The side salad is by made of a variety of green leaves, coleslaw and something similar to a cold ratatouille. Sorry to say that this kinda cold ratatouille has aubergines which are too hard to eat as in not well cooked. That’s a no.

Everything else is good.

Lovely cafe! Prices are very reasonable! Nice and clean and food was served quickly! Lovely little shop next door aswell! They do great cakes as well as food and do a lovely kids menu! They even brought out plastic cutlery for the kids!