City pizzeria Cheese and Tomatin gets top Tripadvisor rating as it was voted the best restaurant in Inverness
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Cheese and Tomatin was voted the best restaurant in Inverness on the Tripadvisor website this week.
The Stephen’s Brae business originally started out as a mobile operation, with a wood-fired pizza oven in a trailer, in 2016 and they offer a takeaway service.
Owner Tim Allan, who runs the business together with wife Lisa, said that during lockdown they were only doing takeaways, but since reopening it was roughly a 50-50 split with those dining in.
He described the business as an “artisanal pizzeria” which has enough space to accommodate a limited number of diners – with four tables outside and up to 11 people sitting inside.
“We started here in 2018 and we had a decent local following,” he said.
“But we really had our eyes opened during lockdown. More people were using us that hadn’t heard of us before.”
He said there had been a positive reaction from customers, which was reflected by the top Tripadvisor placing.
Mr Allan said there were definitely more people in the city centre now that the lockdown had been eased and added: “If you speak to most bars and restaurants, there was a heavy influx at the start and that was to be expected.”
He said August had been “incredibly busy” and he knew of local guest houses that were fully booked this month.
He said: “We just take it a day at a time.”
Mr Allan felt that people were being sensible by observing the safety precautions, especially with social distancing measures in place.
He said he was cautiously optimistic about the future and he would see what happened before expanding the business.
