The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Thurso, Caithness*

Thurso, Caithness Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• J & J S HORNE (Retail) 20 Olrig Street, THURSO, KW14 7JA Licensed Grocers and Delicatessen Tel: 01847 893349 J & J S HORNE (Retail) West End Stores, Portskerra, Melvich, KW14 7YL Licensed Grocers and Newsagents Tel: 01641 531 219 THURSO KW14 7JA Licensed Grocers and Delicatessen
• sandras, ok(yuk) robins, greasy, chinese, ok. i personlly dont like chinese food, but i have been told by others who do like it, that it is lovly!!!
• Viking Bowl - prices pretty good and food edible, don't expect to get served in a hurry though. The waiting staff believe in making you wait. St.Clair - prices look reasonable 'till you see the size of the helpings. Is edible though. Quick , friendly service. Park Hotel - Over-priced and not very good. Staff reasonably efficient.(boy, those waistcoats are awful) Weigh Inn - hmm.. nice building, nice layout, ok atmosphere. Staff ok.. Prices a bit steep. Watch out for the steak, at least they said it was steak.. I personally thought it was the sole of someone boot. No, that would have been easier to cut and chew.
• Next door to Sandra's Snack bar...good food nice people...Chinese takaway....also a good place is again a Chinese takaway and also a restaurant it is the Old place next to the old Post Office...(lots of old stuff in Thurso)...people call it un-spoilt it is realy know as little progress.
• Le Bistro once again. Spent a lot of time in here during the summer holidays. Imaginative, fresh, tasty food, friendly efficient waitresses - what more could you ask? Free food??? Just get someone else to pay!
• Go to Bews the butcher for excellent meat and grocerys and the crack with Hugh. The best in town!!
• Worst chips in Caithness can be had at Sandra's
• Not the St. Clair - food has gone well down-hill! Le Bistro is pretty good.
• Robins - Best Chip shop on the Planet.
• Hi there, my parents have recently acquired a chinese restaurant in Thurso and I thought it was maybe worth mentioning in your guide, which I found very informative, I'll be going up there next month and I am really looking forward to seeing Thurso face to face!! Thanks, Lisa
• The ONLY place to go to buy a fillet steak is Bews Butchers where there is a bit of a laugh from the butchers, friendly service and brilliant food!
• Cardosi's - not redecorated since rationing ended Iqbal's Indian resteraunt brought some much needed ethnic colour to the place - now sadly closed along with the single Chinese takeaway
• Le Bistro has apparently gone down hill this year - due to tourists, I believe. Portions have got smaller and food not so good. Will it get back to its excellence after the tourists bugger off? We can only hope so.
• A new place, the beastro, has opened on Traill St across from Cardosis.
• A new Bistro has opened in town and is very good.
• Not bad restaurants if you're after bar meals. A few place do more up-market menus, but all suffer from a great fear of the clock, and close early enough for it to be annoying when you are a tourist and arrive at 9.10pm only to find that you can't get a sit down meal. Unles you are there in July, you will find whole villages shut.
• Big Prestos on the outskirts and the disgusting Co-op ssslaap bang in the centre.

Pubs

• park, best place to find good beer and fab gossip
• the comm is the best pub ever it is at the end of the main street opposite the bank
• the comm
• the Com ! old mans bar but WE ALL LOVE THE COM NOW DONT WE?! Newmarket is aight...skins...halburn too i guess
• The Comm is the place to be the crack is brill and Trish pulls a ace pint
• Newmarket without a doubt. Holborn is ok but not what it used to be - Central is a dive
• H'BLOCK!!!!!!!!(HOLBORN) GOOD 4 A WILD SESH AND A RUCUSS
• Fuck that these cunts serve underagers I won`t mince words - Holburn.
• The comm is quite good, do alot of drinking in the the central, have been knowen to get a few free drams from the cool workers in the bar
• Top Joes, Newmarket, Royal, Central or Comm. Viking bowl is dead, rest are shit.
• Best pub used to be the Station. Still has great food but they destroyed probably the best bar north of Inverness to please a few tourists. very very sad what was done to it but that is progress. Still serves crappy Tennants beer
• top joes dont go there?"!?
• The Comm Bar in Thurso is the place to get the crack well run by Dougie & His Family.Keep up the good work
• Don't go to the Station Hotel unless you're over 70! They have gutted out the lovely old bar and sold the mirrors and ruined the atmosphere which made it a great place to drink! The local's are avoiding it like the plague, so steer well clear. "We no longer have a pub, only a lounge bar" is a direct quote from the management!!!!!
• There are 5 main pubs in thurso's centre, make up your mind where u want to go using the following guide: If you are partial to a wrestle then you might want to try the holborn, just accuse one of the locals of staring at you and the next thing you'll find yourself in caithness general(which is 20 miles away).If you like to eat very small white biscuits with your drink then the newmarket and the holborn should be to your taste. If you like to meet men and get rather friendly with them you might want to check out top joes its full of men who are partial to a spot of uphill gardening. If you like either being hit on or just hit by either farmers or oap drunks then the comm is your place. And finally if you like trying it on with FRESH FACED girls then your place is the central.
• the best pub to go till in Thurso is the Holburn all round good crack none of the wasters you see in other places (newmarket) everyone is welcome laid back people great laugh
• POPEYES ON A SUNDAY (ONLY IF YOUVE GOT A WEEK BOOKED OF WORK FOR THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS ITS DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH
• the holborn is blatantly the best in thurso as every other pub is full of buftys(central,topjoes) or druggies(newmarket,even though i quite like it) and its like cheers sometimes you wanna go wher everybody knows your name
• The Holborn Pub is the greatest thing ever to hit Caithness! Pure 100% banter. Also you get the College horse riding sluts going in there which means cheap whores on tap
• All dives,especially the Holborn,run by a man that looks like he should try running a bath instead. Went in 3 times,same man,same shirt,same dishevelled look.Newmarket good for its range of herbs on sale.
• The Commercial and Sheiling Bars. Many a long day and early morning spent in there. Excellent crack with George running a tight ship...NO DRUGGIES. Very found memories and sore heids.
• holbourn-fresh faced aint the word!!.pub is older than the hills and showing it.the less said about it the better!!!!!!! newmarket-all you see is the PURPLE HAZE comm-good all rounder the grove aka the beaks-old men r us the viking bowl/all star factory-good clean bar HOT BAR STAFF (NEIL)GRRR.9.00pm the best time.then down e street. central/top joes-heaving at the weekend very sore getting trampled on.
• Well, personally I find that all drinkers in Thurso are not allowed to do anything against the norm of flock. Although a few drinkings holes appear to nice, if you do not drink Vodka and coke you do not fit in. Also seeing 14 - 16 year old girls looking like hookers is far from being a turn on! So after careful consideration; should you want to drink in Thurso, go to the Legion! I've been going for 20 years now, still not a problem, hoorah!
• The central and Top Joes by Sutherlands Pharmacy. My sister says it is great.
• The Holborn....if you have a lot of aggression, go there and burst someone
• Central Hotel - Brilliant pub food Top Joes Bar - Busiest bar in town Holburn Hotel - A good laugh, best visited after a few drinks
• huh, well the holburn, comm, new market and practilly the whole of thurso pubs attract FRESH FASED PEOPLE(wink wink)
• Stay away from the Newmarket Bar - dodgy booze, dodgy barstaff, dodgy owner
• Don't bother wasting yer hard earned cash in the Newmarket folks unless you like being served by Soor-Faced barstaff and sitting with underagers. Its a cross between a Cheap Whore-house and a Daily Record factory (wallpaper)....Should be frequented by the local drugs squad rather than folk wanting a decent pint of 80-/...Top Joes is a friendly place as is the Comm and Popeyes in Scrabster, Holborn is okay too.
• the NEWMARKET BAR is the place to go in thurso,it has the friendliest bar staff, the best music and parties (hallowene party just past was leathal!!!) 35ml nips, all your best beers and lagers on draught and its mobbed all weekend every weekend, what more can i say, no other pub in thurso is even worth a look in the NEWMARKET BAR is deffinately the best, cheers isla!!
• Bring back the MoonShine. Now that was a good pub.
• if you go to the park on a night friday will see a piss young walter mann now that entertaiment
• why does nobody else like top joes? it's the only place you can have a pint and read the paper in peace? and if you stay there all day you can have three square meals, get blootered and still have enough money to take a taxi up to the glebe to get yourself a prostitute. crap jukebox though.
• No pubs in Thurso realy just bars and hotels....not like it is doon thr south.. Royal, Comm Bar....thats it rewaly in Thurso....apart from our own muilti complex...The Viking up in Ormlie...(same place as the new picture house) nice bar a bit too crouded at the weekends but nice all the same.
• Top Joes has just become the first gay bar in town. Go to the Holborn on a saturday night and you will see a real life sumo wrestler on the door called walter
• Feel like an OAP in the Central. No surprise that they provide a nappy changing facility in the ladies' loo - some of the customers look as though they're still in the process of potty-training (and I don't mean the bairns brought in by parents during the day).
• Early openning down at Srabster Harbour in Popeye's 9:00am and the measures are 35ml instead of the usual 25ml. A serious drinking venue! Early opening in town-The Grove also 9:00
• Go to Top Joes for the crack, it's excellent. The drink is cheap, it's not full of 14 year olds (the Newmarket) and you can watch your old school mates trying to strike up a conversation with someone they can't remember at all. Also, if you stay to the end you can hear the barmaid shouting "Drink up and go away to Skinandis, or wherever the f*** it is you're going!" I love it. Better than any night out in Edinburgh.
• The best pub in Thurso is the Holborn.I have to say that as my mate owns it,great for a lock in wae "Big Clair" after Skinandi's.
• The newly done up Station is worth a visit. It's amazing what a little time and effort can do to a place!! New owners Stan and Pam have done wonders and the food is probably the best in town!
• It has to be the Newmarket, although the Com is pretty cool too!
• Of all the times i have visited Thurso, I always go the Holborn. It is definately the best pub in Thurso. The staff are friendly and the atmoshere is good. If you're ever in Thurso got ther for a drink!!!
• Week Nights - Central. Saturday - Viking bowl 9.00pm, Top Joes 10.30, Central 10.45 (Take your pint up from Top Joes) Stay until 12.30 then over to Skins!
• Ah yes, the common weakness of the average Caithness dweller. You spend your formative years being fit and healthy until you reach about 14, when you discover the joys of "Special VAT" cider at a School Disco. This seemingly irrelevant moment changes the rest of your life. From the moment the alchoholic apple juice passes your lips, you will be sentenced to a life long addiction. Pubs in Thurso serve the following drinks. Vodka and Coke, Tennents Special and Becks. No-one drinks anything else as that would mean being different. (A strict no no)
• Watch Sid's immaculate pick-up technique in Top Joes - anything over 16 and under 20 is fair game to this Caithness Casanova.
• NEWMARKET BAR Now run by isla mackay and is by far the best bar in thurso.you are guarenteed the best beer and music in town
• newmarket bar the best bar in thurso music & entertainment,TOP JOES is a bar which is now to be avoided as it is frequented by bufftys & wasters
• They are all awful. Cheap, though.
• Comm, Top Joes, Newmarket, Holburn (in that order) and then on to Skinandis (it is essential that you are extremely drunk by this stage).
• Holburn. The Ideal Place For Saturday Fight Night (Evernight) - No Nead To Pay Entertainment FREE !!!
• On numerous visits to the watering holes in Thurso it is noted that the best are..... THE CENTRAL TOP JOES THE ROYAL THE VIKINK BOWL... Avoid the one called the HOLBORN
• Top Joe's Bar has the best selection of draft beer
• Good for a laugh if you're visiting. Each pub has its own wee gang of wide boy regulars. The Top Joes regulars wear a baggy shorts and polo shirt uniform and are worshippers of Big Bowg, the God of Beerbellies.
• New Market, Coral, Commercial,Upperdeck,Sinclair, BrigdeEnd(now defuct),Royal,Pentland,Skinadis.
• There is only one pub worth going to in Thurso that is - Top Joes. If you go to Thurso go in here on a Friday or Saturday night at about ten it's packed as all other pubs in Thurso are sad.

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Any are OK....but avoid bad greasy rotten food Sandra's Snack bar...over priced and dirty...and we will not go down that road..Robins are not too bad ..had a lot better...just avoid his chips.
• Le Bistro is excellent for a relaxing cup of coffee or tea and some home made cakes, after an exhausting trip round Thurso's miniscule shopping precinct.
• Central Cafe: get a coffee, a window seat and watch "the bench" - a rare treat. You can also see all the cars going "round the block".
• Le Bistro for afternoon coffee with a fruit scone and cream!
• Dont be silly, get to the pub!!
• Sandra's Snack bar and Take Away - Cheap Good Food - Good Selection From Around The World - Place Is Run By A Guy that Looks Like SUPER MARIO. Family Run Business Good Strong Coffee

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Last updated: 2008-06-11