Small, friendly, often-busy cafe in Lochinver. Driftwood Cafe offers a well-priced menu of homemade soups, sandwiches, cakes, good coffee, and even kombucha. We love their veggie haggis and cheese toastie!
Quick Look
Location: Lochinver, Assynt
Type: Café
Best for: Homemade soups, sandwiches, friendly local vibes, vegan and GF options
Dog-friendly: Yes
Parking: Free village parking nearby
Website: Driftwood Café on Facebook
Visited: May 2025 ✅
Our experience
Lochinver is our closest village, and Driftwood Café is probably our most frequently visited lunch spot—which says a lot. We love the friendly atmosphere, the reasonably priced menu, and the fact that the choices are often more interesting than other nearby options.
While we’re not vegan, we really appreciate good vegan food—and Driftwood has hands-down the most creative plant-based options in town (see these positive reviews on happycow.net). There’s almost always a tasty soup on offer (on our last visit: broccoli soup, served with or without stilton), and the menu regularly changes with the seasons.
I’m not huge on cakes, but I always admire their window of homemade bakes and pastries, which seem to be very popular. There are always gluten-free and vegan options available, and they look genuinely tempting.
The cheese and haggis toastie with onion chutney is a standout favourite—proper comfort food after a blustery beach walk or bimble around Culag Woods. Bonus points for their drinks menu, which includes locally made kombucha. They’ve also recently started stocking Picklebox chutneys and pickles, so you can take a little local flavour home with you.
Travel Tips
Driftwood has short opening hours (11am-2:30pm Tues-Sat at time of writing). It can get busy and they don’t take bookings, so better to go earlier we’ve found. Check out other nearby options in our NC500 Food Guide in case you need a back-up!
Gallery
Rhubarb and Blueberry Yoghurt Cake
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