The Islay Hotel

We had three nights here and the contents of this review have been shared in face-to-face discussions with the manager who was friendly and professional. The front-of-house staff are of the highest calibre I have encountered. There is always a risk of naming individuals for fear of forgetting individuals but Ishbel, Ciara and Orla should all take a bow. Congratulations and thank you. There are hotels that crave for staff of your friendly and professional approach and in so many ways you made our stay. Thank you. Our room (N0 12) was comfortable and spacious, well equipped and nicely furnished. The housekeeping staff are all equally worthy of high praise; our room was spotless and always very well serviced. Very high standards of hospitality indeed. From these 'highs', the kitchen, sadly, is a different story. Without penning a litany of failings, suffice to say that if a chef fails to turn up for work in time for the breakfast sitting then its time to part ways! We had one evening meal, on the first night of our stay and elected to eat elsewhere for the remaining nights. Our understanding is that the owners, Argbeg Distillery, are closing the hotel for a refurbishment, therefore some of the key parts of this review may become irrelevant. What I very much hope Ardbeg do during this hiatus, is save and look after the very good, passionate and customer focussed staff we met. They are a treasure, and deserve the best care and attention.

Hotel was very well presented, decorated and in a perfect location for ferry arrivals and the three distilleries walk. Room was just enough space but what let this down was the lack of consideration taken with our milk allergy, which was particularly worrying.

The Islay hotel is now owned by Ardbeg and you can tell Ardbeg influence all over. The dinner menu has lots of dish using Ardbeg whiskies for sauces. I thoroughly enjoyed the Islay venison pie with Ardbeg 19yr whisky sauce. The breakfast was amazing. We got to chose anything from the menu and quality and presentation of the food was excellent. It was like 5-star hotel quality. I would definitely recommend this hotel and we are now excited to visit and join Ardbeg tasting tour today !!!

The room was spacious & comfortable and the shower worked well. The food was excellent at breakfast & dinner in the hotel dining room. Best of all we’re the friendly & helpful staff. One of us had a bad cold & stayed in our room for 3 days &nites to try to recover & not spread the cold. The staff brought up meals & helped us however they could. They made us feel very welcome.

Dropped in for dinner after harrowing trip on Scottish roads to have one of best meals of our trip accompanied by a great French wine. The only way it could have got better is if the host was convivial and helpful and then we found out he was.

As we walked around Port Ellen with our dogs looking for somewhere to grab a coffee, we came across this hotel, Emily served us in the bar area and was great. The coffee and cakes were great and she was very helpful when it came to looking for dog friendly places to eat and drink. Thank you Emily

Stayed at the Islay Hotel for three nights in June. Room was super clean and outfitted with vintage furniture. Breakfasts and Dinners were outstanding - definitely get the oysters! Excellent wine selection. Nigel and staff were welcoming and helpful. The Three Distilleries Path (Laphroig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg) is beautiful and starts just a couple blocks from the hotel. Highly recommended!

We'd been recommended the restaurant by friends who had been to Islay previously. It sadly did not live up to their recommendation. The hotel itself is beautiful but they won't serve non-residents apart from in the bar even though the restaurant has a lot of tables, so we had to do with a wobbly and small bar table for our group. There's no whisky menu and the whisky on selection felt very over priced when compared to other establishments in Port Ellen, vegetarian/vegan options are extremely limited with a very meat/fish focused menu, long wait times on food/ordering even when the establishment isn't full. There were a few good staff members who tried to mitigate the issues like the lovely pregnant lady who was running around all night looking after us all and the rest of the bar/restaurant, however the majority of staff were more interested in their phones or gossiping together whilst claiming they were short staffed. The food itself was good but wasn't worth the price or the wait to get it, even a simple bowl of ice cream took a ridiculous amount of time to reach the table. I'd personally recommend the restaurant Seasalt if visiting Port Ellen, you can book, the food comes out quickly and even though they have less staff than the Islay they manage to do take away and restaurant very effectively.