About Flavour
The beginning 2016
Flavour is a concept that we (Chris & Nicola Loye, husband & wife team) designed whilst travelling around the world. It began relaxing on the beaches of Australia and continued while sipping tea in the tea fields of India, drinking fresh coconuts in Thailand and watching sunsets in Colombia. Flavour combines a love of food from countries all over the world. We spent 4 years on the road travelling to more than 30 countries dreaming of living permanently by the beach. Never in our wildest dreams did we believe that we would be lucky enough to find our perfect settling place in our home country of Scotland. However, we stumbled across the breath-taking Isle of Harris. We instantly decided to set up home here and the idea of Flavour was born.
The middle 2016 – 2021
We started out by doing pop-up restaurants in our home and serving 6course Hebridean fusion meals. We then moved to community centres and private dinners in self-catering accommodation whilst we were on the look out for something more permanent. In the winter months we continued traveling and business research by visiting chocolate farms in South & Central America, spice markets Southeast Asia and sampled many cuisines from the humble falafel in the streets of Cairo to Peking duck in fine dining restaurants of Beijing. We’ve now made it to over 50 countries together and ticked of our bucket list of seeing the 7 new wonders of the world as well as the only remaining standing one of the ancient wonders.
In 2020 during the pandemic, we managed to secure the lease for our restaurant via the North Harris Trust. We got the keys in October 2020 and started our plans, Chris done most of the labour on his own including the kitchen planning, design and installation. It was extremely difficult sourcing all the supplies and equipment without being able to go to shops everything was done online. We rose to the challenge and made it happen – Our restaurant was open in June 2021 when locked down restrictions eased offering our interactive dining experience.
Present 2022
We offer an 8-course interactive dining experience for 20 covers four evenings during the season. What is interactive dining? Chris will take you on a culinary journey as he lovingly describes how he has sourced, grown, prepared, cooked and presented each dish as he guides you through his tasting menu.
Within our unique setting every table is a “chef’s table” as you dine in the kitchen. giving you the opportunity to see the meal being plated up live in front of you and interact with Chris and the team throughout the evening who will happily answer any questions about cooking techniques and our wonderful island produce. Our aim is to train young islanders in the industry, work with other local businesses and to source fresh sustainable ingredients to serve to our customers.
Chris has also recently been appointed the regional food tourism ambassador for the Outer Hebrides and is working alongside some great people and projects to showcase our islands and Scotland wonderful produce.
The Future.
Our aim for the restaurant is to always to do a better service than the one before and have fun along the way. Our dream is to gain Michelin awards.