Eating Edinburgh

It’s hard to fault the place, apart from my pork being a little tough, the menu is exciting, fresh and well priced, the staff friendly and the decor is ‘on brand’! The bathrooms are lovely, great touches such as good quality paper towels in an old wine box and nice soap all add to the ambience. I’d definitely like to go back one evening so that I could also indulge from the wine menu. On the whole great place for a business lunch or an evening á deux.

The mains were lamb for AVM and Strawberry Blonde chose guinea fowl and promptly declared that there was nothing foul about her dish with skinny fries to share. For some time all you could hear were contented snufflings (piglets ‘snuffle’! #justsaying, Ed) as AVM and Strawberry Blonde ate their way to game heaven.
We shared a cheese platter which contained a selection of French cheeses with AVM making inroads into her favourite blue.

Although still a fairly recent addition to the Edinburgh restaurant scene Xiangbala Hotpot is clearly a winner with the local Chinese community. The decor is bright, think Chinese meets Euro-pop for the music, the staff are friendly and helpful and the experience is one I would highly recommend if you’re looking for a really different dining experience, I would however suggest you take along a strong constitution, and your own wine!

All for the sake of the blog, (who am I trying to kid? we were making the most out of the opportunity!) we did manage to cover off almost half of the menu and I certainly wouldn’t have any hesitation going back and trying the rest of it. There were a lot of lovely touches and the staff were great but I especially loved the cleverly thought out seasonal menu. The prices are in line with city centre standards but the 2 for 1 offer makes it exceptionally good value. True, it didn’t cost us anything and they knew we were going to be there to review it but to be fair everyone else seemed to be enjoying their lunches just as much! Would I put my hand in my own pocket and return? Without doubt although I wouldn’t perhaps be so greedy!

All in all it was a very enjoyable lunch in a well appointed and comfortable venue. I had completely forgotten I was in an education establishment until I went to the bathroom which was across the corridor outside of the restaurant and bar area. The service was quietly polite and apart from a couple minor details (missing soup spoons when starters arrived) these relatively new first year students did themselves proud. There is also an outdoor dining terrace which I imagine would be delightful on a warmer/sunnier day.

I had been wanting to visit Empires, a lovely looking Turkish Restaurant in the Old Town for ages as it has often been recommended to me. Strawberry Blonde had just flown back from her holidays so it seemed like an ideal place to go for a jolly good catch up. Luckily I had taken a […]

Last night, ‘Strawberry Blonde’ & I decided to dine at Santini’s in Conference Square to research my inaugural Eating Edinburgh blog post. I have to confess I have eaten there before, and not that long ago, but it is very close to my gym and rather handy. For those that haven’t come across Santini’s before, […]