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Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
A Cheat Sheet For Where To Eat During The Edinburgh Fringe Festival
From refined tasting menus to relaxed alfresco spots and specialist whisky bars, this guide is designed to suit a range of budgets and Fringe schedules. getty Next month, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe will begin, bringing over 3,000 shows to 265 venues in the Scottish capital. With so many visitors expected in the city, here's a cheat sheet for finding some of the best places to eat and drink during the event. From refined tasting menus to relaxed alfresco spots and specialist whisky bars, it's designed to suit a range of budgets and Fringe schedules. Best for: tasting menu experience Near: Edinburgh Playhouse, Assembly Rooms, and The Royal Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle Located in The Balmoral Hotel at 1 Princes Street, Number One is a fine dining restaurant offering seasonal tasting menus rooted in Scottish produce. With four AA Rosettes and recognition from the Michelin Guide and La Liste, the kitchen is led by chef Mathew Sherry, known for his precise, produce-driven cooking. Menus feature ingredients from small-scale farms and suppliers across the UK. Diners can choose between booking a seven-course tasting menu or a three-course menu. The wine list, curated by head sommelier Callum McCann, spans over 350 labels and includes rare vintages. No visit to Number One is complete without a visit from 'the sweetie trolley' to the table. The dark wood trolley with a large glass dome holds a selection of nostalgic sweet treats reimagined by chef de cuisine Mathew Sherry, such as sea buckthorn meringue tarts, tablet and Macallan whisky chocolates to enjoy with a final digestif or boxed to take home. SCOTCH at The Balmoral Best for: a Dram Near: The Stand, Pleasance Courtyard, St Andrew Square venues Tucked inside The Balmoral Hotel, you'll also find SCOTCH, one of Edinburgh's most atmospheric whisky bars, home to over 500 varieties from big-name single malts to rare, limited editions. Settle in on one of the tweed sofas while kilted Whisky Ambassadors offer personalized recommendations or guide you through a tailored tasting, complete with stories and expert insight. Pomelo Best for: adventurous Asian cuisine Near: Summerhall, George Square, Bristo Square, Queen's Hall Pomelo is an adventurous Asian eatery located in Marchmont, run by multi-award-winning chef-owner, Jun Au. The cafe's reputation for its hand-ripped noodles has attracted long queues of customers since it launched in 2021. Hand-ripped noodles at Pomelo. Christina Leahy By 2023, Pomelo's success prompted a move to a larger 24-cover location, which now offers lunch from Wednesday to Saturday, a family-style dinner with a menu designed for sharing on Fridays and Saturdays, and an Asian 'brunch' on Sundays. Harajuku Kitchen Best for: Street food Near: Summerhall Edinburgh festival-goers can enjoy authentic Japanese street food this August as Harajuku Kitchen sets up shop across multiple city locations during the Fringe. The popular Japanese eatery will be serving their signature handmade gyozas and traditional udon noodles at The Pleasance throughout the festival, alongside appearances at Edinburgh Street Food, Grassmarket Market, and Stockbridge Market. Visitors can also try the Harajuku Bistro in Bruntsfield that serves comforting dishes using recipes passed down to chef-owner Kaori Simpson from her mother. Diners can expect to see everything from kaarage chicken to rich, warming noodle broths, using fresh Scottish produce. The Mussel & Steak Bar Best for: extraordinary value and high quality surf and turf in the city Near: Underbelly Cowgate, Pleasance Courtyard In the heart of Edinburgh's old town, The Mussel and Steak Bar at the bottom of Victoria Street has become a must-visit restaurant for visitors to the city and locals since opening in 2005. The Mussel and Steak Bar at the bottom of Victoria Street has become a must visit restaurant for visitors to the city and locals since opening in 2005. Dana Malcolm Owner Marshall Milne was inspired by the quality of Scottish produce when he opened the restaurant and works closely with a network of Scottish farmers and fishermen locally and across Scotland. A prime city centre location over two floors, the restaurant interiors invoke the sea with a pebble beach mosaic and turquoise accents throughout. Moss Best for: Scottish farm to table with a difference Near: Stockbridge Church, Stockbridge Ceramics Chef Henry Dobson trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School and has traveled extensively to hone his craft before opening Moss, an intimate 26-seat restaurant with a bold, sustainable vision. He and head chef Dylan Pinder work exclusively with Scottish ingredients for their menu, with produce from Dobson's family farm in Angus and a network of sustainable growers and farmers across Scotland. Expect inventive, hyper-local dishes like bone marrow focaccia, duck smoked over table-shaving wood, and wild sorrel ceviche. The British only drinks list is just as unique, featuring English natural wines, house kombuchas, and roasted barley tea. Toscano Best for: authentic Italian sandwiches eaten on the move Near: George Square, Underbelly's Circus Hub, The Meadows This family-run schiacciateria is a must-visit in Edinburgh and only opened in March of this year. It specializes in schiacciata, pronounced 'skee-ya-cha-ta', a Tuscan style squashed focaccia sandwich brimming with Italian cheeses, meats and spreads. Each sandwich on the menu is named after an Italian destination, like the Gambassi with porchetta, caramelized onions, roast potato spread and grilled peppers or the Arezzo with mortadella, provola affumicata (smoked provola cheese), truffle and olives spread.
Scotsman
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
I tried the £99 dinner at this luxury five-star Scottish hotel and was utterly spoiled rotten
This hotel has still got it, Michelin star or not Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... £99 doesn't get you very far these days. Contributed You could probably book a haircut, along with a fraction of highlights. Well, at least the two streaks at the front, a la Geri Halliwell in the Spice Girls' hey-day. Perhaps the left foot on a new pair of the latest New Balance, or a direct flight to Riga. No return. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I know where I'd rather spend that amount of cash. Here, at Number One at The Balmoral. As well as their set seven-course £125pp dinner tasting menu, they're currently offering a seasonal three-course a la carte for £99pp, and you can add paired wines for an additional £50. It may not have a Michelin star anymore, but who cares? Not me. They still have four AA rosettes. At 28-years-old, which is about 246 in Edinburgh restaurant years, this basement level destination is still as fine-dining an establishment as ever, with head chef Mathew Sherry at the helm, though the food is marginally less fussy than it used to be. I'm a fan because a visit is always an old-school spoiling session. The interior is cossetingly swanky, and the staff are wonderful. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In an age when joggers are classed as office attire, a visit is an excuse to dress up. Since the website asks guests to refrain from wearing sportswear, shorts and beach shoes, I left my signature Crocs and neon leotard at home and aired a musty frock. It felt like it was my birthday, but better, since there were no actual numbers involved. There is also no sense of being hurried. The three courses are book-ended by lingering loveliness, starting with the amuse bouche. We had a pair of two Cullen-skink-themed croustades, which were haddocky and plush mouthfuls, plus two rich duck liver and pistachio bites on buttery cups of shortcrust. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Then we were presented with a guinea-pig-sized loaf of flour-dusted linseed sourdough, with a perfect glossy globe of butter on the side. For starters, I'd gone for the west coast langoustine, Denhead Farm asparagus, coral hollandaise (£15 supplement), and the plate was an Irish flag vision of green and orange hues. There was also a single spear of asparagus, all dressed up with tiny fronds of dill and flowers, like Millais's painting of Ophelia. The plate also featured three large nuggets of seafood, and two veloutes - a coral Hollandaise and a charred asparagus number He'd gone for another seaside gem - the hand-dived scallop, which was cut into four fishy and pearlescent doorstopper slices, with artichoke crisps, a roast chicken vin jaune and little leaves of sea beet. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gaby Soutar Mr Double Fish followed that up with the Shetland halibut. It had also been sliced into two pale palm-sized pads, alongside a courgette and halibut veloute, a crispy whole artichoke, and a quenelle of red pepper marmalade. For my main course, I had the equally gorgeous Cullinan Farm lamb option. There were pieces of short saddle, and almost everything else on the plate - apart from the jus, the triangle of potato fondant, and shallot puree - was a fragrant celebration of wild garlic, with intense blobs, cooked leaves and a dark green jam. It was like walking up Castlehill in spring. I'd pre-ordered my Maracaibo 65% chocolate souffle, so there wasn't the usual lengthy sojourn before it arrived. Still, when it landed, I was ready and could've happily face-planted and inhaled the whole breezily light bubble-bath-esque celebration of cocoa in one nostril-tickling slurp. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gaby Soutar He'd gone for the rhubarb number, with its riff on this vegetable - it's not a fruit, guys - and custardy cremeaux accoutrements, 'My dream dessert,' he said. And it wasn't over. We're usually the first to tap out, as I think our appetites are becoming bird-like. We often don't even make it to puddling. But I think we wanted to stretch the evening out, so I could enjoy being in this room, wearing my smart frock and feeling like a blow-dried chinchilla. Thus, we said aye to the cheese course. Three for £15, and, since he doesn't like blue or goats, we chose St Andrews Farmhouse Cheddar; ewe's milk cheese, Spenwood, and our favourite earthy and creamy Winslade. They came with poppy seed crackers, mini oatcakes, truffle honey and a facemask-esque cucumber jelly. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We tanked the lot, though when they brought round the sweetie trolley - every restaurant should have one - our hulls were groaning like old cargo ships. Thankfully, they let us take away an After Eight macaron, some whisky tablet, and other bonnie bites. It's been a long time since I've felt this spoiled. Go, and a very happy birthday. The ones without any numbers are the best.
