The (somewhat belated) Friday 5 #20 Edinburgh special
Where and what to eat and drink in Edinburgh
Sorry, sorry. I was on track to deliver the Friday 5 - my weekly selection of hot food and drink tips (hot as in topical not the temperature of the comestibles, obviously) - but it all went a bit pear-shaped.
Went to a concert, got distracted by lunch, had to pick up the car, got lost in rural Fife looking for a postcode the satnav didn’t recognise then after driving round in circles for half an hour I eventually had to stay put and let my friend guide me in 🙄 Humiliating.
Anyway I’ve been in Edinburgh for a couple of days hanging out with my son Will. It’s a family tradition we started before lockdown. Will suggested it because he comes up to check out the Edinburgh branch of his restaurant group Hawksmoor and we have a couple of days eating out and doing the Fringe.
The good thing about eating with the boss is that you get to try a bit of everything because he needs - he plausibly claims - to do a quality control check on the menu. We worked our way through most of the seafood including oysters, crab, scampi and lobster, chips and béarnaise (with a bit of steak and a tomato salad on the side). And drank a particularly stunning 2011 Lopez de Heredia rioja rosado which was perfect with the lobster and, somewhat to my surprise, with the steak. (Being over 10 years old it’s no ordinary rosé as you can see from the colour). It’s not cheap, I admit, but it was a pre-birthday dinner.
So where else should you be eating and drinking in Edinburgh and what should you see if you’re there over the next couple of weeks? Not that we even scratched the surface of what is on at the Fringe. (The fringe website is overwhelming. Best to look at the many posters dotted round the city and see what you fancy)