Seafood in plenty and a wee dram of whiskey

Posted by petra08 on February 21, 2012 · 4 Comments 

I spent the last weekend in Edinburgh and it is a bit like a fairy-tale city. I was there with a friend and we spent most of the day on foot just enjoying the atmosphere and on occasion stop for food, drinks and a spot of shopping.

We woke up Saturday to a clear blue sky, it was just beautiful and we couldn’t wait to get outside. There was a fresh breeze but not cold. Like tourists we headed straight to the castle, the views up there are amazing in all directions.

Spring flowers also did what they could to brighten up the day.

It is never far between shops selling tartan scarves, kilts and hats or bagpipers, all adding to a bit of a touristy feeling but in the nicest possible way! It is an unmisstakable sound of Scotland.

Besides spending almost 2 days walking around we also had lovely food. We had some great breakfast at Saint Giles Café, not far from the castle, everything was baked on the day and very fresh.

Bacon roll

Ham and cheese croissant

All washed down with a great latte, the pleasures in life can be so simple!

When we got out from the café we decided to walk a little further but the weather turned in no time, it went from sunny skies to snow, then rain and gale force winds!

It was clearly time to take shelter and what better place than in a cosy pub! There are lots of them and to get warmed up we decided that this was a really good time to drink beer and whiskey. None of us being fans of whiskey at all we took the barman’s expert advice and opted for Glenlossie as he described as “mild enough to drink but with enough flavour not to be boring”. If you are going to start it is a good place.

We didn’t stay all afternoon in the pub, perhaps the new found love for whiskey was not actually love but more like acceptance and we had all those shops to visit as well.

In the evening we went to a great restaurant, Mussels Inn, on Rose Street. Great food, great service, very reasonable priced and a gorgeous portion of mussels! My friend opted for cod wrapped in parma ham, it looked great but I would not have exchanged it for the mussels!

We continued eating fish and seafood throughout the weekend, it was so fresh it was amazing.

After the weekend I continued to Glasgow. I had read about a restaurant called The Red Onion that had brilliant reviews. It did live up to my expectations. The food was light, fresh and full of flavour.

I had a crunchy chicken salad for starter, it was fresh, there was a peanut dressing and a note of chilli, a great starter.

I then decided that what I needed was a perfectly seared rib eye steak with skinny fries and peppercorn sauce, I must say it was delicious!

The simple pleasures in life!

Filed under Beef, Chicken, Cod, Fish & Seafood, Meat, Mussels, Restaurant review · Tagged with mussels, Scotland, Whiskey