Edinburgh and Dublin Restaurants
Mar 23rd, 2012, 07:45 AM
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Edinburgh and Dublin Restaurants
We have been traveling independently for 40 years and have been to Europe many times but not Edinbugh and Dublin. We are curious as to what expect from the restaurants in those cities.
We live in NYC and there is no Scottish restaurants and even though there are scores of Irish pubs they usually serve burgers, shepherd's pie, and that traditional Celtic dish Cajun blackened cat fish. What typifies Irish and Scottish cuisine?
Often we eat inexpensively and then splurge on one meal. Also we like to buy foods as we walk around the city and have a little feast for diner in our hotel room.
Can you please make some recommendations that are inexpenisve to midline?
Besides Scottish and Irish food is there any ethnic restaurants that would recommned?
Are there any markets in particular you can recommned?
Thank you in advance.
We live in NYC and there is no Scottish restaurants and even though there are scores of Irish pubs they usually serve burgers, shepherd's pie, and that traditional Celtic dish Cajun blackened cat fish. What typifies Irish and Scottish cuisine?
Often we eat inexpensively and then splurge on one meal. Also we like to buy foods as we walk around the city and have a little feast for diner in our hotel room.
Can you please make some recommendations that are inexpenisve to midline?
Besides Scottish and Irish food is there any ethnic restaurants that would recommned?
Are there any markets in particular you can recommned?
Thank you in advance.
Mar 23rd, 2012, 09:01 AM
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Smoked salmon! Not unheard of in NYC, of course, but we thought the Scottish salmon we had was great.
We did try haggis, and actually thought it was pretty good. I especially enjoyed it in a dish called Chicken Balmoral. Chicken breat stuffed with haggis, wrapped with bacon, and served with whisky sauce.
~Liz
We did try haggis, and actually thought it was pretty good. I especially enjoyed it in a dish called Chicken Balmoral. Chicken breat stuffed with haggis, wrapped with bacon, and served with whisky sauce.
~Liz
Mar 23rd, 2012, 09:54 AM
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Irish salmon is fantstic. Have sandwiches on brown bread with salad (mixed greens). Also Dublin prawns are famous.
Many restaurants are ethnic (but often not really what you would expect). As of my last vist - 4 years ago - restaurants were about 50/50. (50% something interesting that really tried and had some verygood food. And 50% trditional with everything very well cooked/boiled and tasteless. In one place we were tld the only pottoes available were fries - frozen - since potatoes were out of season. Also - don't be surprised to find corn in your tuna salad sndwich - for some reason.) In Dublin we liked Patrick Guilbaud.
Many restaurants are ethnic (but often not really what you would expect). As of my last vist - 4 years ago - restaurants were about 50/50. (50% something interesting that really tried and had some verygood food. And 50% trditional with everything very well cooked/boiled and tasteless. In one place we were tld the only pottoes available were fries - frozen - since potatoes were out of season. Also - don't be surprised to find corn in your tuna salad sndwich - for some reason.) In Dublin we liked Patrick Guilbaud.
Mar 23rd, 2012, 10:08 AM
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I guess we were in Scotland during potato season, September. The mention of potatoes above reminded me of the simple, boiled "new" potatoes we were served a number of times, which were just amazingly tasty. No butter, just plain.
Mar 23rd, 2012, 10:29 AM
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From my trip report:
For this part of the trip we had to have lunch since nobody was offering a full Scottish breakfast. Most of the lunches were forgettable. Once we ate in an Italian restaurant on the Royal Mile--they tried to insist that the tap water was no good because the holding tank (!!!??) was questionable, and of course the bottled water was outrageously priced. I did not get sick from the tap water which was fine. We had the aforementioned picnic which was probably better than any other light meal we had. One evening meal was before the theater (42nd St.), but have no recollection of its quality. Three stayed in my mind: The first one was in a vegetarian restaurant (http://www.hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk/--$70 ) that was a throwback to the early days of vegetarianism. Even the lasagna tasted as if it had tofu, as if a traditional lasagna could not be vegetarian--although since it advertises that it offers vegan dishes, that may have been the problem (they need lessons from Millennium in SF). The live jazz duet (guitar and double bass) provided pleasant background music. Our friend had simply put in her mind that the restaurant sounded good, but it was a disappointment. The Blue Parrot Cantina’s 49 St Stephen Street, ($138 for 5) food had been adapted too much to the local palate. But the best meal we had in Scotland when taking account the food, the ambiance and the service was The Stockbridge Restaurant ($77) (http://www.thestockbridgerestaurant.com/ ). We found it because the local neighborhood held a flower/garden competition and the first prize was a meal at that restaurant. Given the neighborhood--New Town--and the probable income levels, we figured that the restaurant must be quite good to be offered as a first prize, and it was.
For this part of the trip we had to have lunch since nobody was offering a full Scottish breakfast. Most of the lunches were forgettable. Once we ate in an Italian restaurant on the Royal Mile--they tried to insist that the tap water was no good because the holding tank (!!!??) was questionable, and of course the bottled water was outrageously priced. I did not get sick from the tap water which was fine. We had the aforementioned picnic which was probably better than any other light meal we had. One evening meal was before the theater (42nd St.), but have no recollection of its quality. Three stayed in my mind: The first one was in a vegetarian restaurant (http://www.hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk/--$70 ) that was a throwback to the early days of vegetarianism. Even the lasagna tasted as if it had tofu, as if a traditional lasagna could not be vegetarian--although since it advertises that it offers vegan dishes, that may have been the problem (they need lessons from Millennium in SF). The live jazz duet (guitar and double bass) provided pleasant background music. Our friend had simply put in her mind that the restaurant sounded good, but it was a disappointment. The Blue Parrot Cantina’s 49 St Stephen Street, ($138 for 5) food had been adapted too much to the local palate. But the best meal we had in Scotland when taking account the food, the ambiance and the service was The Stockbridge Restaurant ($77) (http://www.thestockbridgerestaurant.com/ ). We found it because the local neighborhood held a flower/garden competition and the first prize was a meal at that restaurant. Given the neighborhood--New Town--and the probable income levels, we figured that the restaurant must be quite good to be offered as a first prize, and it was.
Mar 24th, 2012, 03:14 PM
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Jesus. A more dispiriting summary of Edinburgh dining I've yet to come across.
If you're looking fo something interestingly Scottish try the Kitchin by Tom Kitchin. 1 star Michelin but not terribly formal and lunch menu is extremely reasonable. Martin Wisharts is a little more formal and worth a splurge for good Scottish ingredients cooked with a French techinique. Dubh Phrais is another reasonably priced eaterie that treats Scottish ingredients well. The Inverawe platter of Argyll ham, venison and duck over fresh orange salad is a highlight.
Mimi's Bakehouse does cheap lunches, lovely stovies, delicious scones rather nice fishcakes. Jahans has some interesting Bangladeshi food although I still think Glasgow has by far the best Indian sub continent food, Beirut does some nice Lebanese fare and Nonna's some passable Scots Italian dishes. I could go on but that should be enough to fill a few days in Edinburgh at a range of price points.
If you're looking fo something interestingly Scottish try the Kitchin by Tom Kitchin. 1 star Michelin but not terribly formal and lunch menu is extremely reasonable. Martin Wisharts is a little more formal and worth a splurge for good Scottish ingredients cooked with a French techinique. Dubh Phrais is another reasonably priced eaterie that treats Scottish ingredients well. The Inverawe platter of Argyll ham, venison and duck over fresh orange salad is a highlight.
Mimi's Bakehouse does cheap lunches, lovely stovies, delicious scones rather nice fishcakes. Jahans has some interesting Bangladeshi food although I still think Glasgow has by far the best Indian sub continent food, Beirut does some nice Lebanese fare and Nonna's some passable Scots Italian dishes. I could go on but that should be enough to fill a few days in Edinburgh at a range of price points.
Mar 25th, 2012, 01:02 PM
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I think that Scottish cuisine is Typified by oats and potatoes. Having said that, we live in the same global market you do, and the crossing of cultures is remarkable. Edinburgh has some super places to eat, with national cuisines from all over the world.
Have a look at Stac Poly; Howies is more mainstream; and the new place that's getting mixed reviews is Angels with Bagpipes.
Have a look at Stac Poly; Howies is more mainstream; and the new place that's getting mixed reviews is Angels with Bagpipes.
Mar 25th, 2012, 10:22 PM
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"What typifies Irish and Scottish cuisine?"
Nothing, with one important exception at the upper end.
The blunt truth is that the processes of industrialisation, agrarian change and globalisation in the 18th and 19th centuries more or less destroyed any indigenous cuisine in the British Isles.
Stating this blindlingly obvious truth inevitably provokes outrage from a handful of ignorami who believe the codswallop their tourist boards churn out, so you might get a couple of rants over the glories of drisheen or partan bree (google them, because I've never been able to track either down to eating houses in Dublin or Edinburgh, though admittedly neither is local to the cities).
The people of Dublin and Edinburgh eat almost identically when they go out to the people of Manchester or Birmingham, except that neither city really has Birmingham's or Manchester's neo-indigenous South Asian or Chinese eating culture. Tourist-oriented places will feature a few "local" dishes and "Irish" or "Scottish" breakfasts (almost indistinguishable from English, but with a porridge option in Scotland, white as well as black pudding in Ireland and often - more so in Ireland than in Scotland - interesting local breads. Both cities can often offer more fish options in a "full" breakfast than you'll find in England).
So, as in England, the secret of eating out well is to forget about non-existent local cuisine, and to remember that bad food in the British Isles is probably the worst in the developed world, outside food courts in US malls. Restaurant culture anywhere in the comfortably off British Isles is deracinated, access to the world's produce uniform, and much of the time we all eat OK Indian, Chinese, frenchified or not too inauthentic Italian.
At the toppish end, though, there's a growing obsession with local, seasonal raw ingredients. This is often nonsensical going on criminally fraudulent greenwash (a lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped frozen round the world to an Edinburgh restaurant causes fewer carbon emissions than one reared on Arthur's Seat and eaten fresh.) But the Scottish lowlands and the Pale both contain much fabulous farmland, the islands - in part - still teem with terrific, if numerically declining, fish and seafood, and fresh Scottish raspberries taste infinitely better in their few weeks than the stuff trucked in from Spain nine months of the year. The crucial thing is to find a restaurant which manages its suppliers properly and cooks what they sell imaginatively and consistently. Throughout the British Isles, though, the phrase "we use seasonal local produce" is often an outright lie, churned out to defraud fools who seriously believe badly cooked organic local junk food (which is often defrosted industrial food) is superior to properly cooked ingredients from Italian or Australian farmers who know what they're doing.
Restaurant policies, and ability to execute policy well, constantly fluctuate. So the answer is to rely on informed guides of very recent provenance. If you can't find more Sheilas, or their Dublin equivalents, buy the Good Food Guide or use Harden's sceptically.
Nothing, with one important exception at the upper end.
The blunt truth is that the processes of industrialisation, agrarian change and globalisation in the 18th and 19th centuries more or less destroyed any indigenous cuisine in the British Isles.
Stating this blindlingly obvious truth inevitably provokes outrage from a handful of ignorami who believe the codswallop their tourist boards churn out, so you might get a couple of rants over the glories of drisheen or partan bree (google them, because I've never been able to track either down to eating houses in Dublin or Edinburgh, though admittedly neither is local to the cities).
The people of Dublin and Edinburgh eat almost identically when they go out to the people of Manchester or Birmingham, except that neither city really has Birmingham's or Manchester's neo-indigenous South Asian or Chinese eating culture. Tourist-oriented places will feature a few "local" dishes and "Irish" or "Scottish" breakfasts (almost indistinguishable from English, but with a porridge option in Scotland, white as well as black pudding in Ireland and often - more so in Ireland than in Scotland - interesting local breads. Both cities can often offer more fish options in a "full" breakfast than you'll find in England).
So, as in England, the secret of eating out well is to forget about non-existent local cuisine, and to remember that bad food in the British Isles is probably the worst in the developed world, outside food courts in US malls. Restaurant culture anywhere in the comfortably off British Isles is deracinated, access to the world's produce uniform, and much of the time we all eat OK Indian, Chinese, frenchified or not too inauthentic Italian.
At the toppish end, though, there's a growing obsession with local, seasonal raw ingredients. This is often nonsensical going on criminally fraudulent greenwash (a lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped frozen round the world to an Edinburgh restaurant causes fewer carbon emissions than one reared on Arthur's Seat and eaten fresh.) But the Scottish lowlands and the Pale both contain much fabulous farmland, the islands - in part - still teem with terrific, if numerically declining, fish and seafood, and fresh Scottish raspberries taste infinitely better in their few weeks than the stuff trucked in from Spain nine months of the year. The crucial thing is to find a restaurant which manages its suppliers properly and cooks what they sell imaginatively and consistently. Throughout the British Isles, though, the phrase "we use seasonal local produce" is often an outright lie, churned out to defraud fools who seriously believe badly cooked organic local junk food (which is often defrosted industrial food) is superior to properly cooked ingredients from Italian or Australian farmers who know what they're doing.
Restaurant policies, and ability to execute policy well, constantly fluctuate. So the answer is to rely on informed guides of very recent provenance. If you can't find more Sheilas, or their Dublin equivalents, buy the Good Food Guide or use Harden's sceptically.
Mar 26th, 2012, 01:04 AM
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Thank you Flanny. I will pack crackers.
Although we did not expect the food to an integral part of our trip such as in Italy, France, Spain, and Turkey, we were hopeful that it would be a shade better than described. Nonetheless, our reservations are made and we will hope for happy surprises.
Although we did not expect the food to an integral part of our trip such as in Italy, France, Spain, and Turkey, we were hopeful that it would be a shade better than described. Nonetheless, our reservations are made and we will hope for happy surprises.
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