The Witchery at the Castle, Edinburgh

My wife Anne really likes the atmosphere in the Witchery restaurant  in Edinburgh so, for her birthday, we arranged a family meal there. The Witchery has several rooms but the Secret Garden is the most atmospheric. You go downstairs to a panelled room with an amazing painted ceiling and doors onto a garden.

The menu is quite short and, in truth, I didn’t really fancy any of the starters from the a la carte menu. Rather, I asked for a starter from the fixed price menu – scallop with broad bean, chorizo and spoot (razor clam) cassoulet.

Scallop with broad bean, chorizo and spoot (razor clam) cassoulet

This looked very attractive but, sadly, the quality of the dish didn’t live up to its looks. The scallop was like a rubber ball – seriously overcooked and if there were any spoots in the cassoulet, they weren’t at all obvious. The chorizo and broad beans were OK but overall, this was a very disappointing dish.

For our mail course, we all had Lamb Wellington – a fillet of lamb wrapped in all manner of things (Serrano ham, mushroom mousse, etc) in a pastry case.

Lamb Wellington

This came perfectly cooked and was met with general acclaim. However, the problem with this dish in general is that you have to use a cut of meet that cooks very quickly and these tend to be a bit lacking in taste. This was no exception – perfectly cooked but overall I found it a wee bit bland.

I didn’t have a pudding but tasted both the chocolate tart and the mascarpone and passion fruit trifle. Both were very nice.

The Secret Garden is a lovely restaurant – the service was impeccable and the atmosphere was great. It’s worth a visit for the atmosphere alone  but, sadly, if my meal was anything to go by, you don’t go there for the food. Prices are high (£10 for my starter, £30 for main) and for these prices you can eat far better in Edinburgh.

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The Old Bakehouse, West Linton

My wife is still recovering from a knee operation so it’s easier for her to go places where we can drive to the door and park the car nearby. That’s not so easy in Edinburgh so we decided to go out of town for Sunday lunch. Our first though was the Alan Ramsay hotel in Carlops but that’s still ‘closed for refurbishment’, which seems to be taking an awful long time.

So I googled nearby restaurants and came up with the Old Bakehouse in West Linton, the next village west from Carlops. It had recently been taken over by Tony Singh, who had Oloroso in Edinburgh and who (I’m told) is a chef on the telly. The menu online looked interesting so we thought that we’d go for it.

West Linton is a delightful village between Edinburgh and Biggar which has retained a lot of character and old properties. The Old Bakehouse is on the Main Street and has been a restaurant for a long time. It’s been refurbished with a ‘country look’ – beams, white painted stone and, I’m glad to say, quite a lot of light.

Window boxes at the Old Bakehouse

We arrived just before one – it wasn’t very busy and we had a table in the Conservatory. The policy is to serve local beers (one I thoroughly approve of)  so I had a bottle of one brewed in Peebles as my one and only drink.

Blonde beer from the Peebles brewery

As we often do at lunchtime, we ordered two starters rather than a starter and a main course. Mine were haggis, neep and tattie pakora (real fusion food), followed by summer rolls. Anne started with asparagus tart, followed by prawn cocktail.

My pakora was certainly different – basically, a potato ball with a core of haggis and a layer of jeeps. Served with a minty and a spicy dip. Tasty and very filling. I’m told the asparagus tart was very good – I certainly wasn’t offered a taste.

Haggis, neep and tattie pakora

Asparagus tart

Summer rolls had an Asian theme. Basically rice paper rolls stuffed with crispy vegetables, pork and prawns but with lots of fresh herbs that made them zing. They came with a chilli dipping sauce though they were so big, you couldn’t really dip them. The prawn cocktail was served with rocket – a good example although I must admit I find this dish a bit dull.

Summer rolls – pork, prawns and fresh herbs and vegetables

The Old Bakehouse was a great find for us and it deserves to do well. Excellent and imaginative food, a lovely setting, friendly staff and good service – what’s not to like? About £30 each for 2 starters each plus coffees. We’ll definitely be back.

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Dig-in Bruntsfield – a new community greengrocer

When I started getting interested in food and cooking in the late 1970s, every local community had its own greengrocer, butcher and grocers. I lived in Bruntsfield in Edinburgh and what is now Oddbins was a large fruit and vegetable shop. It was always packed on a Saturday morning. I loved going there, trying new vegetables and fruit that weren’t part of the normal Glaswegian diet and chatting with the staff. Shopping for food on a Saturday morning was an enjoyable experience.

We moved away from Edinburgh and when we came back 20 years later, Bruntsfield still had its small shops – butcher, greengrocer, fishmonger and a couple of delis. There were no local supermarkets but their invidious influence was already obvious. The greengrocers was struggling and the opening of a Tesco Metro killed it off. Sainsbury’s took over the excellent Peckham’s deli; Oddbins went bust and we feared the local shop would shut. Bruntsfield looked as if it was going the same way as so many other places – bland high streets, ‘metro’ supermarkets, chain coffee shops and estate agents.

Dig-in Bruntsfield – our new community greengrocers

But we were lucky. The new owners kept the Oddbins shop open; some chain coffee shops moved in but so did smaller business – German pastry and bread making skills in Falko’s and their French equivalent in La Barantine. We still have a local fishmonger and butcher but what we lacked was a greengrocers.

Until now. Local folks in Bruntsfield have got together, bought shares and supported a fabulous new initiative – a community greengrocers that opened today. Dig-in Bruntsfield sells fruit and veg from local suppliers and is run by and for local people. I couldn’t get to the official opening but a couple of hours later when I went there the shop was still buzzing.

The produce display

Local suppliers

Everything looked fresh and attractively presented. I bought a few things – cabbage, carrots, onions, tatties and broccoli – all Scottish grown. I was delighted at the high quality and reasonable prices – 65p for 4 baking tatties (compared to £1 in Asda and Sainsburys according to my supermarket.co.uk).

Karen and Susan (the shop manager)

It really wasn’t like a supermarket at all – food in boxes instead of plastic trays and staff who smiled and had time to chat to customers.There were no bleeping machines or synthetic voices warning about items in the bagging area.  Given the prices and the ambiance here, why would anyone want to go to Sainsburys for expensive packaged veg?

The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eating. We ate carrots, cabbage and onions from Dig-in and spicy Italian sausages from Wm Christie, our local butcher (lentils were from Waitrose but hopefully we’ll soon be able to get them locally too). It was good.

Italian sausages with lentils, carrots and cabbage

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