This weekend I decided to head up to visit Rache in Edinburgh. Never one to miss an opportunity, where it can be helped, to check out the local fine dining scene I convinced Rache to try out The Kitchin, a Michelin-starred restaurant named for the chef Tom Kitchin. Quite a good surname to have really for one in his industry!

The Kitchin is located in Leith, kind of near some water (I think Commercial Quay), but approached by road. Actually, we didn’t see the restaurant at first (it was dark!) and what you would think is the front is actually the back. Anyway, the entrance is actually around by the Quay and we found it eventually. Our booking at The Kitchin for dinner at 9pm is probably one of the latest I’ve ever started eating! But this was because I’d had to catch the train up from London. I still maintain that train is my preferred way to get up to Edinburgh but it sure does take a long time!

Tonight we dined on Tom’s Land and Sea Surprise Tasting Menu which considered of six courses though once you add in an amuse bouche and petit fours it ends up being more than this. First up, as we considered the menu though was a nice selection of breads and such, warm to eat which was delicious.

Our amuse bouche was a cold chickpea and mint soup, topped with crème fraiche with bits of crunchy stuff mixed in. Normally I’m not a fan of could soups at all but this really worked quite well together in terms of flavouring (very refreshing) and texture.

The next course was a pre-starter of tartare of wild sea trout from Usan, served with diced apple and a lemon creme fraiche. The flavourings in this dish work particularly well and again it had very good texturing with the crunch of the diced apple contrasting with the silkiness of the trout tartare. The only disappointment was the use of crème fraiche. I know it was probably used to break up the dish a bit but the fact it had already been used in our amuse bouche kind of made me think – couldn’t they kitchen have come up with something else to use other than crème fraiche. On the other hand, in this way, the crème fraiche gets used up I guess!

A particularly tasty dish, probably because of the chorizo, was a razor clam from Arisaig, served with diced vegetables, chorizo and lemon confit but … the clam hadn’t been cleaned particularly well because a couple of times I crunched on something that had the feel of something between sand and a broken tooth!

Switching from sea to land was my favourite dish of the night – a boned and rolled pig’s head, accompanied by scallop and bacon. Mmm mmm mmm – tasty tasty tasty!

The turbot that followed was pretty close behind in taste. A poached wild turbot from Scrabster, served with braised fennel and artichoke a’la grecque, looks pretty simple in the picture though I’m sure the cooking technique isn’t. Turbot was well cooked

The abats beignets (I think some sort of offal fritter) was the best thing about the next course – the whole roasted French squab pigeon served with braised peas, lardons, lettuce and abats beignets. I’m finding that game bird is a very difficult type of meat to cook perfectly – and surprisingly more often than not what I’ve had hasn’t been very impressive. The pigeon tonight was just okay for me.

So, that was the last of our savoury courses. By this time it was nearing 11pm and we were getting pretty full. Not sure why but our dessert took about 20 minutes to come out! Dessert was a gooseberry pannacotta, separated from a crème fraiche ice cream (the best way to eat crème fraiche in my opinion!) by a caramel lattice with the whole thing then drowned in gooseberry consumme. I’m not entirely sure the consumme was necessary – but hey, I can claim the dish as one of my fruit and veg for the day right? 😉

Towards the end of our dessert Tom Kitchin came around to talk to everyone left in the dining room who hadn’t already gone into the kitchen. The kitchen itself has an open window which people can look through whilst dining but also you can request to go into the kitchen to say hi if you really wanted to. Anyway, he came over to us and said a hi and hello … we exchanged pleasantries (you’re food is lovely etc. etc., thank you for coming etc. etc.) and then we weren’t sure what to say after that! Nice of him to give that personal touch though!

Over our petit fours we had a very funny conversation with one of the waiters who was a local, and not French like a few of the other waiters. When speaking of our plans for the following day he said that it sounded like a “Crescendo of Awesomeness” and that we should make “Twisted Shapes” when out on the dance floor. Rache and I were cacking ourselves!

Food-wise I was quite happy with our meal at Kitchin. Good ingredients and a nice variety (except maybe for using crème fraiche a little bit too much – heh heh). The only thing seemed to be that every dish contained so many ingredients that sometimes the detail was a bit lost in the dish and we were like – Did you taste that bit? Was that ingredient actually in there?

Service was good and friendly for most of our meal, though some waiters had very strong accents and it was difficult to understand their description of our food. Kithchin fell down a bit in the water filling up stakes – alright to begin with but it tapered off slowly during the night to the extent that at one point I had to reach behind me to grab the water bottle and refill it myself! Ha ha! I do like my water …

Overall a lovely night which nearly became a lovely morning (we rolled out just before midnight!). The good company helped too 🙂