Get your forks poised to pounce as the inaugural Edinburgh Restaurant Festival gets underway from Wednesday.
Running until the 23rd of October, some 60 of the capital’s restaurants are running events. From special menus at restaurants such as L’Escargot Blanc and The Stockbridge Restaurant to children’s pizza-making workshops, there is a feast of gastro goodies on offer.
The Chefs’ Table
It all kicks off at Ghillie Dhu on Wednesday night when Stuart Ralston of Aizle; Mark Greenaway, Craig Sandle (pictured) of The Pompadour and Paul Wedgwood of Wedgwood The Restaurant cook a five course banquet using top notch Scottish ingredients including lobster, red-legged partridge and foraged sweet cicely.
At the time of writing, there are still tix to the Chefs’ Table available at £100 a head, including matched drinks for each course, from here: Ghillie Dhu, Tel: 0131 247 4701 or ghillieevents@g1group.com
Gin treasure hunt
Among the other events, two drinks related happenings caught the eye:
The Edinburgh Restaurant Festival Great Gin Treasure Hunt starts from Heads & Tails on Rutland Place on Saturday 18th October.
Promising an afternoon of twists, turns and gin, riddles and clues will guide intrepid treasure hunters around a series of city centre bars in search of Edinburgh’s most delicious gin cocktail. One lucky participant will discover they are the golden ticket holder. The prize? The opportunity to make your very own small batch gin.
If you are not feeling too delicate the next day, then you could make tracks for the West End Beer Festival. At Ryan’s Bar, The Melville, The Grosvenor and Ghillie Dhu, there will be beer samplings and meet the brewer events from midday.
Among the participating breweries are Barney’s Beer, Inveralmond, Alechemy and Speyside Craft Brewery.