To Edinburgh’s Castle Terrace which has just unveiled a £1 million redesign.
Part of the Kitchin group of restaurants, which includes the Scran and Scallie and Tom Kitchin’s restaurant in Leith, Castle Terrace opened six years ago with Chef Dominic Jack at the helm. The refurb follows in the footsteps of The Kitchin’s redesign last year.
The radical refurb has resulted in a lighter, brighter, more contemporary space and an expanded dining room and kitchen. Now taking 70 covers, the restaurant also has a brand new state of the art kitchen, as well as a new, sixteen cover private dining room plus a unique chef’s table and wine cellar.
Edinburgh Castle
The refurbishment include a unique mural of Edinburgh Castle which was hand drawn by the Scottish artist Nichol Wheatley.
The redesign of the restaurant has been led by Tom Kitchin’s wife Michaela who, alongside Glasgow-based Stephen Paterson of Burns Design, has brought the restaurant’s original Georgian Townhouse features to the forefront in a bold way.
Gold velvet chairs are softened with grey and dark blue tones, tactile wallpaper and fabric coverings. Two new fireplaces and a new bar front help guests enjoy a pre or post-dinner drink or coffee.
Other design features include fabrics from the Isle of Bute; structured three-dimensional wallpapers from Scandinavian design team BN Wall Coverings plus antique Murano mirrors and leather from Sunbury Design.
A brand new Maestro by Bonnet cooking suite gives Chef Dominic and his brigade of chefs a third more space to work in.
Chef’s dream
Dominic Jack said: ‘Since we opened it’s been an incredible journey. The restaurant, our business and the team have evolved and grown since we opened and the refurbishment definitely reflects this – it felt like a natural next step. The new space allows us to continue to push for excellence in the service we provide and also allows me and my team to continue evolving our food.
‘The complete restructure of the new kitchen space is an absolute chef’s dream and I can’t wait to start cooking with all my new equipment. We’ve introduced the new chef’s table to allow a select number of guests to see how our kitchen works. It’s all about taking our guests on a culinary journey, they can see our wine cellar and understand the level of detail and passion that goes into each and every dish we serve our diners.’
Michelin star
There was much surprise last September when Castle Terrace lost the Michelin star which it first gained in 2011. Michelin always insists that a restaurant’s decor has nothing to with their ranking system. According to their inspectors, it’s all about the food.
However, Castle Terrace’s new interior won’t hurt their efforts to regain the star. This 5pm Dining blog writer has poor form at predicting these things but we have bumped into Tom Kitchin, Dominic Jack and their team a few times and we know how focused they are. It would not come as a surprise at all were Michelin to reverse its decision and award Castle Terrace a star again.
