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October 25, 2019

Launched in 2008, the Hawksmoor group has several restaurants in London, one in Manchester and one in Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh branch is in the banking hall of  the former Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters on St Andrew Square.

The Tellers' Room

With limestone walls, wooden panelling and parquet flooring, it is as elegant as it is grand and the beautifully proportioned, private dining space is just as impressive. Seating up to 48 on its leather-bound chairs, the room was once home to the bank tellers who received and paid out cash to the public.

The Tellers' Room at Hawksmoor Edinburgh.

The Tellers' Room at Hawksmoor Edinburgh.

The blog was there to see the new private dining space and have dinner with Fiona Beckett, wine correspondent for The Guardian, and mum to Will Beckett, one of Hawksmoor's founders.

Fiona noted that she had become a wine writer almost by accident but pointed out that there were many routes to working in the wine world.

You can now study how to be a winemaker at the agricultural college in Plumpton and there are dozens of English vineyards where you might ply your trade after graduating. Of course, you could also train to be a restaurant sommelier, take a wine course or teach yourself.

Her takeaway advice for anyone who wants to learn more about wine: drink the stuff. Think about what you are drinking; compare and contrast different wines and match them with different foods. Her website, Matching Food and Wine, can point you in the right direction.

Grass-fed native breed beef

Grass-fed native breed beef and sustainable seafood from the Scottish coasts are at the heart of the Hawksmoor menu in Edinburgh and we sampled a fair proportion of the menu along with several tremendous wines.

We can recommend the Nicolas Choblet Muscadet with their oysters and the Hawksmoor blend Malbec from the Pulenta Estate is a superb match for the MacDuff Shorthorn bone-in rib.

You can try them yourself by booking in via 5pm. The Tellers' Room would make a smart venue for a Christmas night out.

These are some of the dishes we tried:

Isle of Mull scallops roasted with white port and garlic.

Isle of Mull scallops roasted with white port and garlic.

Radish and herb salad with crowdie.

Radish and herb salad with crowdie.

MacDuff Shorthorn prime rib.

MacDuff Shorthorn prime rib.