What's in a name?
What do get if you cross a chicken with a pizza? A bad restaurant name The blog has looked at unusual restaurant names before but a couple of new places on Edinburgh’s Lothian Road are worth re-opening the debate for. Given the...
Latest News
Libertine lifts off
All being well, Libertine should open tomorrow on Ayr’s River Street. The latest venture from Gordon Richardson, the founder of the Beanscene group, we blogged about Libertine and it’s sister operation Caffe Luna earlier in the...
Soy milk? Get bent!
I was at a meeting in the lounge of a five star Edinburgh hotel last week where the serving staff took a quarter of an hour to take a customer’s order and then another ten minutes to make a cappucino. It wasn’t very impressive...
Post from the pub
Whether it be karaoke, poker nights, quizzes, live music or just showing the football on the telly, pubs have always been quick to offer more than food and drink. A recent survey by the British Institute of Innkeepers has turned up some...
Veg terror
Carrots: one woman's worst nightmare According to this story in The Telegraph, a woman in Portsmouth has been diagnosed as suffering from a phobia of vegetables. She can just about handle potatoes but even the sight of a carrot runs the...
New Scottish foods
Coming soon to a shore near you? Although they were declared extinct in 1957, there are reports that wild oysters have been discovered growing in the Firth of Forth. Over-fishing and pollution were thought to have killed them all off but...
New Scottish restaurants
There has been a little flurry of activity on the restaurant opening front. In Edinburgh, The WestRoom has started trading on Melville Place in the old Halo site. It is run by the same people who operate the rather cool 5pm members Sygn and...
Essential reading
The Times has just run a cracking interview with Fergus Henderson, the architect turned chef who opened St John restaurant in London. His 1999 book, Nose to Tail Eating, was way ahead of the pack in terms of championing cooking that is...
Tempt 'em with tatties
Your date for tonight It’s Guy Fawkes night and the papers are full of warming recipes designed to keep out autumn’s nip. I can’t begin to compete with Ramsay, Jamie and James Martin in terms of clever recipes. However,...
Spells and Spoon
The Evening News in Edinburgh has been trumpeting the fact that one of the buildings in which JK Rowling wrote her Harry Potter novels has turned back into a cafe, called Spoon, after a few years as a Chinese buffet. Back in the Nineties,...
Octopus ice cream
Horse ice cream: big in Japan, less popular everywhere else I’m doing a bit of work connected to Mackie’s of Scotland and chatting to the Inverurie-based, family firm of ice cream makers has thrown up some fun factoids....
The most exotic Byres Road breakfast?
Cafe Mediterraneo is a chirpy new addition to both 5pm and Glasgow’s West End. The Byres Road cafe and bistro goes big on Italian, Turkish and Greek dishes. This makes for some interesting choices, particularly on the breakfast menu....
Biker wit and wisdom
Just a quickie from the Good Food Show Scotland which was at the SECC over the weekend. The Hairy Bikers gave a string of cookery demos in their own idiosyncratic style. Their instructions were brilliant. Never mind ‘sweat the...
Eco eats
Steve Brown and Mel Colmant from pickledgreen Scheduled to open on Edinburgh’s Rose Street at the end of this month, pickledgreen is a new eco-friendly deli and restaurant that is aiming for ethical eating. As well as harvesting...
Irish pubs craic up?
While there are still plenty of Irish theme pubs going strong, this report in the Irish Times suggests that the boom years may have dried up for the world’s shamrock and boxty bars. A major pub interior design company, which has...
Kansas on Queen Street
Hi! My name's Debbie and I'm your server The Twisted Wheel bar and music venue on Glasgow’s Queen Street shut in August but its replacement, Max’s Kansas City opens its doors to the public today. While the previous venture...