We started The Boys Eat Scotland Blog in April this year to keep track of the places where we have enjoyed great meals and service and also to help challenge us to keep trying new places. Most places where we’ve dined have been good, but there’s also been a few average and poor ones! We made a decision at the start to only document the ones that we would happily go back to and recommend to family and friends.
At the beginning of our journey we felt that you don’t have to pay a fortune or visit Michelin Star restaurants all the time to dine on good food and service. We believe that a memorable meal is where the food, service, ambiance, company and price all come together.
Here’s a few of the places where this happened in 2014, leaving happy memories of a lovely night out with great food, ambiance and service:
The Olive Branch, 91 Broughton Street, Edinburgh: This lovely bistro on the vibrant Broughton Street is relaxed, friendly and offers great food and service. The staff are always so pleasant, efficient and help to make your visit an enjoyable one. The menu changes frequently and also has great choices for folks requiring gluten free options. The bistro is open from lunchtime through to 10pm on weekdays and from 10 am for brunch at the weekend. Our very first blog on the 8th April for Boys Eat Scotland came from The Olive Branch.
The Port of Siam, Broughton Street, Edinburgh: Also on Broughton Street, Port of Siam offers contemporary Thai Fusion food in a relaxed environment. This address used to be home to The Blue Moon Cafe and Hamburger Heaven, but Port of Siam has refurbished the venue with the Bangkok bar and Port of Siam restaurant on street level and a new music bar venue in the basement. You can go from cocktail to dinner to karaoke with ease! We haven’t blogged about The Port of Siam yet, although we have been there three times this year. Looks like we will just have to visit again in 2015, but make sure we aren’t having a night off when we do.
Miros Cantina Mexicana, 184 Rose Street, Edinburgh: Along Thistle street you will find this tiny cosy restaurant serving wonderful Mexican food. We love going to Miros especially during the summer months when the tables spill out onto Rose Street. It’s best to book ahead as this restaurant is always busy. This is another one of our blogger night off venues, we tend to go with friends to enjoy good Mexican food and chill out. We are looking forward to doing a blog about our visit in 2015.
Iris, 47a Thistle Street, Edinburgh: We have dined here twice this year and the food on both occasions was delicious. It’s not often that you find a menu where you fancy every starter, main and dessert! Iris’s menu has some clever flavour combinations that mix fresh Scottish produce with European style. They do a special lunch time menu and full evening menu.
Cannonball, Cannonball House, Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Victor and Carina Contini have opened Cannonball, a combination of a cafe and Gelateria on the lower floors and a fine dining restaurant on the top floor with the most amazing views over the Castle esplanade. We dined here and the service, fresh seasonal menu and ambience were all excellent.
2014 saw us embark on “Eating Scotland” and you can see from our blog that we made a pretty good start. We are looking forward to our foodie adventures in 2015 and hope you will join us along the way!
Join us on Twitter and subscribe for our blog updates – we would love to share our adventures with you. Visit our blog for full reviews of The Olive Branch, Cannonball and Iris.
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PS. A pic of our updated shadows,taken on a beautiful December day whilst walking in Skye. Think we might be starting to look like we have eaten Scotland!
