Two Great Edinburgh Dinners

Warning - Another FOOD post.

We had two incredible meals on our trip north.  The first was Thursday night behind this unassuming red door.

Locally sourced Scottish menu, great atmosphere, attentive waiter willing to banter.

Everything looks good by candle light.

I won't post every dish but here are Bill's oysters served on a bed of river stones.

My pigeon starter with little radish cones.  Andrea and I had a conversation about key words on a menu.  There are words that make you order that dish as soon as you see then and words that eliminate a dish from being ordered.  Pigeon and radish are two key words for me.

After a little chit chat we asked our waiter what a grouse looked like (he was wearing a pin of a grouse foot that his manager gave him and it was furry not feathered as I would expect) so he brought over an iPad to show us photos.  When he left us the iPad we googled our blog and left it for him to peruse.

Dinner Number 2 was in an even more charming atmosphere on Saturday night.  This little cottage is tucked away off a main street.

All locally sourced Scottish food again.  When you walk in the door you see a shelf filled with jars of ingredients.  The place is very small and everyone sits at one of three communal tables.  This is the first restaurant I've ever been to where you don't order anything except your drink.  There are 6 set courses for the night and they just bring them out and tell you what they are.   To my surprise Bill really liked the artichoke soup!  For someone who hadn't eaten an onion before he met me he has come a long way.  (Of course, my mother right now is saying, "Spoken by the girl who would only eat Franco American for the first 15 years of her life."  Just typing that has given me a hankerin' for Spaghetti O's with Mini Franks!  yum)

Andrea is riveted by my witty repartee. 

Anyone want to guess what I'm talking about?  Do those hands tell a story??

I actually have no idea why there was a little hour glass on our table but Bill used it as a photo prop.

This is the kitchen - about 3 feet from where we were sitting.  That's the end of our table in the bottom of the shot.

Are we "Foodies"???  I really don't mean to be but I just love a good meal especially with good company.