For more food and drink visit www.list.co.uk/food-and-drink
6922, www.edinburghlarder.co.uk, £10 (lunch) / £10 (weekend dinner) New deli/café Edinburgh Larder sees brother and sister team Eleanor and Joe Davey scouring the country looking for good local products and suppliers, with Scottish cheeses, salmon, meats – including smoked venison and Borders salami – offered in various sandwich, toastie and deli plate combinations alongside soups and a stew of the day. It’s early days yet, and the team continue to tweak opening hours and menus, but this is one Old Town eatery that definitely should not be left to the tourists.
RUSSIAN PASSION 5 Canonmills, Inverleith, 0131 556 9042, £4 (lunch) Edinburgh’s first Russian restaurant is also one of its smallest, with just three tables, but the vision of owner, Moscow-born Maria Belyaeva, is big. Cooking Russia’s best traditional recipes using ingredients from Scotland, the borsch is the business: a deep bowl of garnet-red soup fragrant with fresh herbs and topped with soured cream. Although it’s a lunchtime spot, with extremely modest prices, dinner is available by advance booking for up to 10 people.
Full independent write-ups on all the restaurants listed here can be found on our online Eating & Drinking Guide, list.co.uk/food-and-drink. Prices shown are for an average two- course meal for one.
SIDE DISHES A wee jaunt out of town
■ There have been some intriguing developments beyond Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent months, not least the Michelin stars awarded to the Peat Inn near St Andrews and Kinloch Lodge up in Skye. In the Trossachs Nick Nairn has made a return to the restaurant scene with The Kailyard by Nick Nairn at Doubletree by Hilton Dunblane Hydro. Nairn’s the consultant there while the man generally considered to be the most influential chef in the UK in the last 30 years, Albert Roux, is the main food consultant to Inverlochy Castle International Management, who are to open two further Chez Roux restaurants this year, one at Inver Lodge Hotel by Lochinver, the other at Greywalls at Gullane in East Lothian. With all these celebrity chefs around, maybe no one will notice Mr Oliver sneaking into George Square in Glasgow in May with his 250-cover Jamie’s Italian.
PASSORN 23-23a Brougham Place, Tollcross, www.passornthai.com, 0131 229 1537, £9 (lunch) / £20 (dinner) Thai fine dining is still relatively limited in Edinburgh but female duo Cindy Srisotorn (owner) and Ning Chai Yalearn (chef) are building this new venture from a successful catering partnership which saw them produce lavish meals in clients’ homes. A succinct but well crafted menu has warm salads of tender beef or fish dressed with chili, lemongrass and lime juice, choo chi, a modern take on red curry, and the unusual kaeng massaman, with lamb shank braised in a traditional southern Thai curry.
THE EDINBURGH LARDER 15 Blackfriars Street, Old Town, 0131 556
“ To describe the interior of Loopy Lorna’s as dull would be like calling Hugh Heffner a feminist, and quirky details are what make it stand out from the crowd... Tea in Morningside has never been quite so lovely.” Loopy Lorna’s Tea House 370–372 Morningside Road Edinburgh EH10 5HS T 0131 447 9217 E hello@loopylornas.com W www.loopylornas.com
4–18 Mar 2010 THE LIST 11