I must be some kind of foodie Jedi and I'll tell you why. I *really* wanted to win our christmas raffle prize which was a three course meal with wine at The Scran & Scallie - the fabulous gastropub in my hood. I said as much a few times but it was a raffle and there were over a hundred bods at our christmas do so my chances weren't particularly high. But I won it! And I rarely win anything (without working very hard for it) so I reckon I must have willed it through sheer mind-force. The raffle was in aid of SANDS Lothian - a charity close to my heart and so I thought it was only right that I thank the pub and the 'force' with a review.
We booked a table soon after new year's as the place was pretty busy till then. I've been to The Scran & Scallie (TSS, too long otherwise) before but Ed hadn't. The restaurant was packed but the service was swift and friendly. We sat down, ordered some wine and quickly decided our menu choices. The oysters were talking to me. Ed chose the chicken liver pate.
You will have heard me talk about oysters several times on the blog as well as on my social media sites. The UK and Scotland in particular has many good oyster bars so I have pretty high expectations. TSS served Loch Fyne oysters and they were huge and very juicy. They were served with a nice onion sauce but I just stuck with gold old Tabasco. Ed's pate was pretty good too and I even let him have an oyster!
For our mains, Ed choose the braised roe deer with roast haunch and squash and I choose the roast partridge. with cabbage and bacon. We also ordered a side of roasted chorizo potatoes. The deer was beautiful! My partridge was tasty too but quite big - I only just made a dent in it.
We were sat next to a group of very friendly European diners (possibly Italian) and one of them also ordered partridge. The difference was there was no trace of partridge after this gentleman finished his meal. I helped them with group photos and they said ciao as they left the restaurant - how very nice. Shame folk don't talk much at restaurants - it would make going out so much more interesting!
Ed has a whole collection of wine guzzling photos of me - the fact is I'm not much of a drinker at all despite all this photo evidence. I like a good wine or cocktail but can go without one for weeks and not miss it. Anyway, what I was going to say before I rambled on was that the house wine was pretty good. We ordered a nice 2014 Tempranillo and it went beautifully with our meal.
Then there was pudding! As you will have figured by now, TSS do good hearty food with great finesse. So Ed's apple crumble was presented in a fabulous wee earthenware pot with sauce on the side in similarly quirky pottery.
As you'll probably already know, I'm a chocolate fiend and the brownie was calling my name. I loved the way they served it too in a griddle of sorts - very cool. My pud was super but my belly (despite only half a partridge in it) was very full and so I could no finish it - shocking, I know!
Overall, Ed and I had a wonderful time at The Scran and Scallie and we'll be going back there again many times more - sadly we'll be paying next time.
Hope 2016 has got off to a good start for all of you. Ann x
Hope 2016 has got off to a good start for all of you. Ann x
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