Edinburgh is an exciting place - and especially so if you're a foodie. Innovative restaurants with curious new dining concepts are spawning all the time. I read about the Edinburgh Food Studio a couple of weeks ago during my weekend newspaper round-up and it sounded interesting enough that my friends Emma R and Emma B from Edinburgh Feasts and Edin Bug were happy to go along and check it out.
The food studio is on Dalkeith Road (south of the city) and has a very calm vibe to it. We were the first in and the owners/chefs talked us through the food sequence and handed us a very intriguing drinks menu.
We were also offered some lovely bread made with an ancient Scottish wheat grain - Rouge d'Ecosse and homemade salted butter.
Emma R was being very good but Emma B and I opted for the Gin with Cucumber and Fennel and the Spicy Vermouth respectively. Emma B's drink was potent, a very interesting mix and very good and mine less potent but refreshing.
The first course was tomatoes, chanterelle, broad beans, leeks and pigs ear - it looks like wonderful explosion of colour. Emma B had the vegan option which was minus the piggy.
The second course was an interesting mix of roast swede and pattypan squash with Good King Henry sauce, gooseberries and onions.
The third course was beautifully cooked monkfish with beach herbs and new potatoes in a delicious cream sauce. Emma B's version had what I think was oat seed and without the sauce.
For the fifth course, we were presented with Sika deer (served pink) with blueberries, piccalilli and foragers salad. Tasty but I was getting very full (the bread may have had something to do with it and a very large burrito at lunchtime!).
The vegan option was roasted pumpkin seeds (if I remember right) instead of the deer. Emma B seemed to thoroughly enjoy her course. The foragers salad was different - I'd like to have known what all the different leaves were but I knew that would take a long time and the place was now rather busy!
The pudding course began with a cherry granita - mine and Emma R's had custard in it which took the edge of the tart cherry. Emma B's was a bit more character building.
But Emma B had her compensation with the next pudding - a lovely raspberry sorbet with honeycomb and raspberries. It look lovely!
The non-vegan version was sheep's yoghurt, raspberries, rose petals and a syrup waffle. Very nice but I had little room for all of the waffle.
The final course was a jelly cake of seabuckthorn and spruce - very tangy yet interesting. I was trying to articulate the sum of our experience - and my articulation stopped with 'pushing the taste boundaries'.
The Edinburgh Food Studio really is all about new food experiences - not so much the showmanship or instant gratification that we have come to see so much of these days - which is a good thing.
The 7 courses meal was only £35 which I think is pretty good value. Our aperitifs were £7 each. Worth checking out but be prepared to push some taste boundaries.
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