Food & drink

How to celebrate Burns night in Edinburgh

20 Jan 2010

The whisky industry estimates that we sink around two million extra drams on the night of 25 January, toasting Rabbie’s birthday (his 251st this year). Various bars around Edinburgh, including the World’s End, Henricks and the Waterline in Leith, are…

Hungarian, East African, Russian and Brazilian flavours explode throughout Scotland

20 Jan 2010

The latest draft of new or imminent restaurants around Edinburgh and Glasgow promise flavours rarely encountered in these parts. Glasgow has Nur Egyptian restaurant and Botego du Brazil (from the owners of Classic Grand), along with two new African…

'Use us or lose us' challenge by Scottish independent food shops

20 Jan 2010

There have been warnings from two of Glasgow’s finest food shops, Heart Buchanan on Byres Road and Delizique on Hyndland Street, who’ve mounted a ‘use us or lose us’ challenge to local shoppers. The arrival of Waitrose in the West End may have set…

Restaurant review - pickledgreen

7 Jan 2010

Rose Street is a right hotch-potch when it comes to its eating and drinking scene: from bland chain restaurants to venerable old boozers, unadorned Japanese noodle-bars to buzzy seafood bistros. Into this unlikely setting, and fired with the optimism…

Food culture: What to expect in 2010

7 Jan 2010

The new vegetarianism Nigel Slater Tender and Simon Hopkinson The Vegetarian Option made the Christmas bestseller lists with books giving much more respect to vegetables. It’s not about going completely veggie, but eating less meat, of better…

Charan Gill opens Slumdog Bar and kitchen

19 Nov 2009

Having sold the Harlequin Group of restaurants four years ago for a cool £8 million, Charan Gill’s re-entry into the Glasgow scene was always going to stir up interest. From getting hold of the Slumdog name to tapping into the energetic zeitgeist of…

Taste test: The Scottish Café and Restaurant

10 Nov 2009

Porridge with berries and heather honey Porridge needn’t be grey wallpaper paste served as punishment. Salt should be included judiciously when cooking (as with bread), but John Knox doesn’t birl in his grave if you put sugar on it – though berries…

The Scottish Café and Restaurant opens at the National Gallery of Scotland

4 Nov 2009

When the concession to run the 120-cover café and restaurant in the National Gallery of Scotland on the Mound in Edinburgh came up for renewal this year a predictable array of contract caterers, many based in England, came forward to bid. They were…

Royal Scottish Automobile Club renovation continues

4 Nov 2009

The massive renovation of the former Royal Scottish Automobile Club on Blythswood Square in Glasgow is reaching completion with the opening of the first batch of rooms and the hotel’s 120-seater restaurant and cocktail bar. Part of the Town House…

Taste test: Vodka made in Scotland

It's not all whisky here

22 Oct 2009

Grafitti, Pincer, Glen's, Blackwood's, Straight Strawberry, Raspberry Vodka

Ondine

Roy Brett's new restaurant brings a bit of swagger to seafood dining in Edinburgh

16 Oct 2009

Seafood has always been a Scottish speciality. There’s a line of argument that all the good stuff passes under our noses on the way to Spain, but if you know where to look it’s here alright. If you want to eat local food, then heading to a good seafood…

Side Dishes

Bitesize info

16 Oct 2009

Glasgow’s curry scene is as active as ever with the opening of Dining In with Mother India, essentially an expansion of the Mother India Café on Argyle Street, offering takeaway food, a mini Indian deli and a handful of tables serving a simple menu. In…

Food For Thought: Ashley J Russell

The actress now touring with 'We Will Rock You'

16 Oct 2009

I was brought up with my mum always telling me ‘You don’t have to like it but you must always try it’, so thanks to her I enjoy a wide variety of foods. A typical day’s breakfast for me would be something quite healthy and filling like a poached egg on…

Three to try: Seafood stalwarts

Nothing fishy with these choices

16 Oct 2009

Gamba 225a West George Street, Glasgow, 0141 572 0899, www.gamba.co.uk Alan Tomkins and Derek Marshall’s attractive city centre basement dining room has been top of the bill for over a decade now with a reputation for quality ingredients, exciting…

New National Gallery Restaurant Opens Its Doors

Good news for Scottish food and culture buffs

5 Oct 2009

Art lovers have exciting news to nibble on, following the National Gallery of Scotland’s announcement of its collaboration with Victor and Carina Contini, the team behind popular George Street eaterie Centotre. The new look Scottish Café and Restaurant…

Side Dishes

More foody going-ons

5 Oct 2009

The BBC Good Food Show Scotland, now in its third year, will be at the SECC in Glasgow from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November. Alongside the usual array of big-name cooking demos, there’s a strong showing from smaller local producers including…

Alternative Christmas Dinners

Why not turf out the turkey and can the cranberry?

2 Oct 2009

Tang’s This Christmas Tang’s restaurant on Candlemaker Row in Edinburgh is offering customers Japanese winter dishes shabu-shabu and sukiyaki, both cooked and eaten at the table fondue-style in a hot pot. Shabu-shabu has Konbu dashi stock, often…

Glasgow East End: Eating & Drinking

Our top restaurants and cafes

2 Oct 2009

Tapa A hugely popular organic bakehouse that has had even the most hardcore WEndies flocking over to Dennistoun. The menu is littered with a mouth-watering array of homemade chutneys and organic cheeses, while the bread and cakes baked on the premises…

Food For Thought: Rod Jones

The Idlewild guitarist and mental health spokesman gives us his food tips

2 Oct 2009

Whether I’m touring or at home everything starts the same way, a breakfast of toast, a banana and coffee. In the studio and during rehearsals it gets a bit fraught as we’re a band who all love coffee but argue over how it should be made. Colin [Newton…

Glasgow East End: Don't Miss

Where to shop and drink

2 Oct 2009

Hang out with the YBAs Wasps Artist’s Studio, Hanson Street, 0141 554 8299 A charity-funded design space that offers young artists and recent graduates career support and exhibition space. Watch out for the Next Big Thing here. Bargain…

The Blind Pig

Sidling into the latest bar-bistro to rev up Glasgow’s West End scene

1 Oct 2009

This is the recession, right? Calamitous days for bars and restaurants? Yet everywhere you look there are new openings, and decent ones at that. In recent weeks the The Two Figs opened at the foot of Byres Road, followed closely by the Blind Pig…

Taste test: Scottish-grown apples

Finding the very best potato of the sky

1 Oct 2009

Charles Ross October is the time for apples in Scotland – for this month at least you can stop buying the few familiar types of imported apple and choose from the hundreds of native varieties growing in orchards, parks and back gardens near you. The…

Take Three: Porky Ties

Get your trotters to these eateries

1 Oct 2009

The Kilted Pig 101b Colinton Road, Edinburgh, 0131 444 1911 www.kiltedpig.co.uk Kilted pigs are sausages wrapped in bacon – also known as pigs in a blanket, as any hotel commis chef could tell you. The pub bearing the name is near Craiglockhart…

Public Interest - Edinburgh Royal Mile pub crawl

24 Sep 2009

Between the sprawling concrete shapes of the Scottish Parliament and the historic heights of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile covers some of the best and worst aspects of the city. Plenty of tartan tourists and Australian backpackers stroll aimlessly up…

Ripe Time - L’Artichaut

24 Sep 2009

France isn’t a country known for its abundant vege sympathy, with non-meat-eaters often having to make do with a half-hearted omelette, a green salad or frîtes for every meal. But in a way the concept of a vege French restaurant shouldn’t seem so…