Donald Reid

Swallows and Amazons

Slick, spirited musical play with Neil Hannon score grasps essence of original

2 Feb 2012

The four children of the Walker family, aged 12 to 7, are given permission by their naval father to set off alone on the sailing dinghy Swallow to camp on an uninhabited island on Coniston Water in the Lake District. Their imaginations let loose, they…

Curry institution Khushi's re-opens in new location in Edinburgh

6 Jan 2012

When Khushi’s was engulfed in fire just before Christmas 2008, you might have been forgiven for speculating if it had flown just a bit too close to the sun. In a few years the restaurant had shifted from being an old-fashioned curry café on Drummond…

Paul Gunning's Purslane celebrates the small things in life

Starters and desserts a success, although mains need some work

19 Dec 2011

Below street level on narrow, quirky St Stephen Street in Stockbridge in Edinburgh is a tiny restaurant. Until recently it had been home to Redwood, in which Californian chef Annette Sprague charmed diners for a couple of years but near-enough exhausted…

Cafe Fish

The latest incarnation of Richard Muir's seafood restaurant has its own pros and cons

21 Sep 2011

Despite its relative success since opening in 2009 beside The Plumed Horse in Leith, Café Fish upped sticks earlier this summer and moved into the former Zanzero site in Stockbridge. Hoping to bring the restaurant to the notice of a larger audience…

Restaurant review: Tanjore

Tamil restaurant's menu uplifted by fresh, appealing food

24 Aug 2011

Regional cuisine isn’t just the preserve of Tuscany or Andalucia, as Donald Reid finds in an engaging new Tamil restaurant in Edinburgh. It isn’t hard to find an Indian restaurant in Edinburgh or Glasgow, but it can be hard to find one with a…

Best Edinburgh Festival street food

The ten best pop-up food stalls to be found at 2011 Edinburgh Festival

11 Aug 2011

Mussel Men Seafood George Square walkway (east side), 11am–1am The guys in the stripey Breton shirts are actually London-based Scots, serving up fresh mussels and oysters from the west coast near Oban. Steaming hot moules come in a wee box sturdy…

Foodies Festival at 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

3-day food and drink in Holrood Park runs 12 to 14 Aug

10 Aug 2011

For many years, the missing Edinburgh food festival was a void waiting to be filled. After all, it was festival season in August and lots of food was being eaten. And, of course, everywhere else in the country was running food festivals. Five years ago…

Red Squirrel takes perfected beer ‘n’ burgers formula to west Edinburgh

Owners of Holyrood 9a open new premises on Lothian Road

28 Jun 2011

Red Squirrel 21 Lothian Road, West End, Edinburgh, EH1 2DJ 0131 229 9933, redsquirreledinburgh.co.uk Daiy 10am–late; food is served until 9pm. Ave. price two-course meal: £10 (lunch/dinner) What many folk discovered and liked about Old Town bar…

Martin Wishart - Interview transcript

The Scottish chef on his new restaurant and 10 years on from Edinburgh's first Michelin star

1 Apr 2011

Tell me a bit about the new place. It was owned by the Murray Group, and fortunately enough we’ve secured the property in North Castle Street. It will sit 75 covers in one sitting and there will be dining at the bar as well. Team wise we’ve got Paul…

Martin Wishart to open new brasserie in Edinburgh city centre

Michelin-starred chef to open premises on North Castle Street

28 Mar 2011

When Martin Wishart’s modest but ambitious restaurant on Leith’s Shore picked up a Michelin star in 2001, Edinburgh breathed a sigh of relief. It had caught up with Glasgow, where Andrew Fairlie’s kitchen at One Devonshire Gardens already had a star and…

Art installation at Ubiquitous Chip restaurant offers '3D dining'

Ingr3dients in Glasgow unveils Alasdair Gray’s first digital mural

7 Mar 2011

The Ubiquitous Chip likes to see itself at the centre of the cultural life of Glasgow’s West End. So no surprise that it has come up with something unusual to celebrate its birthday. Famously, Alasdair Gray painted his original murals on the walls of…

Edinburgh's Atrium closes its doors and Hawke & Hunter opens a new dining room

Scottish food news February 2011

17 Feb 2011

Surprise and sadness fell over the Edinburgh restaurant scene last week with the news of the closure of Andrew and Lisa Radford’s Atrium and blue restaurants in Saltire Court, above the Traverse Theatre. From stylish, avant-garde beginnings 18 years ago…

Lunch hour legends - the best soup and sandwich outlets in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Looking for food recommendations from your lunchtime eating habits

12 Jan 2011

We're looking for nominations for the best lunchtime soup and sandwich bars around Glasgow and Edinburgh for a special food & drink feature appearing here soon. We're relying on your in-depth knowledge of the eateries around your workplace that you…

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

The Orkney crab industry

17 Sep 2010

Lobster and langoustine may get the glamour roles in Scotland’s stellar shellfish line-up, but crab is starting to nip at their heels, as Donald Reid found out in Orkney.

The growing popularity of rapeseed oil

17 Sep 2010

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil is one of the more fashionable new products to appear on the local food scene in recent years. Donald Reid found out more about Scotland’s other national oil.

Glasgow's Corinthian reopens and Indaba arrives in Edinburgh

Edinburgh and Glasgow food news: September 2010

10 Sep 2010

With the dishes still piled up beside the sink after the Festival, parts of Edinburgh’s restaurant scene have undoubtedly been buoyed up by the unique annual surge of customers. Have no doubt, operators in other cities look on with envy. Among the new…

How Anster cheese become one of the Fife’s headline food acts

One of Scotland's artisan cheeses

10 May 2010

‘Right from the start, cheese seemed an obvious option. There was nobody else in Fife making cheese from their own milk on the farm; there seemed to be public demand for, and interest in, locally produced food; and last, but not least, we love…

Venison farming in Fife

The Scottish deer farm offering sustainable, humane agriculture

10 May 2010

Auchtermuchty can be hard to pronounce without a bit of practice, though it’s famous enough as the home town of accordionist Sir Jimmy Shand, popstars the Proclaimers and, to anyone tuned into inspiring Scottish food stories, John and Nichola Fletcher…

The List Eating and Drinking Guide 2010 - out now

28 Apr 2010

This year’s Eating & Drinking Guide has 113 new entries, which is more than one opening per week in both Glasgow and Edinburgh over the last 12 months. Not bad going for the worst recession in memory. And they keep on coming. Just to give you a…

Iron Chef UK turns up the heat on top cooks

21 Apr 2010

For those who prefer food through the medium of television rather than their own lips there’s some local interest in the next big thing to hit our TV screens this spring. Channel 4 will screen Iron Chef UK which, in its US format, was acclaimed by…

A tribute to Ronnie Clydesdale - the man behind Glasgow's Ubiquitous Chip restaurant

15 Apr 2010

Here at List Towers we’re putting the finishing touches to our annual Eating & Drinking Guide - get it free with the next issue, out on Wednesday 28 April. On that day we’ll be announcing the winners of our Readers’ Choice award, and the Newcomers of…

Susie's Diner set to close and The Apartment get a facelift

Food news March 2010

22 Mar 2010

There are openings. And closings. Then the things in between. Take The Apartment in Bruntsfield, for instance. It’s getting a new name, a new look and new opening times (including lunch), all to be revealed next month. Original owner Malcolm Innes…

Food news March 2010: A wee jaunt out of town

2 Mar 2010

With so much going on in the Glasgow and Edinburgh dining scene it’s easy to ignore the rest of Scotland – at least until the ‘summer’ season begins or the snow gates are opened, whichever is the earlier. But there have been some intriguing developments…

Valentine's Day: Restaurants

18 Feb 2010

Love is a many-flavoured thing, and not all couples are looking for the same Valentine’s experience. Donald Reid suggests a handful of choice tables for lovers of all persuasions...