Lunch in Edinburgh:

Where: Spoon Café Bistro

6a Nicholson Street

Edinburgh

Cost: £30 based on a 2-course meal for 2 including soft drinks.

Why? For lazy lunches, for dreams of childhoods past.

Once I visited the fair city of Edinburgh on university related business. It was spring with hints of summer. In Kenyan terms this means it was fucking cold! Edinbugh is very pretty place, in fact so pretty that the UN named the whole city a world heritage site. I stayed at the George Hotel on George Street. But more on that later. The previous night I had eaten supper at Edinburgh famous eatery Fisher down by the old wharf turned regentrified fort of yuppiedom. Our gracious host Morena (“it Celtic!” she said.) pointed me in the direction of Spoon when I told her I needed a place to lunch near the university. She scribbled down the address and said, “you’ll love it”. And I did.

Spoon is right opposite the University of Edinburgh Law Faculty. It’s a grand old building. Fitting I think for Scotland’s pinnacle of jurisprudence. The university is easy to find, flag down a cab and yell “to the university!” Spoon isn’t.

The sign is small, once the building is found push open the glass doors, climb up a flight of stairs. Down a corridor and finally emerge into the heavenly space that is spoon. Light bathed the room, not to big not o small. The décor is kitschy retro in the most delightful way. The tables and chairs are mismatched, some big some small. Some are for kids. There are wooden benches and painted chairs. The open restaurant is punctuated by screens covered in old sheet music (from The Sound of Music) there’s a bookshelf (I picture Lewis Carol and C.S. Lewis and Enid Blyton). One gets the familiar feeling of being back in ones childhood home. Music filters down form somewhere –Mama Cass Elliot-, I recall the 60s and I think, “let the sunshine in!” and it does.

The menu is simple; an A4 sheet fits all three courses. Specials are on the board. I have the tomato and aubergine soup to start, skirt steak with braised onions and mash potatoes for my main. The soup is heavenly. It arrives hot with crusts of bread and a slab of butter. The veg is roughly chopped, this soup isn’t drunk; it’s eaten, bitten and chewed into submission. On my palette is sweet fragrant basil, garlic. Italy. Almost as an afterthought a kick of spice. The best soup I’ve eaten ever.

Promptly after comes the steak gently plopped on top of a hillock of creamy mash spotted with chopped spring onions. On top of the steak, a tangle of sweet sweet onions braised in red wine, they almost melt in my mouth. A wolf it down, forgetting I have company. The outside world rushes by, all I see is mismatched flatware, bare white walls and ethereal light beaming from on high. I pause to flush down my appletiser and I think to myself “what a wonderful world.”

And it is. It really is.

Dinner in Edinburgh:

Where: Fisher’s
1 The Shore, Leith
Edinburgh
Cost: £50 based on a 2-course meal for 2 with wine.
Why? To feel like you belong. For the best seafood in Edinburgh.

So after battling my way to Scotland we finally arrive. Thank you Easy Jet for your no frills thrills! I took a bus from the airport into town (£5 including free Wifi). I got off just off Princes Street (think Oxford Street but Scottish) hailed down a cab and gave them the hotel address. It was 200 meters away. £6. After a furious googling I found our dinner spot. Fisher’s by the sea.
Now Fisher’s is a fair way from the center of town. Taxi: £15. We arrive; it’s about 8 and the sun is setting. The restaurant is full. I’m asked if I have a reservation. I say no. He says sorry but we’re full. Bank holiday. We plead; we’re from Africa here for one night only. He relents. Go to the pub next door. Wait 30 minutes. I’ll seat you then. I don’t believe him. But he does as promised. Half an hour later he appears.

At fisher’s we find two place settings at the bar. He wasn’t kidding the place is full. It’s a small place, a typical pub with typical pub décor. Wood everywhere and a smattering of maritime kitsch –a mermaid overlooks the bar-. We sit glad to be out of the biting cold and into foodie bliss. We order, fish cakes and fish tempura to start, halibut and scallops for mains. The tempura is light and crisp, the fish white and flaky, a squeeze of lemon and its perfect, a hint of chilli somewhere. The fish cakes are equally good. What fish is in it, I’ll never know. All I remember is a dense mass of seafood heaven. The mains arrive. I’m not a fun of shellfish of any kind. Scallops are the exception. These are obviously fresh, sweet and extremely tender. The chef simply seared them, throw in some roasted pistachios, a garden of cooked spinach and lemon wedges and you have a good plate of food. Portions are generous. I don’t taste my partner’s main. I don’t want to share mine; but I hear it’s also good. Meanwhile we chat with the lovely lady behind the bar, Morena. She swills bottles of wine into glasses all the while seeming genuinely interested in what we have to say. A dessert card appears we decline. More wine, it sweet and red with a gorgeous after burn. I forget its name. It’s time to leave so we pay, a generous tip to the bartender, and to the waiter that got us in (£5 each). We say our goodbye’s, like leaving old friends.

They call us a cab. I leave with a card for a place to lunch the next day.