It seems everyone in Edinburgh and everyone who visits Edinburgh has heard of The Witchery by the Castle restaurant. It’s wildly popular and has a very good reputation, as part of the James Thomson restaurant collection in Edinburgh. My experience thus far of these restaurants has been to praise the venue (who couldn’t like Rhubarb or The Tower), but to criticise the standard of food. My perception of The Witchery though was the jewel in the crown – a venue whose splendor should be unrivalled and the cooking on a par with the surroundings. It’s certainly a struggle to get a table at a reasonable time at The Witchery, so please book in advance if you have a specific date and time in mind for your visit.
There are two dining rooms at The Witchery, each serviced by their own kitchen. The main dining room is a gothic affair, while the dining room we reserved a table in was the Secret Garden; accessed down a flight of steps. Intimate and dramatic are fair and accurate descriptions, but some may find the closely packed tables a little too intimate. The Witchery do care about service, but they also care about getting the maximum number of paying customers through the doors in a given night, so selling you £30 main courses but expecting the table to be vacated after a couple of hours is common practice. The blog once found itself in Little Washington, USA which is home to the similiarly highly rated Inn at Little Washington. We rejected the opportunity to dine there, given the short time span a table was available for and the unsocial times available – who seriously begins a three course meal at 11.30pm!? I imagine the Witchery is Scotland’s equivalent restaurant.
For some reason we always seem to be given the restaurant’s worst table when we go anywhere expensive. After descending the steps to the Secret Garden we were seated opposite the kitchen doors, which flung open every 10 seconds to offer much noise and bright lights behind – hardly the romantic setting the brochure promised! We did manage to move to the adjacent table, which was an improvement although still too close to the kitchen doors. Later the Russian couple who occupied our former table also sounded less then pleased.
The Secret Garden is a beautiful dining room. The haggis for starter (£9.50) was superb; infact the best dish of our entire meal. The potted duck (duck confit and foie gras) is enormous (£14.50). It was too quickly out of the chiller and onto the plate in my opinion, so it proved overly firm. The quantity was borderline ridiculous though; with the three thick slices of toasted brioche it was served with, this could have passed for a main course.
For the rest of the post, click here and to read more about Edinburgh in general since they specialize on this fabulous Scotland city.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
