NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 13:44:50 GMT Organization: Customer of PlusNet Xref: usenet.INS.cwru.edu rec.food.restaurants:54957 Hi guys. A little background: I'm a Network Security Consultant, and an opportunity came up for a four week gig in Edinburgh. Since I'm from D.C., it sounded exotic. Four weeks turned into six weeks, which turned into six months. Now, almost a year later, I'm still here. When I first arrived, I was living out of hotels. Naturally, I ate out every night. At some point, I started keeping notes on the restaraunts. This is a story of the restaraunts of Edinburgh, originally a different place every night (!), but now only one or two new additions a week. The restaraunts will be judged on the following criteria: 1. How I felt that day. Frankly, if I was in a good mood, the restaraunt must have been a better place. Is this objective? No. If you don't like it, travel to Edinburgh and write your own reviews. I have a spare bed; you can crash at my place. 2. How many good looking women flirted with me while I was there. 3. The quality of the service. 4. The quality of the food. I don't discriminate on the basis of value. If you're looking to spend as little money as possible, I will lead you astray. Finally, if you have any requests, send them to me. I'll eat there and review it for you. My email is [email removed] --- I arrived in Edinburgh on the 29th of April, 2001 at nine in the morning. The sun was shining brightly, but it was still chilly. I now know that it is always chilly. The taxi ride to my hotel was uneventful. The hotel, a no-frills hotel on Rose St., commands a premium rate because of its location. Nestled behind Princes' Street and on the border between the Georgian New Town and the City Centre, it claimed to have everything nearby - shopping, entertainment and great food. They sold nothing but warm beer and stale Kit Kat in the bar at the restaraunt, so, with the airline food already having been rejected by my body, it was off in search of the nearby great food. A quick scout turned up a huge number of restaraunts, and I settled on The Mussel Inn. --- The Mussel Inn is located at 61-65, ROSE STREET EDINBURGH EH2 2NH Tel: 0131 225 5979 Email:[email removed] You can find their menu, a relatively limited selection of seafood, at http://www.mussel-inn.com/menu.html. The Mussel Inn, as their name suggests, really prides themselves on their mussels. They sell them by the kilo, with a kilo pot of mussels going for a reasonable £9.45. There is outside seating available from late April to early September, with the seating area simply a chained off section of Rose Street. There were always patrons outside, although I can't for the life of me figure out why. Being outside in Scotland is a waste of time. Go inside. It's warm. The entrance to the Mussel Inn is through their small bar area, where they also will serve food if you ask nicely. The bar isn't terribly well stocked, and seems like an afterthought, although the barman was nice enough. The wine cellar is below the restaraunt, and the only way for the staff to reach it is through a tragically cool trap door concealed under the welcome mat. The downside to this is that when they need to restock, they have to stop people from entering or leaving the restaraunt while they fetch wine or spirits. The decor is light, with the walls pale blue. The furniture is light finish oak with white legs, some chairs, some benches. The catch and soup of the day will be on a blackboard on the wall, with some drink specials next to it. I ordered a starter of bread and soup, which could have been a meal in itself, followed this with some Queen's scallops cooked in a butter and cream sauce with Gruyere and bacon. For the main course I had the seafood pasta. The wine list was anemic. The reds (all three of them) are a year old at most, and most of the whites didn't even bother with the "hint of oak highlights" verbage that lets you know they filtered the brew through wood shavings, so they were probably fermented in an old shoe. I drank tea. For those of you counting calories, that is something like 8 million. Anyway, let's get down to the judging: 1. How I felt that day: Tired. I was impatient and cranky, I had been flying for a day, forced to endure airline food and service. (I know - they do the best they can. Don't care, still not satisfied.) I wanted some food, wholesome and satisfying, and wasn't in the mood for anything else. 2. Flirting girls: The waitress flirted a bit, but I wasn't in the mood for it that day, and it showed. 3. Service: They seated me next to the toilets, the bastards. Probably thought I was just another American tourist. Ha! Well, here's an online review in your eye! The waitress was pretty enough, but slow. she was working two sections and one of them always suffers. This time, it was mine. My starters were slow in coming. Refills were non-existent. I had to actually get up and find her to make my order. The ordeal of dinner took at least two hours. I first was going to give them a 0 star rating for service, but I have since eaten elswhere in Edinburgh and, unbelievably, it gets worse. Service is not a big thing in Scotland. My recommendation? Follow the local customs: don't tip. Full stop. It's a real shame, really; tipping works so well in America. 4. The food: That's why we're all here, isn't it? Well, the food was pretty damn good, Phil. I went back several times since then and suffered ludicrously bad service, just for the food. The soup was a lentil stew, and it was mouth watering. The bread was the crusty homemade kind, and they served it with a bowl of real butter that you think was scooped fresh from a churn. The scallops were so good I was tempted to order another round and skip the main course. The bacon and gruyere sauce is incredible, although you can also get them with shallots (excellent), leeks and horseradish (good), and tomato (eh. stick with the gruyere and bacon.). The seafood pasta had fresh seafood but pasta from a box. The presentation is simple and direct; this place serves food, and there is nothing fancy about it. The total bill for my meal was £21.80; I paid £25 because I was still a brainwashed American, but I was learning quickly. Okay, so the score: 1. ** My mood: Piss poor. 2/5 stars. 2. * Flirting girls: Poor. 1/5 stars. 3. * Service: Awful. It's awful almost everywhere. 1/5 stars. 4. **** Food: I could eat this every day. 4/5 stars. - Nathan Dornbrook
Edinburgh, United Kingdom