The Wee Restaurant is one of my favourite restaurants around, partly because it is ridiculously close to where I grew up, but mainly because the food is almost without exception delicious. Craig Wood established the restaurant in 2006 after working with Martin Wishart (of Michelin fame in Edinburgh) and on the luxury five star train, the Scotsman- given his resume I was particularly excited when it opened and, having now been countless times, I have never been let down.
The menu is essentially French but there is real focus on Scottish ingredients particularly locally sourced fish and seafood. The ever presents of the menu are, for first course, mussels cooked in a creamy sauce with bacon, and for main a succulent rib eye served with slowed cooked tomato (always deliciously sweet and simply outstanding) and varying types of potatoes. For me, while the mussels are delicious, the portion size is just too large to allow you to fully savour the main courses so I often have to give these a miss.
Anyway, so I was back in Scotland recently and decided that a trip to the Wee Restaurant on my last night before coming back down to London was a must.
We started as usual with the black olive tapenade and homemade bread- delicious as always although I do sometimes wish Craig would expand beyond the black olive tapenade which, while tasty, has been on the menu for quite some time.
Next up I opted for the calves' tongue with salsa verde and a baby caper and watercress salad. Sadly, the delicate taste of the tongue had been lost in the frying and, although the salad and salsa verde were delicious and helped somewhat to cut through the fat, this dish was a little disappointing.
My dining companion for the evening fared somewhat better, however- thick cut slices of Shetland smoked salmon, watercress salad and a horseradish cream- I would never have thought of putting horseradish with smoked salmon, but it really worked.
Onto the mains where I heartily enjoyed a piece of smoked pork belly. The belly was succulent and had a wonderful subtle smokiness to it- a real triumph.
The other main was the steak- always delicious. When I first went to the Wee Restaurant a number of years ago I had the steak and asked for a steak knife to eat it with- I was told that if I needed a steak knife I could have the steak for free! Needless to say no steak knife is needed- succulent, tender and juicy.
On to desert, I went for cheese (I am not a huge desert fan and would much rather nibble at some tasty cheese and biscuits with a glass of port). They always have a nice selection of mostly British cheeses served with oatcakes which, on this occasion, was accompanied by a tangy homemade pepper chutney.
My dining companion went for the strawberry dessert on what appeared to be toasted brioche- this was simply incredible!
So all in all another successful trip to one of my favourite restaurants at a highly reasonable £32 per head. If you are ever in Edinburgh I would recommend taking the short trip (20 mins by train) out to North Queensferry to visit this wonderful little restaurant- remember to book in advance on the weekends though as it is often booked out
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