Martin Wisharts, part 1

We gathered again in the library bar, this time in front of a huge roaring open fire, just what you would expect to see in a castle of this grandeur nestled in the woodlands surrounding Edinburgh on a cold November night.
A quick drink and a short taxi journey later and we were making our way down the newly renovated Leigh district of Edinburgh. We almost missed the restaurant so understated is the façade! We made our way in, 30 minutes early for dinner. This did not seemed to concern the professional, well oiled machine that is the waiters and waitresses to which nothing would seem to cause a problem.

Taking our seat around a large round table with partial banquet seating and three comfortable chairs we decided what to drink as an aperitif. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that we would share a bottle of champagne. Mark as always took charge of the wine list and made a great choice in a bottle of N.V. Louis Roederer brut premiere, Reims at £75.00 a bottle.

We toasted the end of another year and started discussing how our lives and career paths had changed over the past twelve months. Then we moved onto the menu. Now on the past there have been strict rules set out between us on how you may order your food in a restaurant like this. Two people may not order the same dish. This way we can see as many of the dishes that are produced by the chef as possible. In any case we all taste each other’s dishes and pass comment to decide who chose the most wisely out of all of us. This was until a couple of years ago when we all got a little bored of that. Besides, you ended up choosing dishes from the menu in break - neck speed just in case the guy next to you should opt for your starter or main course before you and you were left with something you didn’t really feel like. It really was a case of “God, there are only five starters, and one of them is eel, choose quickly, choose quickly, don’t wanna eat eel, quick, ahhhhhh, I’m gonna have the terrine.” “Oh, I just said I was gonna have terrine!” “Ahhh, choose again, ahhh!”
Too late, you’ve got to eat the eel!

So now we all just choose whatever we feel like eating and it works so much better.

Martin Wisharts menu is composed with such thought and passion going into each creation that you really do want to eat everything on the menu. Each dish has been carefully devised to use the best of flavour, texture combinations it is almost impossible to choose which one you would most like to eat.

For those diners who really can’t make a decision there is also the tasting menu comprised of eight courses taking you thoughtfully through the dishes on the menu.

I opted for the Langoustine ravioli with braised endive in orange and langoustine jus, as did Mark. The others all opted for different starters and it was only the Pumpkin Velouté that was cast aside. Main courses again was a decision that took another glass of champagne to come to the conclusion that I would take the Baked Turbot, Scallops, Cepes and hazelnuts. The others all opted for different main courses, so in fact we did almost see the whole menu that evening. A lot of fun for us, a chef’s nightmare in the kitchen!

Dinner started with a light amuse bouche, as it often does in a restaurant of this calibre, followed by our chosen starters. My langoustine ravioli was fantastic. The langoustines delicately wrapped in the finest pasta paste, so fine in fact you could see the light pink blush of the plump langoustines carefully enclosed. Three raviolis sat upon the braised endive in orange, a little bitter but with the ravioli it worked perfectly. The light jus just enough to complement the main components of the dish.

The starters were polished off in no time after the sharing ritual was completed, I would not play fare this evening though! I wanted to savour every last mouthful of my raviolis and every fork passed to me had the smallest morsel I could fit onto it without raising discussion over how measly the taster was I was returning to my friends!

The polished plates were removed from the table with all the grace they had been delivered whilst full of their proud starters and it was onto main courses.

My Turbot arrived with perfect timing, just allowing my starter to go down well enough and the group to polish off the remainder of the wine Mark had chosen to accompany our starters.

If I thought the ravioli was amazing then boy was I in for a treat? My turbot was cooked to perfection with carefully sliced cepes layered on top like scales, a small pool of celeriac purée rested to the left of the fish with three slices of perfectly grilled scallops sat gently on top. A little hazelnut jus finished the plate perfectly. The turbot and cepes was a pleasure to eat, the bitterness of the wild mushroom cutting through the fish and the purée to perfection, the purée itself was of a silky texture which made me wonder if a Pacojet tucked itself away somewhere in the kitchen? The nuttiness of the hazelnuts working with the scallops in perfect harmony with all the other elements on the plate.

Again, it was hard to allow anyone to take tasters away from me. I almost wanted to take the plate and hide in the corner hoping to go undetected until I had done the creation justice!

Everyone else seemed to have equally good comments for their chosen dishes so I am sure had I escaped to a quiet corner then just about every corner of the slick, modern restaurant would house a member of our party enjoying the delights we couldn’t believe our luck having been blessed with. Although when we received our main courses the restaurant had filled up somewhat to around fifty diners (possibly all looking for corners) so we would have been hard pushed to hide anywhere without raising suspicion.

The main course plates were removed and it was down to business, we had just less than half a bottle of wine to polish off and a dessert menu to perusal. Down to business!