There's already been two reviews of the day we went to the Kitchin earlier this month - you can read the Missus's here, or AA Gill's here (though he was there for the dinner menu, it was the same day). My gibberings follow!
I'd never heard of The Kitchin, the Leith-based Michelin-starred restaurant, until I went there for a belated christmas lunch with work colleagues in January this year, after which I've been champing at the financial bit to go back, partly to see how the menu changes with the season, mainly to introduce my good lady to the food there. The former point relates to the importance that head chef Tom Kitchin puts on seasonal food - and while it feels like all chefs and restaurants currently trumpet their belief in seasonal food, Kitchin really seems to practice what he preaches. More than the buzzword du jour, the concept of seasonal food is presented as the cornerstone of The Kitchin, reflected in the motto From Nature To Plate (the title of Kitchin's new recipe book, which we'll be checking out in a few weeks time). As to the latter, while I had cheerfully feasted on meaty goodness at the January lunch, the vegetarians of the group were equally enthusiastic about the quality of the meat-free food at the Kitchin. Finding decent restaurants that serve vegetarian food to as high a standard as their meat mains isn't always easy, so this was something I really wanted to share with the Missus.
Poetically enough, it was through the process of her becoming Missus - ie, we got married - that the opportunity arose, thanks to my new work colleagues (I'm now in a different building, same employer) clubbing together to get us vouchers for the Kitchin as a wedding present. Although presented with them in June, it's taken four months for us to be able to find the right time to go - while it's open on a Saturday, I much preferred the thought of going during the week - but a couple of weeks back, fighting back cold-related sniffles, we finally found a window in our calendars on a Tuesday. So, how'd it go?
Well, we went along for lunch rather than dinner - with the set lunch menu, you can get three courses for £24.50, two of which would be covered by the voucher, whereas the a la carte prices are notably higher and would've made a dent in our wallets even with the voucher. As for the tasting menu... well, a glutton can dream, because goodness knows what salary I'd need to be on before I could justify £65 plus drinks for dinner, though I've no doubt the quality would make it worthwhile. First Minister? Anyhoo, the Kitchin hasn't noticeably changed in nine months, nor does it need to, though curiously it felt smaller, cosier, more intimate this time round, the difference of not being in a large room-filling group. Though undoubtedly more relaxed than other restaurants of a similar standard (or so I presume), and even though I knew to expect it from last time, it's still a bit odd having waiting staff unfolding the napkin or refilling our water glasses with a bottle already on the table, since we've always expected to do that sort of thing ourselves. Still, it's not as if that's all the waiting staff do - on the contrary, they were excellent, knowledgeable in the food yet with an air to relax rather than to intimidate as the cliché of the high-class waiter leads you to expect. Speed of service was impressive without giving the impression of being rushed, the sense being of a well-oiled machine running smoothly, attentive but not intrusive.
Right, nosh!

One of the highlights of the January lunch was the appetiser, a cream of celeriac soup that was just bursting with flavour, so I was looking forward to seeing what little goodie turned up before the lunch proper. We weren't disappointed, presented with a little bowl of superb roast pumpkin soup, as rich and flavourful as that celeriac soup, topped off nicely with toasted pumpkin seeds. So good! Appetite suitably teased, onto the starter.

What's that, you yelp. Ravioli of braised squid served in a languistine consomme, I answer. Uh... okay, you say edging away. But stop! Whatever your experience or expectation of eating squid, this was a revelation. If I didn't know that there ravioli contained squid, I would never have guessed, nor could I have imagined what it was. Braised, that squid became something fascinating and new to my tastebuds, closer perhaps to sausagement in texture than anything else, yet with a flavour all of its own somewhere between meat and fish, complemented with a sweetly sour consomme so good that I struggled to resist the urge to slurp every last drop from the bowl. One suspects such things just aren't done in swanky restaurants, but if I'd had a straw handy...

Main! And that, chums, is roast mallard from Perthshire, served with wild Scottish mushrooms and sauce 'aux abats', (the latter translates as offal, in case you were wondering). Rubbish photo, taken too close to the dish and with low lighting it really does the food no justice whatsoever. This was wonderful, in another world entirely from the usual duck dishes available at take-aways and gastropubs, the meat succulent and tender, draped with a rich sauce that made every bite a pleasure to savour without overpouring the flavour of the dear departed duck.

Rounding off the meal, here's the dessert - pistachio soufflé served with pistachio ice cream. Two pistachio flavoured sweets sounds worryingly samey, but no! Instead it's a textbook example of just how differently one flavour can be prepared. The ice cream was cold (fancy that!) and smooth, triggering taste nostalgia of pistachio ice cream in France when I was a kid, countered by the hot and perfectly risen soufflé. It was a treat to note how both clearly tasted of pistachio, yet at the same time were so different, complementing each other nicely. Most of all, both soufflé and ice cream were sodding delicious, rounding off the lunch perfectly.
It'd be nice to be able to have at least one critical thing to say about the whole shebang, but it's annoyingly impossible - the Kitchin yet again proved itself to be adventurous, ingenious and surprising in its dishes, while still keeping its ingredients firmly rooted in Scotland. Service was impeccable, friendly, utterly devoid of snobbishness. Both lunches there have been absolute solid-gold knockouts, so good that £24.50 stops being a rather high figure for a lunch and starts looking like a downright bargain in terms of getting what you pay for. If you're ever in Edinburgh and want a meal to remember, a real treat, I find it very hard to imagine you could do any better elsewhere in the city - or beyond, as the ever-increasing award haul suggests. Go, go, go. And take us with you.
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