The Witchery by the Castle

I’m not setting a precedent with this one, honestly. I really can't afford to eat at places like this too often.

As I said in my first post, I don’t really go for fine dining. It's expensive, and I don't feel comfortable in such formal surrounds... Although I'm 25, I'm still not really sure I actually hold my knife and fork properly. It's kind of caveman-like, but it's comfortable so I'm not changing. Nope.

Yeah. I’d rather be able to sit down and relax, and not really worry too much if I have a noodle hanging off my chin (not that fine dining restaurants generally serve noodles).

So, The Witchery was an exception because while my folks were in town, I wanted us to try somewhere really special for dinner and I thought this would fit the bill as well as having that 'Edinburgh' feel to it - reeking (although not literally these days) of its spooky history, while being absolutely stunning and uber cosy. I was mostly drawn to this place because of how it looked. It looks AMAZING. By that I mean - as the name evokes - it's got this very Baroque-style interior, with stone walls and murals, oak-panelled walls and burgundy leather stalls, and, it's lit almost entirely by candlelight. The latter actually makes things a bit tricky, and in trying to read the menu properly, my dad managed to obliviously trickle melted candle wax on the table.

Maybe because of the reputation this place seems to have as somewhere very special, I thought The Witchery was a Michelin-starred restaurant. It's not, but it's certainly well-regarded, and it's definitely fine dining.

In good news though, we found the service was surprisingly unpretentious and relaxed, but really attentive. The waiter was a lovely guy. He was from South Africa, so we snapped up a conversation with him about living in Edinburgh... Whoops, I digress.

Then the food...

The food is a blend of French and Scottish cuisine.  I had the confit (a fancy term for something that's cooked in fat) chicken breast and thigh with leek risotto and oyster mushrooms; mum had the ‘three pigs’ – pork belly, bacon, and pork cutlets with apple sauce and roast parsnips, and dad had the hot-smoked salmon with… oh I can't remember. Dad liked it, but I was too wrapped up in being underwhelmed. I had a very petite servicing chicken and a tablespoon or two of the leek risotto, surrounded by some sauteed wild mushrooms. Although beautifully-cooked, there just wasn’t enough of it.

Pfft. The broad white plates, with small, immaculately-presented and garnished mains looked impressive, but it’s almost like unless you have a small appetite, you need to turn up here without being ‘ready for dinner’ or eat quite a bit of bread. Perhaps I'm just greedy?

Either way, in all of this, what we couldn’t help coming back to was that some of the dishes at the Witchery were of a similar style to those at The Shore in Leith – one of our favourites, which I'll review later – but the prices were so much higher. In some cases, the meals are better at the Shore and for nearly half the price, and still in intimate surrounds and with similar service. So, go here if it's a really special occasion, but if you were planning on going mostly for the food, don't. The food is only a secondary cost after the service, location and ambiance.