The Kitchin

Commercial Quay, Leith

visited 11/07/09

If you have a flat in central Edinburgh, people come and stay in it. And then they very generously take you out to Michelin-starred restaurants, and thus I got to go to the Kitchin.

The Kitchin website has some worringly Sleb Chef touches but none of these is apparent in the muted, stylish dining room and efficient, friendly service. Thanks to my very generous host, we had the tasting menu and accompanying wines, which made for an evening of one delicious event following another.

The cooking here is very good indeed: thoughtful but with a bit of brio. And rooted in longstanding traditions (unlike my last Michelin experience in which the Pate Lollipop was a gastronomic adventure too far). The Kitchin manages to bring off the combination of detail and homogeneity--lots of different flavours and textures come together wonderfully, and with no superfluous bits and pieces.

First we had a amuse bouche of a cock-a-leekie broth (with amazing depth of flavour) with little bits of crisp shallot that brought out the sweetness. Then crab with a lightly curried sauce and an equally light red pepper chutney through which the crab emerged triumphant. We later discovered this was supposed to be rabbit but clearly something had gone wrong in the cunicular department as the next dish was also crab--a more classical and very correct ravioli with an intense crab bisque. While it's great to get a lot of crab, I like rabbit, and I like different things on a tasting menu.

Next up: belly of pork, with a number of thoughtful trimmings (perfect girolles, little broad beans and a couple of gnocchi which, as my companion observed, were a bit of a place holder for all the other flavours). Now on to scallops which for me were the least successful. I have had scallops which were a little bit plumper and sweeter than these, and the accompaniment--carrot puree, orange, and fennel--was slightly one note. But still very good.

Now onto to Beef Wellington which I last had at some hoary old Edinburgh establishment and it was horrible. This, however, was a great piece of beef fillet (exceptionally tasty for this cut) in a very light layer more like a mousse than pate, spinach, then a delicate pastry (which could just possibly have been crisper). All very good indeed, and not too much despite everything that had come before.

We shared some cheese, which was chosen and kept with such perfection that it put the usual "cheeses from Mellis" that you get in Edinburgh restos (which is usually too cold Dunsire and the ubiquitous Montgomery) to shame. Really, really lovely cheese of which the highlights for me where a Blue d'Auverne and a cheddar that I was unable to catch the name of as the cheese waiter had a tendency to gabble). Pudding was a cornucopia of fruits, a cinnamon-flavoured peach sorbet and a completely delicious and fluffy crowdie cheesecake. Three puddings in one, really, but they were all fine together.

With this the exceptionally charming sommelier brought us a succession of wines all of which matched the food perfectly (which the possible exception of a slightly uneventful southern French sauvignon blanc with the first crab dish). None of these wines were big label types, but they were very good indeed and good value, too.

So it was a quite excellent gastronomic adventure which brought together a lot of fantastic Scottish ingredients and (apart from the double crab) assembled a wonderful narrative of cooking. Anyone else wishing to stay in my flat and take me out for an evening like this (many thanks, Michael!) should apply below.