My mouth is just like alive. [chuckles]
Hi, I’m Roberta Hall-McCarron.
Today I’m gonna take you to three places
that I love to eat at in Edinburgh,
and this is Where the Chefs Eat.
Oh my God.
It’s perfect.
[gentle upbeat music]
We’re starting off at Little Capo,
an amazing new addition to the Edinburgh food scene.
Let’s go in.
[bright upbeat music]
So it’s Italian-ish, exactly how they describe it.
It’s just super relaxed, like a beautiful vibe.
Stunning decor,
like you’re just going out to your friend’s
for dinner, for lunch,
but then serving really lovely relaxed food.
The dishes, the flavors are all there.
The seasonings are perfect.
The knowledge behind everything is great.
It’s incredibly good value as well,
and we’re in a lovely part of Edinburgh.
Being a restaurant owner myself,
I really do look at restaurants in a different way
when I sit and dine.
Ooh, thank you very much.
Bon appetit.
Thank you.
So here we have the zucchini fritti,
which is courgette deep-fried in a light, crisp batter.
They’ve done a little aioli to go with it.
[zucchini fritti crunches]
It’s very hot. [laughs]
We’ll let it cool down before I continue eating it.
I love how garlicky this aioli is,
and it’s exactly the way the aioli should be.
Punchy, garlicky,
the perfect accompaniment to the zucchini fritti.
And they’ve also added in a little bit of parsley oil,
which gives an other little flavor in there.
It’s perfect.
Thank you.
So this is the cioppino,
which is basically like a fish soup.
This is a dish that I want to have
when I come to Little Capo.
The smells coming off it are just perfect.
Oh my God, it’s just, ugh.
It’s a hug. [laughs]
It’s a warm, warm hug.
It’s cod, mussels, bisque, potatoes,
basically like a fish stew soup,
and their in-house ketchup.
So this dish, the cioppino,
has such an interesting background.
It’s actually originally from San Francisco.
It was when they’ve had bad fish days,
and so they would all go around each other’s stalls
and take whatever little bits was left over
and make this amazing dish.
I love the idea of everyone grouping together
to create something,
and it actually also tastes incredible.
Tomato is the prominent flavor.
With the potatoes, they’re really soaking it up,
so they’re full of the amazing soup.
And the fish, the lovely cods,
cooked to perfection.
Mm.
Quite frankly, Scottish mussels,
nothing better.
[lively music]
Alright, finishing up with tiramisu.
Tiramisu is having such a moment right now.
It’s the perfect dessert.
It’s got little hit of chocolate
with that lovely dusting of cocoa powder on top,
little bit of booze,
and just lovely soft, creamy textures.
My favorite way to finish any meal.
It’s perfect.
I mean, it really is perfect.
That was incredible.
Let’s move on to the next place.
[upbeat music]
I think Edinburgh’s food culture is so unique
because it’s really got such a broad range
of different offerings.
You’ve got our street food places,
neighborhood bistros, so many bakeries,
so many great independent places to go to now.
And all these places are really showcasing
all the incredible Scottish produce
that we have on offer as well.
The most amazing thing about Scottish produce
is the fact just how tiny Scotland is.
You really don’t have to travel very far
and it’s at your fingertips.
One hour up the road and you’re in the Highlands,
and you can get game, go foraging,
summertime hits with all the berries,
the west Coast and the north,
really incredible shellfish.
The list is endless.
[energetic music]
Best way to describe Mirin’s menu
would be small plates of flavor. [laughs]
It’s punchy.
It’s got layers, depth,
such interesting ingredients are getting used,
and they never, ever fail to deliver.
Okay, so here we’ve got your roe deer & nduja dumplings
with a kaffir and lime broth.
These dumplings are why I keep coming back to Mirin.
I’m gonna do the broth first just ’cause it’s…
Oh my God.
The depth of flavor in this broth is insane.
It’s got a creaminess,
a buttery like spiciness to really liven things up,
but then also you get that hit of the kaffir and lime,
and it lightens it all.
More, more. I want more. [chuckles]
I think what makes this even more special and interesting
is using the amazing Scottish produce like the venison,
but adding in all these incredible Asian flavors like kaffir
and the chili and the nduja is wonderful.
And I’m gonna go straight for a whole dumpling actually.
Mm.
I wish everybody could taste what I’m tasting right now.
Wow. Wow.
This is some lovely North Sea cod
that we marinate a little bit miso,
a little bit sake, a little bit of mirin.
Then we vary the shellfish a little bit today.
We’ve got some beautiful blue shell mussels
and some cockles.
The food that we do here is classic French cooking
but with some techniques from Asia,
some ingredients from Asia.
The atmosphere and the setup and everything,
it’s just so chilled.
Exactly how I love to eat.
This is what I want.
I want to feel like I’ve gone right to their house
and they’re just serving me their dinner.
Another thing that I love about Mirin
is the flavor combinations.
Like amazing, insane, fun.
I can’t wait to try it.
I can’t wait. I’ve not had this.
Yeah, I’m so excited.
My mouth is just like alive. [laughs]
I can taste the sweetness from the miso,
and these muscles are insane.
Last and not least, the bao.
[Roberta gasps]
So again, this is another dish that’s kind of based
in classical French technique.
It’s based on a Hare Royale.
So we’ve kind of taken that idea
and kind of merged it with a bao bun,
something that I love,
and then we served that with a really rich broth.
I have made Hare a la Royale a lot,
and I would never come up with this idea,
and I’m honestly, I’m so excited.
Ooh.
Beautiful, delicate, braised meat inside.
It’s got the stickiness that you get with bao buns,
but there’s a lightness to it.
There’s a teeny, tiny bit of heat.
There’s just so much going on,
but it all works so perfectly together,
and it’s just, yeah, another knockout dish.
Absolutely amazing.
Let’s head to the last stop of the day,
a very, very special place.
[upbeat jazzy music]
So last stop of the day
and what I think is maybe the best restaurant in Edinburgh.
Coming into LYLA is such a special experience.
The beautiful staircase taking you up
to this incredible room,
you know you’re in for a special treat.
So, one of my favorite things in the world,
a cheese and onion sandwich,
but not like any cheese and onion sandwich I’ve had before.
You get cheese and onion, but so much more,
so much depth of flavor.
The crunchiness from the tuile
with the cheese custard inside
is like the perfect balance of texture.
Texture is so important in food,
and this little like teeny tiny bite has got everything.
And it truly is a cheese and onion sandwich
but on a different level.
I love snacks at the start of any meal.
They take it to different places
’cause there’s so much going on and then,
it’s my favorite way to start any meal.
The texture from the seaweed nori tarts, it’s perfect.
And the richness that you get from that aged tuna
is just that perfect accompaniment.
All the extra bits like the finger limes,
the tiny bit heat from the chili and the yuzu powder
are just building so many flavors on it.
It’s incredible.
So something really exciting
about getting to sit in this incredible room,
having incredible snacks, drinking beautiful champagne
all before getting taken downstairs
to continue the rest of your meal.
So, insides little sleeve there,
you’ll find the menu for this evening.
The 10-course menu based predominantly around fish
and seafood coming from the great Scottish waters.
[Lewis] Good evening, how are you doing?
Good, how are you?
Yeah, very well. How’s it going?
Good, it’s really good. Thank you.
This is so pretty. [giggles]
Mm.
It’s so clean and fresh and vibrant.
Everything that’s in there just balances perfectly.
The meatiness, fattiness that you get from the cured fish,
that freshness from that really zingy cucumber-apple broth,
and then teeny tiny bit of heat from the jalapeno oil,
it’s perfect.
So up next, quite a playful example of ramen.
So what we do is we take North Sea squid
and slice some meat resemble ramen noodles,
then on top is pickled shallots, pepper dulse seaweed,
some shiso, and the warming broth.
That’s beautiful.
Oh my god, the smell.
It’s so pretty. It’s so tender.
These super thin ribbons,
they’re almost like melting in my mouth.
[gasps] Thank you.
Gosh, that’s another pretty plate. [laughs]
I mean, I’m delighted that we are finishing
with a chocolate dessert
because chocolate is my favorite thing
in the whole wide world.
I think I actually get disappointed
if ever go to a restaurant with a tasty menu
and it’s not chocolate. [laughs]
I can’t wait to try this.
Wow, there’s so much going on, so many flavors,
but there’s, again, just this incredible lightness to it.
That is skill because that is very, very difficult
to achieve.
Blown away, absolutely blown away.
Wow, what an incredible day.
If I was to pick one place
out of the three that I visited today,
I don’t think I could.
They were all so unique
and offered something completely different to each other.
It transcended all of my expectations.
If you get the chance,
definitely go to these three restaurants
and check out everything else that Edinburgh has to offer.
[gentle piano music]