So you know from a previous post that J and I had a weekend away at the end of January to celebrate our 5 years together. Well I have a second restaurant review for your entertainment and enjoyment. I didn’t review every restaurant we visited as it does get pretty wearing I think for friends, partners and family when you are taking pictures of their food and saying “Don’t eat that! I need a photo for my blog!”. I did, for a variety of reasons, put off writing this for some time as we are now half way through March. Silly me!

Anyway, the staff at the Tigerlily (which is a boutique hotel with a fabulous restaurant) were completely lovely and managed to fit us in despite our lack of booking. The menu was lovely and pretty fashionable looking (not that I really know all that much about food fashion) making it difficult to choose. The restaurant was beautifully decorated and somehow it felt really intimate despite being really busy, mood lighting and the way it was all set out was probably something to do with this.

Enough scene setting, onto the food. I do apologise that the quality of the pictures isn’t the best. The “mood lighting” and me trying to be subtle made it difficult to get the perfect photo.

I started with tempura soft shell crab with wasabi mayonnaise and chilli and mango salad.

I was really savouring these. The batter was perfectly crisp and the crab was divine. I could have eaten double the quantity but that says more about my love of battered seafood than portion size.

J had wild mushroom risotto, parmesan tuille and truffle oil.

This picture really doesn’t do this justice. This was simply gorgeous, rich earthy flavours and perfectly balanced flavours. One of the best risottos I’ve eaten.

For my main course I had Szechuan pepper crusted tuna with bok choi and red miso.

The tuna was cooked just how I like it. Rare in the centre and cooked but still tender on the outside. This was a great mix of flavours, especially the red miso which was unlike any miso I have tasted before. It was gloriously tart and really complimented the tuna.

J who had (more than once) said he fancied venison had Scottish haunch of venison with caramelised onion, barley, kale and juniper jus.

The flavours of this dish were great. Really rich like venison dishes are supposed to be. J mentioned that the venison was a bit chewy, but as venison is ALWAYS free range it’s often less soft than other meats as the deer are run round in the wild allowing stronger muscles to develop. The meat had a lovely, rich taste though like you would expect it to have.

Now as a side note I should point out that J cycles and this was his last full weekend of eating what he liked without worrying. For dessert we decided to be really decadent and order chocolate fondue. We also discovered dessert wine (and a pretty amazing dessert wine at that). Looking at the restaurant menu it was called “Zuccardi reserva Torrontes Tardio.

The fondue came with the above. somehow, even though strawberries are out of season and out of season strawberries are usually disappointingly tasteless to say the least. These weren’t, they were really tasty. I am of the opinion that Scottish strawberries are the nicest but my opinion may have been influenced by my Glasweigan grandmother taking me strawberry picking near Peebles one summer. I digress. Anyway, this dessert was glorious and we had lots of messy fun dipping the various items into the chocolate. The dessert wine was delicious and tasted citrussy, just like the wine list promised. J even piped up “goodbye chocolate” and he tucked in.

I will definitely visit both of these restaurants if I visited the city again. However, there are so many places to eat in this wonderful city I’ll always feel spoilt for choice and would obviously try lots of other eateries. I love Edinburgh as a city too, I have many happy memories of the places, both as an adult and as a child being taking around the Museum of Childhood with my parents, brother and grandparents. It’s a place I will keep visiting my whole life I think – even though the steps will inevitably cause a problem when I’m old and grey.

You can find out about Tigerlily here.