Good places to eat in Scotland

If you happen to stop in Edinburgh I would suggest trying the restaurant located at the Bonham Hotel. The food was excellent as one would expect from a nicer establishment, but what set it apart for me personally were the innovative and interesting ways the chef chose his menu design.

The most standout dish was an appetizer of beef carpaccio and potato salad - while that seems a bit odd, I assure you it worked out beautifully.


I would advise away from european steak houses in general though, while the Scots are better then the English, neither of them can do a filet or rib eye justice.

Just returned from a week in Scotland. Stunning beautiful country. The cleanest country I've ever seen. Which makes sense -- distilling whiskey is all about the water (just as wine is all about the terroir, so the French tell us).

But the food is pure shit. Astonishingly bad. Wonder into a randomly selected restaurant and you will be served the sort of food you last saw in a grade school cafeteria. I'm not kidding. Canned green beans. Breakfast sausages of such poor quality that if you served them at San Quentin you'd be violating the 8th amendment. Order oatmeal at breakfast and the waitress brings you Quaker Instant -- in Scotland?

You'll want to do a traditional Scottish breakfast -- once. Prepared to be underwhelmed.

And in shops buy some dry oatmeal to bring home. You'll never eat Quaker again.

Isle of Skye has a couple of very good, very expensive fish places. Among the better restaurants in the UK. (I forget the name -- go to Chowhound.com)

In general, in Scotland you should always eat at places owned by non-Anglo-Saxons. Actually this is true throughout the UK outside London. Italians, Serbs, Indians -- they serve food that is far far better than anything the Scots can do.

Not Scot-bashing here. I'm Scot-Irish Presbyterian by background -- the Scots are my people. Love 'em to death. But their food is a fucking nightmare. And the English are just as bad.

My friend, your people are decidedly not Anglo-Saxons. Yes, some Germanic invaders settled around the Firth of Forth and became incorporated, but this certainly does not make the Scots Anglo-Saxons. Please reference my screen name.

If you are in Edinburgh the Witchery is quite fun, more for the décor/ambiance than the excellence of the food, although the food is decent. If you are in Fife Anstruther has a famous Fish and Chip place, smart it isn't but it is meant to be the best fish and chips in Scotland. I don't really eat fish, but everyone I have taken there enjoyed it. Cashmoney is overstating things a bit, but it is true if you wander into any random restaurant off the street you may be pretty disappointed. I have visited a few distilleries, the experience was not that different. I would suggest finding a smaller distillery, which was a little more fun than a large corporate style tour, or one that makes a whiskey you particularly enjoy.

if you decide to visit glasgow then I can recommend stravaigin (trio of sorbet is something I would never have picked, but your gf will pick it and you'll wish you had too ), and two fat ladies which is a very tasty fish restaurant there is also a tiny italian restaurant called Ristorante Caprese, which is pretty unglamorous but great food edit: Ristorante caprese might have been closed due to redevelopment of the area, so if it's still open I highly recommend a visit there before it is closed and relocated to make way for another topman or HMV all of these options will be under budget- Glasgow is pretty cheap to eat out, there are probably expensive restaurants in the merchant city, but it's probably artificial price inflation- the best rated restaurants are in the west end and the centre have a battered mars bar too...

The only thing you have in common with your ancestors is that you like to wear skirts!

Not true. Neither my ancestors nor me would ever have a chic take a doggy bag home to her boyfriend.

that dinner was totally worth it.

Very funny, given that kilts =! skirts. Dish it but can't take it, eh?

Nah, i just realized after I poasted that it wasn't actually a non-sequitur bc you were addressing what you had in common with your ancestors, whereas I'd at first just read that you randomly pulled the dinner date card again.