untold blisses

We ate well in Edinburgh.  Very well. We went out for a wander just after we checked in, and found ourself in Peter’s Yard, a Swedish bakery and coffee shop right by our hotel.  We both had a delicious kanelbullar (cinnamon bun) and that’s what tempted us back on the morning we left Edinburgh as well.  I loved the bakery – really good coffee, lovely furniture, chilled out Scandi atmosphere.  I could do with one of these near me.

After wandering around Edinburgh for a bit (more on that later), we returned to the hotel to get freshened up for dinner.  Not wanting to journey far, we walked over to the next block of buildings in the Quartermile and into No 8 Lister Square.  We were prepared for it to be busy, but fortunately there was one table left upstairs.  I had the most amazing fish and chips – omg, the batter.  Husband had venison sausages and mash but he regretted not having the same as me because IT WAS AMAZING. I also may have accidentally drank a lot of espresso-based cocktail – a “Café Cubano”: Havana Club 7, crème de cacao, double espresso, sugar syrup, milk, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.  It came in a frappuccino-type plastic glass and I drank two in very quick succession.  This plus my pudding (chocolate brownie, popcorn panna cotta, and salted caramel ice cream) meant I had a crazy amount of espresso and sugar, which left me awake all night.  No joke.

Still wired from the first night, we skipped breakfast.  Lunchtime on the second day was Söderberg pizza, directly opposite No 8 Lister Square.  We wanted to visit this place for dinner, but we were out of sync as they only opened in the evening at the weekends.  So this was our lunchtime ‘defeating Arthur’s Seat’ reward.  They’re part of the same group as Peter’s Yard – it’s like a Swedish invasion! – and their sourdough pizza is sublime.  I had the 2 slices of the vegetarian and Husband had the meat, but we were given an extra two meat slices so I had some of that too.  All so good.

Outside Söderberg

Inside Söderberg

Söderberg pizza

Tuesday night was a bit of a bust.  We headed over to an Italian that we’d read good things about only to find it utterly rammed.  A real shame as I really wanted some bruschetta.  We walked for about half an hour further trying to find somewhere that had a spare table – we really couldn’t understand why everywhere was so busy!  With Google and TripAdvisor reviews at hand, we eventually found Henrick’s Bar and Bistro which was nice enough, and most importantly, was quiet!  The meal itself was perfectly decent – I only had nachos as I was feeling quite delicate and Husband had fish and chips, trying to recreate the glory that was my previous dinner.  The main problem we had at Henrick’s was the American tourists in the bar were hogging the wait staff, and I needed to get to Sainsburys before it closed at 10!

Lunch was skipped on Wednesday as we’d had the free breakfast at our hotel and after a long day walking about, we stopped for dinner at Burger Meats Bun. A terribly blurred photo but I wanted to get stuck in.  I obviously couldn’t have a holiday without a burger, and popular consensus is these guys have the best burgers in town.  With triple cooked chips and breaded mac ‘n’ cheese bites, it was the perfect last night meal. Plus, their cow mascot wears trainers.  We waddled back to the hotel, and planned not to eat for the rest of the week.  It was a good three days for food.