Terraces Hotel, Stirling, Scotland

I've just returned from a two night stay for work in Stirling, a rather attractive little city in central Scotland. Nothing much to report on the eating out front, Monday night I dined at a predictably poor chinese buffet restaurant, and last night I ended up in McDonalds (I was running late for the football, and couldn't find a pub with food and big screen TV). That's probably not a fair reflection of what Stirling has to offer, but sometimes dining alone in a deserted restaurant is too depressing to contemplate. Cold, wet Monday evenings in early March, in a small place, are not generally conducive to a lively atmosphere.

The breakfast offerings at my hotel are worth a quick post though. The Terraces is a fairly small, cheap townhouse hotel, the kind of place that can be a bit Fawlty Towers if you're unlucky. Fortunately it was much better than that, the rooms were spacious and clean, the staff were friendly without being overbearing, and the breakfasts were cooked to order. This morning I chose poached eggs, black pudding and potato scone.

The black pudding was great, lean and peppery with plenty of oatmeal. The egg yolks were runny as they should be, and the potato scone made a good alternative to toast. Toast on the side was rubbish though, as it was made with very cheap sliced bread. Buy better bread please and your breakfasts could be fantastic!

7/10


4 Melville Terrace
Stirling
FK8 2ND

http://www.terraceshotel.co.uk/index.html

Terraces Hotel, Stirling, Scotland

I've just returned from a two night stay for work in Stirling, a rather attractive little city in central Scotland. Nothing much to report on the eating out front, Monday night I dined at a predictably poor chinese buffet restaurant, and last night I ended up in McDonalds (I was running late for the football, and couldn't find a pub with food and big screen TV). That's probably not a fair reflection of what Stirling has to offer, but sometimes dining alone in a deserted restaurant is too depressing to contemplate. Cold, wet Monday evenings in early March, in a small place, are not generally conducive to a lively atmosphere.

The breakfast offerings at my hotel are worth a quick post though. The Terraces is a fairly small, cheap townhouse hotel, the kind of place that can be a bit Fawlty Towers if you're unlucky. Fortunately it was much better than that, the rooms were spacious and clean, the staff were friendly without being overbearing, and the breakfasts were cooked to order. This morning I chose poached eggs, black pudding and potato scone.

The black pudding was great, lean and peppery with plenty of oatmeal. The egg yolks were runny as they should be, and the potato scone made a good alternative to toast. Toast on the side was rubbish though, as it was made with very cheap sliced bread. Buy better bread please and your breakfasts could be fantastic!

7/10


4 Melville Terrace
Stirling
FK8 2ND

http://www.terraceshotel.co.uk/index.html

Scotch Pie, A J Learmonth, Jedburgh

To cheer things up a bit after the last post, here's a pie:

and a very nice pie it was too. A warm scotch pie bought en route from Cumbernauld to Newcastle. I've only ever had a couple of scotch pies before and this was better than those. Just the job.

7/10

http://www.ajl-jedbutchers.co.uk/
Jedburgh

Scotch Pie, A J Learmonth, Jedburgh

To cheer things up a bit after the last post, here's a pie:

and a very nice pie it was too. A warm scotch pie bought en route from Cumbernauld to Newcastle. I've only ever had a couple of scotch pies before and this was better than those. Just the job.

7/10

http://www.ajl-jedbutchers.co.uk/
Jedburgh

Club Bar & Grill, The Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld, Scotland

I travel away for work fairly often, and a recent restructure has extended my patch to Cumbernauld in Scotland  for the first time. I always try a few different hotels if it's an area I'll be returning to fairly frequently, and if nothing comes up trumps I end up back in a Premier Inn (reliably good, clean rooms/reliably good breakfast options/reliably rubbish evening food). First up in the Cumbernauld area on recommendation of a colleague - The Westerwood. It's one of those big corporatey/conferencey/golf spa type places but not all in a bad way. The rooms are rather lovely so if this were a hotel review blog it would rate quite highly. Unfortunately it's not.

The Club Bar & Grill (big, bland, corporatey, conferencey) was serving meals to an array of lost souls wondering what they were doing there on a Monday night. Or at least I was anyway. On perusing the menu I was foolishly lured in by the description of 30 day dry aged Orkney beef. I should have known better. These corporatey,conferencey,golf spa type places often have menu descriptions that flatter to deceive, I know this from experience. And so it proved.

Steak: rubbish

Rib eye steak, chips and tomato (£19.95) and an accompanying house salad (£2.50) were rubbish in just about every way. The steak was a damp, greyish, flabby specimen, with little flavour beyond salt. It had been cooked unevenly despite being uniformly thin (the alleged 200g weight seemed unlikely) so that one side was medium-well whereas the other end was the requested rare. The chips looked promising, but had somehow gone horribly wrong. They were a lovely deep brown colour, promising crispness, but in practice offered greasy limpness. I have no idea how they managed this, the only thing I can think is that they were fried to well done earlier in the day and then refried in oil that wasn't hot enough. The tomato was pointless. The side salad appeared to be dressed, as it had a sort of glossy sheen to it, but I've no idea what with as there was no discernable flavour. The bag of leaves it came from had probably been open some time as the cut ones were browning at the edges. Any redeeming features? No problems with the service and a glass of Malbec was fine.

A pretty terrible experience all told. If that steak was burning a £20 hole in my own pocket I would not be a happy bunny. Onwards and southwards, tomorrow night I'll be in Newcastle.

Oh and apologies to anyone reading this and wondering why I seem to be anywhere but the M62 corridor. I'll be spending a lot more time in Manchester & Leeds over the next few weeks so you may find something of interest if that's your area!

3/10

The Westerwood Hotel & Golf Resort
1 St Andrews Drive
Cumbernauld
G68 0EW
http://www.qhotels.co.uk/hotels/the-westerwood-near-glasgow.aspx

Club Bar & Grill, The Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld, Scotland

I travel away for work fairly often, and a recent restructure has extended my patch to Cumbernauld in Scotland  for the first time. I always try a few different hotels if it's an area I'll be returning to fairly frequently, and if nothing comes up trumps I end up back in a Premier Inn (reliably good, clean rooms/reliably good breakfast options/reliably rubbish evening food). First up in the Cumbernauld area on recommendation of a colleague - The Westerwood. It's one of those big corporatey/conferencey/golf spa type places but not all in a bad way. The rooms are rather lovely so if this were a hotel review blog it would rate quite highly. Unfortunately it's not.

The Club Bar & Grill (big, bland, corporatey, conferencey) was serving meals to an array of lost souls wondering what they were doing there on a Monday night. Or at least I was anyway. On perusing the menu I was foolishly lured in by the description of 30 day dry aged Orkney beef. I should have known better. These corporatey,conferencey,golf spa type places often have menu descriptions that flatter to deceive, I know this from experience. And so it proved.

Steak: rubbish

Rib eye steak, chips and tomato (£19.95) and an accompanying house salad (£2.50) were rubbish in just about every way. The steak was a damp, greyish, flabby specimen, with little flavour beyond salt. It had been cooked unevenly despite being uniformly thin (the alleged 200g weight seemed unlikely) so that one side was medium-well whereas the other end was the requested rare. The chips looked promising, but had somehow gone horribly wrong. They were a lovely deep brown colour, promising crispness, but in practice offered greasy limpness. I have no idea how they managed this, the only thing I can think is that they were fried to well done earlier in the day and then refried in oil that wasn't hot enough. The tomato was pointless. The side salad appeared to be dressed, as it had a sort of glossy sheen to it, but I've no idea what with as there was no discernable flavour. The bag of leaves it came from had probably been open some time as the cut ones were browning at the edges. Any redeeming features? No problems with the service and a glass of Malbec was fine.

A pretty terrible experience all told. If that steak was burning a £20 hole in my own pocket I would not be a happy bunny. Onwards and southwards, tomorrow night I'll be in Newcastle.

Oh and apologies to anyone reading this and wondering why I seem to be anywhere but the M62 corridor. I'll be spending a lot more time in Manchester & Leeds over the next few weeks so you may find something of interest if that's your area!

3/10

The Westerwood Hotel & Golf Resort
1 St Andrews Drive
Cumbernauld
G68 0EW
http://www.qhotels.co.uk/hotels/the-westerwood-near-glasgow.aspx

Lunch Prix Fixe at The Kitchin (Edinburgh, UK)

The menu read: "Ravioli of game from the border"

I (stupidly) asked: "which border?"
The waiter looked at me. "The England-Scotland border."
Oh, right, silly me. I was in Scotland.

Having survived on grilled sandwiches (sorry, "toasties") for lunch that whole week and dining at bars/pubs with friends (which were awesome) after my conference sessions, I treated myself to one nice lunch: The Kitchin. The Kitchin was opened by husband and wife Tom and Michaela Kitchin in 2006 and six months later, in 2007, won a Michelin star.

Gougere and an assortment of vegetable chips

Their tagline? From Nature to Plate. Meat sourced from a local game-keeper, hand-dived scallops, and mushrooms from around Edinburgh hunted by the Kitchins themselves.


Dining at The Kitchin is pretty expensive, but luckily they have a three-course lunch prix fixe for £24.50. The wine list was also notably expensive. The cheapest glass I could find was £9.50 (almost $15). Regardless, a glass must be had.


As an amuse bouche, I started with a bowl of Langoustine Bisque over tomato. It was cold in Edinburgh, and this bowl warmed my body right up as I hunted for the langoustine pieces.

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Tea Tree Tea (Edinburgh, UK): A Solace for Tea Lovers

I thought being in the UK, I would find quality teas around, but going around Edinburgh, I was disappointed to mostly serve Twinings tea bags. Granted I was in Scotland and not England … but really? Just Twinings everywhere?

I was therefore extremely excited when I found Tea Tree Tea, a shop specializing in loose leaf teas, just two blocks away from the conference center (and around the corner from Starbucks). I accidentally discovered it on my walk to the Edinburgh Castle and made a mental note to stop on the way back.


Tea Tree Tea is a charming little shop with friendly people. It's usually pretty quiet and they have free wi-fi to boot!
On my first visit I had a chai latte to warm me up after a long walk around the city and the castle.This lighter version is a nice change from all the sugary, powdery ones you find at chain coffeehouses.

I also like their attitude:

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Dining (and Drinking) at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (Edinburgh, UK)

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is a members-only club where you can enjoy specially bottled and rare whiskies from around the world. While a membership will cost £100, it turns out that the Edinburgh location (their first location) has an attached restaurant that is open to the public. Getting an affirmative answer to whether or not we can get their society whiskies at the restaurant, I booked a table of twelve to celebrate a colleague’s birthday.


Celebrating your birthday in Edinburgh drinking whiskies? Lucky dog.
Our party was big enough to warrant getting their private room (we feel special!)

The food at SMWS is indeed expensive, especially considering the currency conversion, but apparently if you come early enough they have a special 3-course menu that’s reasonably priced. Alas, we didn’t make the cut and had to order a la carte.

We each started with a wee dram our server had recommended: 21 year aged Glenkichie, cask strength.

Then, amuse bouche. Where else would your amuse bouche comes with a glass of whisky?

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Edinburgh, UK

Casual Dining
Oink
Tea Tree Tea
The Verandah

Bars/Pubs
Ghillie Dhu
Whiski Restaurant and Bar


Fine Dining
The Kitchin
Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Shops
Demijohn, The Liquid Deli

Demijohn, The Liquid Deli (Edinburgh, UK)

Demijohn was an incredible find on Victoria St. While looking for Oink, the Scottish hog roll store, I passed by this storefront with their sign touting “Gooseberry Gin.”

Naturally I walked a little closer, and saw bottles of various shapes on the window, with handwritten labels. Nelson’s Spiced Rum Liqueur? Seville Orange Gin? How could I not check it out?

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Oink (Edinburgh, UK): Scottish Hog Roll and Crackling!

What better way to get customers in the door than a whole roasted pig on the window?

That's exactly what Oink, a little shop on the similarly-little Victoria St, does to get you to try their Scottish hog roll.

Not that the gourmet pig could've passed by a pink pig-shaped sign that says Oink without going in. 
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