In Edinburgh, it's once again time to visit old friends and it's with great excitement that we return to Castle Terrace, where chef Dominic Jack is continuing to impress everyone with his classically based yet innovative take on Scottish food. It's hard to believe that this restaurant only first opened in July 2010, for in the short period since then, it has gained a Michelin star, ranked 34th in the recent National Restaurant Awards, and has been recognised by customers and professionals alike as a worthy peer of Edinburgh's other leading lights, The Kitchin and Restaurant Martin Wishart.
Since our last visit, some things have changed at Castle Terrace: there's a few more staff in the kitchen, a few new toys also, and they've enhanced their pastry offering including bread now baked in house. Meanwhile, some things haven't changed: front of house are as charming and professional as any, the brilliant use of the best of Scottish ingredients continues, and the kitchen, well, that's still as hot as hell. But there's one thing that has got even better since our last visit: the food.
We've seen it at many good restaurants, we even posted about it in respect of Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social: when a great chef opens his/her first restaurant, there is a steep learning curve to climb in that first year. In turn, despite the huge achievement of Castle Terrace delivering food of the quality it did in its first year, both the chef and restaurant have grown in confidence and so in their ability to deliver on the customer experience. And that's what we found on our return, everything just a little bit sharper, a little bit better, no mean feat from the high bar they had already set themselves from the very start.
Since our last visit, some things have changed at Castle Terrace: there's a few more staff in the kitchen, a few new toys also, and they've enhanced their pastry offering including bread now baked in house. Meanwhile, some things haven't changed: front of house are as charming and professional as any, the brilliant use of the best of Scottish ingredients continues, and the kitchen, well, that's still as hot as hell. But there's one thing that has got even better since our last visit: the food.
We've seen it at many good restaurants, we even posted about it in respect of Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social: when a great chef opens his/her first restaurant, there is a steep learning curve to climb in that first year. In turn, despite the huge achievement of Castle Terrace delivering food of the quality it did in its first year, both the chef and restaurant have grown in confidence and so in their ability to deliver on the customer experience. And that's what we found on our return, everything just a little bit sharper, a little bit better, no mean feat from the high bar they had already set themselves from the very start.
Canapés: Pizza margherita, salt cod barbajuan, 'caesar salad'
Waldorf salad
Of a dinner service, Castle Terrace offers the choice of an a la carter menu, a 'celebration of the season' menu, a (blind) tasting menu and a vegetarian tasting menu. The tasting menu was always going to be the thing for us, but a huge thank you to Dominic for making it extra special by not only feeding us a few additional courses, but also running two parallel tasting menus so we could see more of what he's doing at Castle Terrace. We always gets the feeling with Dominic that he's brimming over with great food ideas and a menu, necessarily limiting the options, is almost a constraint. Today, a few of those extra ideas made the plate and we loved every single one of them.
Given the sheer variety and number of courses, I'll mostly let the pictures do the talking.
Given the sheer variety and number of courses, I'll mostly let the pictures do the talking.
tartare of line caught mackerel from Eyemouth, apple and ginger
Tartare of Loch Duart salmon, served sushi style
Newhaven brown crab with mango, avocado and roasted pepper
Pate en croute of grouse from Scottish borders, pear, prune and port
When scallops were served up, we saw two distinct but both excellent arrangements: tarragon and lemon, and salsify and orange. Scallops have probably been the item we've seen most of on the trip, present in menus from the tip of Cornwall to the Northern tip of Scotland. Accordingly, there was, admittedly, a little scallop fatigue setting in by this point, but Dominic's fresh take saw us eagerly demolish these plates.
Seared hand dived Orkney scallops, served with cannelloni of tarragon and lemon
Seared hand dived Orkney scallop, salsify and orange
Another core idea with two markedly different outcomes followed, the core of both being risotto of organic spelt, but one loaded with black truffle and seared foie gras, the other with sautéed squid. Both of these dishes are so good it's almost worth making the trip to Edinburgh for these alone. I could simply eat that risotto for ever.
Risotto of organic spelt from Doves Farm, fresh black truffle and seared foie gras
Risotto of organic spelt from Doves Farm, served with sautéed North Sea Squid
Two fantastic fillets of North sea hake also get two different treatments, and both come with almost 'signature' Castle Terrace styling.
Poached fillet of North Sea hake, piperade, olive, anchovies and parma ham
Seared fillet of North Sea hake served on a salt cod brandade with crisp potato
Mains are a classically Scottish affair with saddle of roe deer and Scottish border's grouse. Is there any doubt that such indigenous ingredients in the hands of a master chef would be anything other than sublime?
We weren't finished there however, Dominic then sent out his hare 'a la royale', a dark, dense rich beyond belief dish, totally remarkable. I think I was so stunned by it that I forgot to get a picture of it. Dominic kindly said on serving the hare that he didn't expect us to finish it given how much food we had already been served. So how good was it? We both cleared our plates!
We weren't finished there however, Dominic then sent out his hare 'a la royale', a dark, dense rich beyond belief dish, totally remarkable. I think I was so stunned by it that I forgot to get a picture of it. Dominic kindly said on serving the hare that he didn't expect us to finish it given how much food we had already been served. So how good was it? We both cleared our plates!
Saddle of roe deer from Winston Estate, quince tatin, seared pumpkin, chestnut and pepper sauce
Grouse from Scottish borders, with sautéed wild Scottish mushrooms, bread sauce and watercress
cheese trolley
Desserts at Castle Terrace offer a strong line up currently, so a big well done to Hector in pastry. As can be seen below, the Castle Terrace take on black forest gateau is simply awesome.
Caramel and chocolate soufflé with popcorn ice cream
Black forest gateau "Castle Terrace" style
What a simply amazing meal, so much work and so much precision on every plate. Delighted too to have my 'good' camera there to capture it - our last visit to Edinburgh saw the camera broken in transit.
In our view, Castle Terrace is one of the truly great restaurants in the UK right now. Despite that fact, we believe it will continue to get better, Dominic just seems so talented, so passionate and so committed, and the restaurant is only a fraction over two years old. We're delighted that Castle Terrace is now getting the nationwide recognition it deserves, and in time we could easily see it getting its second star. We would not dream of visiting Edinburgh and not stopping by Castle Terrace to eat there; our suggestion is that neither should you.
Visit Castle Terrace website
Follow Dominic Jack on Twitter @dominicjack
Previously I visited Kyloe, Edinburgh
Next stop: Raby Hunt, Darlington
Location map for Castle Terrace
In our view, Castle Terrace is one of the truly great restaurants in the UK right now. Despite that fact, we believe it will continue to get better, Dominic just seems so talented, so passionate and so committed, and the restaurant is only a fraction over two years old. We're delighted that Castle Terrace is now getting the nationwide recognition it deserves, and in time we could easily see it getting its second star. We would not dream of visiting Edinburgh and not stopping by Castle Terrace to eat there; our suggestion is that neither should you.
Visit Castle Terrace website
Follow Dominic Jack on Twitter @dominicjack
Previously I visited Kyloe, Edinburgh
Next stop: Raby Hunt, Darlington
Location map for Castle Terrace
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