restaurant martin wishart

my wife and i with 8 other family members had a very special meal at wisharts. the food, service and atmosphere was amazing and will be remembered forever. thank you martin!

situated in edinburgh’s port of leith, restaurant martin wishart opened its doors in 1999. just two years after opening, the restaurant was awarded a michelin star which it has continued to hold. by using only fresh scottish ingredients, martin wishart provides traditional and modern french cuisine. over 10 years ago i had visited this restaurant and had an amazing experience. however with the ever growing restaurant scene in edinburgh i have tried to keep up trying new places, and somewhat almost forgot about this gem.

to read about my experience of the 7 course tasting menu go to:

i don't have much experience with such high end dining and i was most impressed by the service here.

the food was very good as well and initially we had though that the tasting menu would not fill us up. turned out to be very well portioned and we were very full by the time we walked out of the restaurant.

the flavours all blend into each other to form a smooth palate and the techniques i saw on the plate very pretty good.

definitely a new experience for me.

we book a fancy restaurant to experience each christmas and this year we chose restaurant martin wishart. we decided so early on, we actually booked our table back in january. we had a little hiccup getting to the restaurant as my friend’s bus hadn’t turned up so we were a touch late but had called ahead to let them know (it’s only polite). it turned we were only late by 5 minutes but we did arrive a little frantically. we were told to relax by the gentleman that greeted us and he arranged for our coats to be taken and he showed us to our table. restaurant martin wishart is situated on the shore in leith and its decor is full of biscuit hues and warm, sedate lighting.  the restaurant itself was larger than i expected. however, i have to admit i was a little disappointed to be sat next to the door entrance/exit to the kitchen, which i hadn’t expected after booking so far in advance. that being said, it was a large table with a decent view of the dining room and no-one sat behind us as we were in a corner. we knew we were going to go for a tasting menu but the interesting thing about this restaurant is that they offer 3 types of tasting menu; the classic, a fish/seafood and a vegetarian. all three sounded amazing but we both opted for the classic. each menu also had a choice of 2 desserts, so we picked different ones, not only so we could see both but because they suited our own palates.

if there’s one aspect of edinburgh restaurant provision that our site has become less focussed on, in recent times, it’s fine dining. we’ve still never been to number one, the pompadour, 21212, aizle and a bunch of others, and it’s ages since we visited castle terrace, the kitchin and the plumed horse.

filament is quite a small and compact coffee shop so it is to their considerable credit that they’ve managed to find room for two pop-up events as part of their august offering. having started life as an august pop-up themselves, in the venue where machina espresso have in turn popped-up this year on victoria street, they’re old hands at the game.

i had heard great things about martin wishart restaurant and was dying to go but it was a tad out of my price range. then i heard that they did a set lunch menu for a lower price and decided to go and try it out with one of my friend.

we both started off with the scallops which were delicious and very juicy which is how i like them. then for the main course i had the monkfish in a red wine sauce and my friend had the guinea fowel with the gnocchi. i thoroughly enjoyed my monkfish as it was very tender and the sauce stopped it from being too bland which can occasionally happen with monkfish. my friend was a big fan of the guinea fowel but i tried a bit and thought it was very nice so i think it just depends on your taste. for dessert i went for the passion fruit parfait as i love passion fruit and my friend had the chocolate tart. they were both delicious – dessert alone was worth a visit to this restaurant.

roast goosenargh duck, morels, broad bean croquettes, foie gras sauce- another winner, the duck was so tender and the sauce matched it perfectly. yum!

amazing food. get the the taster menu. flavours, background and origination of food well explained as expected from a starred restaurant. however some of the staff have such a heavy french accent that it was hard to understand what they were saying for my girlfriend (from south korea). be sure to ask for a table next to the windows as they have slightly more room and privacy.

not long after ordering a small dice sized horseradish beet macaron was presented meant to be eaten in one bite to wake up the palette. it was an interesting combination with the sweet macaron shell and the creamy horseradish spiked filling; a good savo

everything is frighteningly meticulous here, including the service. when we were taking one of the photos, a waiter anxiously sprinted towards us begging us to let him fill our glass (which we had declined a minute before) because ‘it would look like a service error’!

my main of calves sweetbreads roasted in buckwheat, asparagus, girolles, florentine gratin was a flop on all fronts. the sweetbreads weren’t crispy, the garnish was exactly the same as my starter...

so what did i make of restaurant martin wishart and would i go back ? ……mmmnnn well not just yet , my first experience wasn`t a good one or an enjoyable one compared to other places ive been.far too noisy , far too rushed , no customer pampering as it was simply far too busy in there.the food was “ok” , i`m more than certain that if i`d gone when it was quieter then it would have been a million miles apart from what i`d experienced.the flavours were there , the technique was there…but on that night nothing came together and i left pretty well disappointed.martin wishart is one of scotlands top chefs and from all of the other internet trip reports ive seen some fantastic food on the plates but on this occasion with the rugby weekender i obviously picked the wrong time to visit….next time it`ll be somewhere a lot quieter… martin wishart at loch lomond for certain.

as edinburgh’s leading fine dining establishment, restaurant martin wishart continues to go from strength to strength, building on seemingly inexhaustible energy and creativity of its chef patron. he and his well drilled team are producing food of two michelin star quality, so it remains a mystery why this distinction is yet to be achieved. clearly, it can only be a matter of time before it is awarded. we all await the 2013 guide with interest.

restauranteur extraordinaire. there are so many wonderful places to eat in the uk but this amazingly friendly and exclusive restaurant in leith has everything going for it, from the chefs to the front of house staff, who have an ability to serve the most exquisite and taste bursting meals.

we visited because we have a very good friend working as a chef in this wonderful place and had the most amazing taste sensations in our 3 course lunch.

the most amazing and decadent experience that leith port has to offer!