Eating out in Edinburgh- Café Cassis

Eating out in Edinburgh- Café Cassis

The last weekend I went out for lunch with The Boyfriends family to celebrate his Mum and Sister’s birthday. Wooo! We headed to, Café Cassis, (part of The Salisbury Hotel) A French restaurant in the Newington area of Edinburgh.

The restaurant offers a very nicely priced lunch menu, with the option of having specials on a board. We all opted for the lunch menu, which offers two courses £8.95 with the option to add on £1.95 for a dessert.

I opted for a bowl of Moules marinière with cream, garlic and parsley, in a delicious sauce, served with a few baskets of bread for the table to share.  I was so happy with this starter. Having the bread also meant I could soak up all of the juices to leave a clean bowl! The portion size was pretty generous, especially for a starter, and to my delight I didn’t have to throw any muscles away as they were all opened, woo wooo!

For my main course I had, beef bourguignon, which looked like a small portion when it came out, but it was deceptive as it was actually the perfect portion size! The meat was wonderful, very tender, and the whole dish had plenty of flavour.

For dessert I chose Homemade nougat ice cream terrine served with crème anglaise and

Raspberry coulis. It wasn’t the most impressive looking desert, but it tasted good and was a lovely way to finish the meal.

What I think: The service was excellent. We had one waitress to take all of our orders, and two waitresses to serve everything, so food came out very swiftly! The quality was wonderful throughout and I don’t think there is anyway you expect more, especially with such a small price tag on the set meal. The restaurant itself looked for clean and fresh. I expect I will go back for more. All things considered I don’t think I can give it any less than 9/10 (an upgrade on desserts and it would be a very easy 10).

Restaurant website:  http://www.cafecassis.co.uk/index.html

Eating out in Edinburgh, Café Malayne

So as it happens, I have a very hard working boyfriend, who was given  £75 to blow on a meal as a “Thank You’” for all of his hard work. Brilliant!  It took us forever to decide where to go, and a few months later settled on Café Marlayne, Thistle Street in Edinburgh.

We’ve been to the café Marlayne at the top of Leith walk twice before for lunch, and the food was pretty good (the service comically bad, but that was just down to one waiter on a verrry off day!), so we looked at the evening menu, and ding dong! It looked incrediable!

We rolled up on Thursday evening, to the restaurant, despite the tiny size of the room there was a definite buzz about the place. Quickly we were seen to our table and greeted with a bowl of delicious sliced baguette- which was very welcome as we were both starving!

On to the food!

For a starter I had Fresh Crab with Mango, Avocado, Corriander Salsa & Lime Mayonnaise, which cost £5.10.  It came out in a tower with the mayonnaise drizzled in a zigzag across the plate beneath the tower of crab, avocado and mango. The starter was light, had a sharp-fresh taste and was just the thing I needed to get excited for the rest of the meal.

The one and only thing that let the starter down was how much better my boyfriend’s starter was! He had a dish of pigeon breast and bacon, on a bed of rocket. I was eager to try it, and it didn’t disappoint! It looked marvelous and tasted even better.  The portion size was very generous, especially for a starter (could easily pass for a light lunch).  Everything on the plate complimented each other perfectly, and it’s something I would love to eat a full portion of.  Think this starter cost about £5.00

For the main meal we both decided on the same dish: Gressingham Duck Breast on a bed of spinach.  The main meals come with a plate of vegetables (broccoli, carrots and potatoes- which was the perfect portion side to compliment the Duck) The Duck was cooked to perfection, and melted in the mouth. We were both very impressed with it and it was easily worth the £15 we paid for it. There were two very clean plates when we were finished!

The best bit- dessert!

I chose Key lime pie (one of my favourites!), which I knew I was a fan of as I’ve had it before at the other café Marlayne. It’s beautifully sharp, and creamy with lime zest throughout and I cant sing enough praise its way! The base was made using ginger snaps, and keeping in line with the rest of the meal looked beautiful!

Louis (the boyfriend) opted for white and dark chocolate Almond torte, which again was beautiful and equally as delicious, but I think was a bit too heavy to have a full slice after so much food.  Both desert’s came in at £4.50 and are worth every penny!

I would love to go back there and eat everything all over again! The service was brilliant, and there are no complaints from me in the slightest. The whole meal came in at £71.00 which included all of that food, a bottle of wine and two beers which seems pretty reasonable for an evening meal that tasted so good.

A very easy 10/10