Hello all
Went for the 10 case tasting at fhior in Edinburgh last night. Stand outs were pic 7, mushroom, leeks and cheese, and pic 15, chocolate, gooseberry and rose. Definitely an odd sounding combination, and I'm not usually a fan of rose nor overly floral flavours. But the chocolate cremeux and gooseberry sorbet were excellent and the rose tang was interesting.
The beetroot though, pic 4, was really quite 1 dimensional. With the overriding flavour being pickled beetroot, not too dissimilar from pickled beetroot from a jar. The langoustine creme included with it was lost to the beetroot
The wines were generally delicious, although none had that wow moment where they absolutely came alive when drank with the food. However, on a sunny day with a view, they were all excellent drinking wines.
One thing I thought quite odd, the restaurant has a front dining room, the main dining room and obviously, some toilets. In all 3 areas they played different music. Usual plinky plonky restaurant music out front, some 80s pop in the main room and an indie playlist down to the toilet.
Now here's where it hopefully becomes a bit more interesting, last time we (the wife and I) came to fhior was 3 years ago as a wedding gift, just before it got a *. At the same time we were also gifted a trip to No1 at the Balmoral (also in Edinburgh). No1 has since lost its *, the rumour is because of a change in head chef. In all ways No1 is still, IMO, better than last night's meal. Over the last few years we'd returned to No1 several times, and have not been back to fhior, I'm not sure we will again now.
However, we're going back to No1 in a couple of days, it'll be interesting to go so soon so we can compare whilst it's fresh
by heavydwarf