Calling The Scran and Scallie a gastropub is a push. No, calling The Scran and Scallie a gastropub is a lie. There is nothing pub about it. You can’t just go for a drink, not that we tried I’ll add, it’s very much book a table and go eat nice food with a bottle of wine kind of place. I like those places. They are called restaurants and not pubs.
And so we’re at a nice restaurant called The Scran and Scallie, imposters of The Top 50 Gastropubs list at number 49, and with the pedigree of a couple of Michelin starred chef owners in Tom Kitchin and Dominic Jacks. The space is a flush of Royal Blue and oak, comfortable and bigger in size than it looks from the outside. We set about on the food which includes a very good terrine of chicken and pigs head, totally outshone by a fried disc of haggis that sees the neeps and the tatties arrive in the form of crisps, purées, and pickled strands. My overriding memory of haggis is Burns Night at my friends Al’s parents where we read poetry and massacre a stuffed sheep’s belly with a massive sword. Here, in a building that’s very much not a pub, it seems an upgrade.
There’s a lobster for one of the mains as a special, £52 for a whole one dragged out of Leith that morning, not the biggest or meatiest. A cynic might say we haven’t had all the meat, but I’m not that kind of guy. It’s cooked well and lemon samphire butter is a trick I’ll borrow at home. It’s all very tasty. My mate Chris, who is sharing one half of the not-quite-full portion of lobster, orders another portion of the haggis starter. It’s the weirdest side dish in history of lobster.
I get the ham, egg, and chips, which is something of a signature here. It The chips are good, the ham hock flaking into beautiful chunks of salty pig. On the far side is a skillet of egg, with lightly scrambled whites and a confit yolk. I think the idea is overworked. The yolk what the dish needs but the white is an unwanted texture. Another main of cod with peperonata sings because of the quality of the fish. The courgette and basil purée adding light, the black olives providing shade. It’s very clever cooking.
Service is superb from start to finish, and a bill of £208 between four more than fair for the food, an old fashioned, and a bottle from the lower end of the list. We leave to watch The National from the promenade on the castle, taking in the most spectacular of views of the most spectacular of cities. The Scran and Scallie did exactly what I expected; great ingredients treated with the care you’d expect from two Michelin starred chefs. It’s a very good restaurant.
8/10
Listen to The Meat and One Veg Podcast here.
