word count: ~45k // ship: draco/harry

summary: He knows what it looks like, two men, living and working together, but they are doing absolutely fine as they are, thank you very much. However, there's no smoke without fire, as the boys are about to discover.

tags: christmas fic, pining fic

Sometimes, working for a hotel has its perks, especially when they feed you really good food. The Front Office department had a dinner outing to experience Stac Polly, one of Edinburgh’s Scottish fine dining restaurants.

The restaurant is in New Town, 2 blocks away from St Andrews Square. When you enter the restaurant, you go downstairs where the walls are made of stone, reminiscent of the time when the servants would cook downstairs. 

We were able to order a 3-course meal from their a la carte menu. I decided to go with a Scotland “Land, Sea, & Sky” option.

Appetizer (Sea) 🐟

Seafood plate: beetroot cured Atlantic salmon, Arbroath smokie roulade, fresh carpaccio of mackerel, crab mousse, & thyme cracker (£8.55)

Good, solid seafood appetizer. I loved the raw mackerel, especially in a non-sushi environment.

Main (Land) 🐑

Slow cooked pomegranate lamb shank, balsamic roasted beetroot,wilted kale, dauphinoise potato gratin, oregano, and redcurrant game jus (£24.95)

Potato gratin was good and buttery, but not too salty. The lamb shank was soft, but more “gamey” than American meats, but I liked it with the beets.

Dessert (Sky) ⛅️

Edinburgh Fog made with mascarpone cream, Glayva liqueur, heather honey, raspberry jam, and crushed meringue with a shortbread biscuit (£6.95)

This was really yummy. I love meringue and creamy cheese, like mascarpone.

They also had other traditional Scottish dishes including haggis, pheasant, pigeon, venison, and black pudding. 

Service was excellent and our server really engaged with us and made sure our gluten-free colleague was well looked after. As it is with most restaurants in Scotland, I feel that the service was slow, but that’s just the American in me. Prices aren’t that crazy, but it’s more than our “poor student budget” can afford. Other than that, it was a solid restaurant and I’d probably bring my out of town guests here for a good Scottish dinner. 

Overall 🍴: 4.5/5