Martin Wishart

When we visited Scotland, Jen and I had a chance to visit our first ever Michelin star rated restaurant Martin Wishart.  Located in a rather unassuming beige coloured building in Leith, it doesn’t look like much on the outside but it is home to some of the best food in Britain and has been recognized as such by Gordon Ramsay and The Good Food Guide.  We came in with pretty high expectations.

We booked the six course tasting menu with matching wines and here’s what we got:

Haggis bon bons!

Raspberry and goats cheese, octopus and carrot, some weird wafer thing and a duck liver pate

Presse of foie gras with praline – Apricot puree, black olive tapenade and madeira cream

Ceviche of halibut, mango and passion fruit

Risotto of spelt grain, Perthshire girolles

Octopous and ayrshire new potatoes, sweet paprika, lemon and tosazu sauce

Comically small portion on enourmous plate course – Tortellini of Borders Roe Deer, cauliflower cream, sauce grand veneur

Loin, trotter and crispy ear of Drumlanrig pork, choucroute, apricot chicharron and grain mustard sauce

Le smelly cheese – range of cow, goat and sheep cheese from France

Valrhona Ivoire chocolate mousse, Glen Ample raspberries, tarragon ice cream

Poached nectarine with yoghurt, mango sorbet and warm madeleines

A kickin’ rad dessert platter

And a hot cuppa to end the night

Martin Wishart was an amazing experience that didn’t disappoint.  There was imagination and skillful presentation with every course.  We had a pleasing variety of unusual experimental dishes (the halibut course) and more conventional dishes that were just absolutely delicious (its the best octopus dish I’ve ever tasted).  The staff were exceptionally knowledgable, happy to have a chat about the wine and were colourful characters themselves.  The maitre’d had the appearance and mannerisms of a Rowan Atkinson but with an outrageous French accent.  He was amazing.

My one observation at the end of the night however, was that while it was an excellent experience, it definitely was not any order of magnitude better than what we’ve had at Buffalo Club and Tetsuyas.  I think that if Michelin ever hauled their asses down Australia way, there’d be more than a handful of restaurants who’d be picking up Michelin stars.