The Smoke Stack

I am sure that you are ravenous with anticipation for tales of my latest culinary expeditions!  Since my last outing to McDonalds over 2 weeks ago, B and I have had to be careful with our pennies (as you know you can only have treats like that once in a while!)  Having said that, we have still managed to fit in, along with a wedding, a couple of meals out.  Last Sunday, we were hungry so we ate at Giuliano's.  My family are big fans of this restaurant and I have had many enjoyable meals there, but it is such a large space, that I felt lonely with just B for company!  There are waiters there that I have seen year after year, and I have to say, on this particular evening,they were not at their bubbliest which obviously did not help with the atmosphere.  I think that working in Domenico's has really made me appreciate that smaller, more intimate restaurants are the way forward.  They have a comfortable, more friendly vibe that you just don't get in larger places, unless you supply your own by bringing along your extended family.  The food was alright, my only complaint was about my panzanella salad.  B and I went to the food festival in Holyrood park in the summer and watched Mary Contini of Valvona and Crolla, make one and since then I have been wanting to try it out.  Panzanella salad, is made up of stale bread with tomatoes, basil, oil and vinegar.  It can have other bits, salad leaves, onion, olives etc but the main ingredient is bread.  Not in Giuliano's, here I would agrue it was vinegar, followed by white onion and then lettuce.  Four croutons do not constitute a panzanella salad!  But, as with Garibaldi's, I didn't complain.  I must try to be more honest when I am in a restaurant, as I am becoming uneasy with 'bitching' behind their backs.  I ordered (what I thought was going to be) a carb based salad as I was having a very light seafood dish for my main, but at least, in practice, this ment I had room for my dessert - Giuliano's 'Crepe', a crepe (no really?!) with ice-cream and the piece de resistance - amaretto soaked strawberries Mmmmmmmmm!!!!!  I am not a dessert person, I think 11 years of working for a certain high street confectioners may have taken care of my sugar cravings, but I always have room for this one, and thankfully it is always as good as I think it is.  Unfortunately I cannot say that for the rest of the food we had that evening.  It was fine, we entered hungry and left full - job done.

From a journey down memory lane, to a shot in the dark: The Smoke Stack.  My mum and dad are currently eating burgers with Disney characters and are therefore going to miss my birthday, so on Wednesday we went out to celebrate.  As usual, the challenge of finding a restaurant to satisfy all of our 'dietary' requirements was a struggle.  B with his Mexican 'needs'; mum with her 'special' tastes and me - the food snob - thankfully balanced by my dad who will eat practically anything and be happy he has been fed!  The Smoke Stack was somewhere that appeared to cover all these angles, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they managed to do everything.  The service was fantastic; friendly, casual and informed - although the waiter did underestimate my appetite - large portions my ass!  (Not that they were small - there is just no such thing as too much good foor when it comes to me!)  I had cullen skink followed by mussels, fries and a side salad.  I would like to tell you what everyone else had to eat but I was far too interested in what was in front of me to notice.  B had chilli and then fajitas, but I can work that out from the menu!  I can vouch for the fact that everyone really enjoyed what they had.  When we entered, the decor was simple, it kind of reminded me of Wagamama's but with soft furnishings and on a smaller, more intamate scale.  The tables were long, and this restaurant would lend itself nicely to a large group.  There are lots of places around the Broughton Street area that we end up eating, in the future I will be able to suggest, confidently, that we go to The Smoke Stack.  I noticed that it also conveniently offers a pre-theatre menu.

B and I came across this restaurant when we were looking for a fish restaurant with suitable dishes for B who doesn't like fish.  It is a slow and laborious process of google-ing and then individually checking the menus, thankfully B has more patience for this game than I do!  Most of the time I get teasted by the prospect of beautiful seafood platters, scallops, mussels and lobster - just to get it rejected.  In general when I see a restaurant with a menu so diverse, I am dubious about the likely hood of any of it being good.  I also think that large menus begin to read like a pub menu and that can never be a good thing.  The Smoke Stack was agreed on as I grew tired to looking for somewhere for us all to go.  I am glad that I took the chance on this place, and it has reaffirmed that there are a plethora of good restaurants out there, and that breaking out of my comfort zone is a rewarding exercise!  Writing this blog has driven me to find new places to go, and I am looking forward to revisiting some of them with our impending visitors.

However, the hours spent on the internet searching for places that capture our imagination is getting boring!  If anyone has any suggestions of places that I should try out, preferably ones that they have heard good things about, let me know...