Sunday 3 July 2011

Jo's Edinburgh Birthday Weekend - Saturday Lunch Review - The Ship on the Shore

Leith, Edinburgh, once Trainspotting county, now gentrified and boasting a plethora of restaurants.

We (me, Joe, and all the in laws) sampled some lunch at the Ship on the Shore, one of many fish-focused restaurants on the same strip. The Ship is an old school, wood panelled, oars-on-the-ceiling and candles in wine bottles restaurant. It has got a great atmosphere and looks to cater for all tastes, from a reasonable lunch for a tenner to a full shellfish and Dom Perignon platter for £200.

We were there for lunch (will try the shellfish and champagne next time!) and had a range of seafood: fish and chips for papa (massive, great chips, but came with mushy peas which is never welcome in our household); moules and chips for both mothers-in-law (also very good, and the "small" portion is more than enough for lunch); seafood chowder for me (beautiful, full of mussels and prawns but again huge...do you see a trend here?) and brown crab and chips for Joe. Sadly, given this is Joe's favourite dish, the crab was the only let down of the meal. The dressed crab was lovely, but the claws hadn't been cooked properly and were a bit underdone, so were suffering from some water retention.

Nevertheless, the place was great. They do a mean bloody mary for £6, as spicy as you fancy, the wine list is vast, and the setting is lovely. I had a few niggles on the service, with no finger bowls and no checking back on the food, but they insisted on taking the crab off the bill despite our protestations which was very nice of them.
8/10 for the food, 7/10 for the service.
The crab kit
Fantastic bloody mary with floating sherry
Fish and chips
Moules that came with chips
Seafood chowder
Brilliant presentation - pity about the claws


No comments: