I tried the posh £25 chicken at my new favourite Edinburgh restaurant
This place has recently opened at the super cool Shore
I had a very fowl weekend.
For one thing, my friend recommended a film, Hen, by a Hungarian filmmaker, Gyorgy Palfi, which is shot from the perspective of a black Leghorn chicken. Apparently, the main role was played by eight chooks: Eszti, Szandi, Feri, Enci, Eti, Eniko, Nora and Anett. Sadly, none was named Eggbert.
Then, I had lunch at the new Leith restaurant and bar, The Keelson, which is owned by the wunderkinds behind Dogstar and my fave local pub, Nauticus.
As well as cocktails, their speciality is rotisserie chicken. I profusely apologise to Anett, and all the other feathered movie stars. At this venue, this meat is sourced from a farm called Herb Fed Poultry in Yorkshire. The chooks eat a diet that includes tarragon and mint, which presumably gives them the freshest beak breath ever. This business has won 18 Great Taste Awards for these Wagyu cows of the poultry world.
This formula is bound to work at The Keelson, which is on the Shore, in a freshly wood-panelled early 19th-century building that still has bullseye windows at the back.
After all, I’ve yet to meet anyone - bar vegetarians - who doesn’t like chicken. However, if you genuinely don’t, they offer other main courses, like square sausage, fried egg and shoestring fries (£15) or lamb belly, yogurt and goat horn peppers (£17).
We start with a couple of super-sophisticated cocktails - the Dirty Margarita (£13), with a weekly shopping list worth of ingredients, including Patron Tequila, Lucky Kummel, Manzanilla Sherry, olive brine, lime, and agave. It is so good - sour, yet savoury and saliney. He has the pretty pink Moskito (£13), with a block of crystallized ginger on the swizzle stick. This is smoky with Del Maguey Mezcal, and a touch tropical and medicinal thanks to Falernum and lemon, plus Campari.
No chicken yet. We go for double fish to start. These were from the Snacks list, but they were Godzilla-sized portions.
The squid (£11) had a beautifully seasoned and toasty batter, with a garam masala-ish spice injection, a grating of lemon zest, and there was a robust black pepper aioli on the side.
We also tried the seven smoked haddock fritters (£9), which were a fish finger-ish shade (and size) and had a luxuriantly smooth croquetta-ish interior texture and an Old Bay seasoning flavour.
Then, onto the hyped chicken. We went for the half (£25), to feed one or two people, but there’s also the whole for £50, to suit double that. We’re the sorts who can make a roast chicken last about three nights, so we knew this would be enough. This disassembled offering was juicy, fleshy, golden-skinned and buttery, and full of flavour, unlike your average supermarket runt. If they were both at the beach, this hench version would be wearing budgie smugglers and would kick sand in a battery hen’s face.
Though there are lots of lemony juices on the serving platter, you can also get extra sauce, and we went for the stocky and rich chicken gravy (£3), which came in a metal boat. Alternatives, for the same price, include peppercorn, ranch or chimichurri.
As far as sides go, there are no chips, which is a surprise, but there is the more grown-up option of dense and knobbly well seasoned roast ratte potatoes (£8).
We also tried the beetroot, preserved lemon and gouda dressing (£9), with little cubes of the root veg, a billowing fromage sauce and postage-stamp sized gratings of cheese across the top, for a sweet wintery salad of sorts.
As we finished our main course, we noticed that quite a few tables, including the one beside us, had resorted to take-away boxes. However, we did manage to dispatch every last piece of Feathers McGraw, even if that did come at the expense of not being able to fit in dessert.
If you’re tougher than us, there is chocolate ice-cream (£6), vanilla panna cotta with Victoria plums (£10) or sticky toffee pudding and brown butter ice-cream (£10).
At this point, we’d sunk deeply into their forest green leather banquette and didn’t want to leave, especially after I’d tried a second cocktail. The classic Ninth Ward (£12) was even better than my Dirty Margarita, with a straight up combo of Old Putney Whisky, St Germain Elderflower, Lucky Falernum, lime and Peychaud’s Bitters.
As always happens, after two drinks, I convinced myself that I was brilliant at darts, and wanted to have a shot, though it ended up being occupied, so I couldn’t get my three treble 20s. It’s also worth noting that there are sports on the telly here, though they had the sound turned off on our visit, so don’t let that put you off if you’re footiephobic.
Anyway, I had to be dragged out of The Keelson by my other half.
I love this place and a visit made for the most brilliantly fowl weekend. I mean that in the best possible way.
58 The Shore, Edinburgh, www.thekeelsonleith.com
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.