The Kitchin is the restaurant of Tom Kitchin and his wife Michaela in Leith, a calm neighborhood in the suburbs of Edinburgh. To reach the restaurant you can either take the long walk from the city centre as we did, or take a taxi or the two bus lines that connect Leith and Edinburgh's city centre.
Tom Kitchin, being the youngest chef of Scotland ever to achieve a Michelin star, has an impressive CV, with experience in some great restaurants like the top of the top Le Louis XV Alain Ducasse in Monaco, Guy Savoy in Paris and La Tante Clair restaurant in London, all having at some point 3 Michelin stars. Michaela Kitchin has worked in the Savoy group and the famous 7-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
In the interior of the building there is a big salle with stone walls in grey colours, an open kitchen and wooden tables with no tablecloths. You can choose from two lunch menus for lunch, the one being vegetarian, two chef's menu with more courses or go a la carte. We went for the lunch menus, both regular and vegetarian. On the table there was a printed map of Scotland with indication of the place from which every product used on the menu came from, for example you can see rabbit, wild salmon and pork from the lowlands and red deer, asparagus or halibut from the Highlands.
We started with bread and salted butter. The bread, a round country style loaf with nice texture and crust was top notch, in fact one of the best I have ever had. The salted butter was also of good quality made in house.
The first amuse bouche was thin crackers, plain or coloured with squid ink accompanied by a salmon and cream cheese dip.
The second of the two amuse bouche was a ginger and lemon confit broth with tiny spheres of carrot and cucumber. This was refreshing and very tasty. An amazing amuse bouche.
Asparagus with poached egg on asparagus puree, crispy ox tongue and ox tongue broth. Every element was of good quality, properly prepared although the portion was a bit small even for a starter.
The other starter, mackerel tartare with croutons, broad beans and herbs was a bit acidic, very tasty indeed, but I m afraid, it was also not generously portioned.
The other starter from the vegetarian lunch menu was green lentil puree with seasonal vegetables and mushrooms, raw or cooked. It was tasty, but a bit of a let down in terms of quantity and human involvement. It reminded me more of an amuse bouche in Le Louis XV in Monaco, and it would have worked better as an amuse bouche rather than a starter of a two course plus dessert menu.
To the main courses, I chose lamp faggot with carrots, gnocchis, peas and onions with some lamp jus added on top. Lamp faggot is a traditional Scottish recipe made with lamp heart, liver and belly. It has stronger flavor than the lamp meat itself, obviously. Here it was a very refined version made in meat ball shape. Although I m not a fan of intestines I really enjoyed this dish.
The other main course, was pork made out of two different cuts with peas puree, courgettes and a vegetable filled tomato. The meat was tender, juicy, flavorful and of great quality.
The main course of the vegetarian menu was Wye Valley asparagus risotto with onions, carrots and artichokes. The risotto was excellent, having great depth of flavor and texture cooked to perfection.
Two of us chose the souffle dessert. Tomlinson Farm rhubarb crumble souffle with Knockraich Farm yogurt ice cream. The souffle was lacking in technique, although it had risen pretty well, the texture inside was not what I was expected, it was undercooked while there was too much oil on the bottom of the pot. Not on par with the quality of the other dishes.
Strawberries with meringue spheres was a lot better. In fact it was quite amazing, very refreshing with strawberry jam and strawberry sorbet.
With our lunch we had Skye Yer Ben beer which is an ale made by Tom Kitchin in the Isle of Skye.
I enjoyed my lunch in the Tom Kitchin restaurant. I m a huge fan of regional and seasonal cooking. Tom Kitchin uses only the best produce available in his country while the cooking technique and presentation is top notch. Let aside the souffle, everything was very good, with the amazing bread to the top. My only disappointment was the food quantity. I have never been on a Michelin starred restaurant and left searching for a snack.
