Date Night - Rivage

The Rules of Date Night

Martyn and I started ‘Date Night’ over a year ago when we were still living in Tollcross, Edinburgh. There are so many lovely independent restaurants in Edinburgh we are completely spoilt! In a quest to work our way around some of these places we declared ‘Date Night’.

The Rules of Date Night;
Once a month after pay day.
Must be local (walking distance from the flat).
We take turns on who pays.
When he is paying I choose the location.
When I’m paying he chooses the location.
We never go to the same place twice for date night.

This month we headed along to Easter Road to check out Rivage. We had been recommended it by our friends The Knoxigans a couple weeks ago when we met up with them and their new pup Marvin, he's the cutest. 

I wore my Forever21 stripy skirt, Dorothy Perkins bardot top, red cardie, mary janes and it's hard to see but my tights have tiny wee hearts all over them! I'd been to Lipstick, Lashes and Locks after work to get my hair cut and the lovely Tina had curled it for me too. I did a quick roll at the front to keep my hair out of my face, some big flicks and red lips. I grabbed my bright red Cambridge Satchel push lock bag and we legged it along the road to dinner. 

About Rivage 

Rivage it at the top end of Easter Road and I must have walked past it 100 times, I used to spend a lot of time in The Mash Tun pub quizzing a couple years back, they do a great quiz and some pretty decent food too. Anyway I've walked past plenty of times and it's always smelt pretty tasty but it doesn't look like much from the outside but always seemed pretty busy. 

The contrast between the inside and outside is vast! All the table and chairs are quality chunky dark teak, well accessorised with carved partitions and features, you can see the tandoor oven in the corner from nearly every seat in the restaurant, it's great to see them preparing your naan bread and receiving it pipping hot. 

The Food and Drinks

Rivage is BYOB but they also have a small bar serving a selection of drinks. We weren't in the mood for a bottle of wine so just ordered drinks there, I had a bottle of Kingfisher and Martyn had a pint of diet coke, we also had water brought to the table as soon as we sat down which I really liked. 

We ordered popadoms to start us off and then I had the Aloo Tiki, two patties of pea and mashed potato flavoured with ginger and lightly fried, it came with a salad and riata dressing. Martyn opted for Murgh Tikka Trianga, chicken tikka with done with tree different sauces, mint and coriander, red spices and cashew and cheese. We both loved our starters, they were a very generous size and well presented. 

Once the starters were finished and cleared our mains were soon on their way. We had ordered Gucchi Muttar, Chicken Jalfrezie, Jeera Pilao rice and a Peshwari Naan. My Gucchi Mutar was rich and creamy with large bit of mushroom and plenty of peas and was seriously tasty, Martyn's Jalfrezie had great chunks of chicken in a sauce of crushed spices and stir-fried peppers. He loved his and eat the whole dish with the beautifully cooked rice. 

The Peshwari was a revelation to me, I never order it because I'm concerned it'll have meat or worse raisins (I hate raisins with a passion, especially when they are hidden in things like apple muffins and carrot cake). This naan was delicious, after Martyn convinced me to order it, stuffed with almond and cashew paste it was delicately sweet and really balanced the meal out. 

We didn't even look at the sweets menu as we were fit to burst after all of that food, we paid our very reasonable bill and rolled back along the road full and happy.

Round up and Atmosphere

Above is the moment we realised that I hadn't stopped to capture the meal when it arrived and we'd just dived into it! I would highly recommend Rivage for a night when only a good curry will do, the food was tasty and fresh, the service was unbelievably attentive but did not boarder on intrusive and it's BYOB.

It was noted in 6 of the best Indian Restaurants in Edinburgh but the Scotsman Food and Drink, of which we have been to 5 of now. We are considering an 'away game' date night to go the the last on the list Kalpna soon so keep your eyes peeled. 

If you head to Rivage then let me know what you think! 

xxx

Rivage - 126–130 Easter Road, Edinburgh, EH7 5RJ - 0131 661 6888

Date Night - Pera Turkish Mangal & Meze Bar

It's date night again! Mostly because I was so late in posting last month...

I thought as my first date night post was 8 months and 3 pages ago I thought I would do a reminder of the date night rules;

Once a month on or close to pay day.
Must be local (walking distance from the flat).
We take turns on who pays.
When he is paying I choose the location.
When I’m paying he chooses the location.
We never go to the same place twice for date night.

This month we went to went to Pera on Leith Walk, it's a Turkish Mangal and Meze Bar. We popped along last Thurday after a hard days work. I wore my black and floral dress that I picked up in the New Look sale at Christmas time with my purple cardie and my black Mary Janes from Primark (that you cant see in this photo very well but are super comfy and just a bit classier that a basic flat pump). I also had on one of my favorite necklaces that friends bought me for my 30th, it has 3 wee birds on a branch in silver.

Martyn had booked our table for 7pm, we left the flat at 10 minutes to and still had time to pop past Odbins on the walk and pick up a bottle of Casa Lluch Tempranillo 2012, which was recommended by the assistant in there. On arrival we were offered a choice of tables as it was only half full and given our menus, moments later the waitress was back with water for both of us and wine glasses which she pored the wine into for us.

Unsurprisingly being a Mangal (Turkish for Barbecue) there weren't a great selection of vegetarian dishes, there were 2 main courses and some salads that I'd love to try come summer and I think there were a few in the cold meze but there wasn't a menu of when they had. Martyn was in his element. For starters we ordered Sigara Boregi, filo pastry filled with cheese and parsley lightly fried, and  Halloumi and Sucuk, sucuk is a spicy Turkish Sausage. They both came in good time and were beautifully presented. The sucuk was thinly sliced and placed on top of the halloumi and Martyn loved them! My Sigara Boregi was delicious and light, I even shared them with Martyn.

He chose the Chicken Şiş (chicken kebab) and I went with the Vegetarian Kebab - Charcoal BBQ grilled marinated seasonal vegetables & halloumi with a yogurt sauce. It was beautiful! The aubergine melted, the couscous had the most amazing aromatic flavour and the yogurt dip was creamy and gralicky. The only thing that let it down was how little halloumi was on my plate, after the amount in the meaty starter I was a little disappointed to only have one piece on my plate. Martyn devoured his and also agreed that the couscous was delicious. We opted out on desert as we were both pretty full after all of that food!

Over all the place was charming, the waitress was attentive and made sure our wine glasses were never empty and the food was very tasty. I'm not sure I'll be rushing back but I would definitely recommend it to meat eating friends.

Wish list Wednesday - Tunnock's Tea Cake Cushion

It’s Wednesday again already! This week I am featuring Nikki McWilliams’  Tunnock's Tea Cake Printed Cushion. She has created many amazing biscuit based cushions including Digestives, Malted Milks, Rich Tea Fingers and Party Rings but my favourite, and the first that caught my eye, is the Tunnock’s Tea Cake cushion. I love Tunnock’s tea cakes, they are amazing, generic tea cakes are never as good as a Tunnock’s tea cake, one of the main reasons I give blood is to get a tea cake at the end (that and the saving lives).

Look how big they are! 

The tea cake cushion is 16” in diameter, made from 100% and has a concealed zip, they are so big and fluff, they’d look amazing on any sofa, chair or even bed as a statement piece. Personally I’d love a couple Caramel Wafers on my sofa and the Tea Cake Cushion on my armchair.

Some of the cushion range

Nikki is Dundee based and also has her own blog and one of the best Instagram accounts in town! She launched the homeware and accessories label in 2009 and id inspired by 'a love of British culture, contemporary Pop-Art and her fascination with the ritual of the Tea Break'. Not only does she produces beautiful cushions but you can also pick up biscuit based brooches, necklaces, pocket mirrors, stationery and amazing prints on her website - nikkimcwilliams.com as well as over 60 stockists around the UK. At Christmas time last year I fell in love with the Gold and Ruby Jammy Heart Foil print but Santa didn’t deliver, maybe next year.

Date Night - Origano

Last Thursday was our second Leith based date night and we headed down the walk to our local Italian restaurant Origano. The restaurant has recently move down and across the road from 277 to 236 to a larger premises. I’d been eyeing it up before they had moved as we had been out exploring Leith, the shutter had a really nice mural on it and was always pretty busy. It was quite quickly put on the date night list.

As date night rolled back around this month we decided it had to be Oregano, one of the ladies in the office had been with family and recommended it, she said the portions were large which is always a good selling point with us!

I got home after work and curled my hair and popped in some wee victory rolls, pulled out my H! by Henry Holland navy dress with red and white swirls on it (I love it because the swirls look like sweets), my red cardigan and my vintage satchel.

We headed down Leith Walk to Oregano for 8:15 (we booked earlier that day and it was all we could get) We were greeted at the door by a man who appeared to be one of the managers/owners who took my name and lead us to two tables and gave us the choice, obviously I chose the window seat. The restaurant was very busy and but the tables weren’t crammed in so we didn’t feel as though we were crushed in. The place was dimly light with large lamp shades and red candles in old bottles. The interior was warm and welcoming with the kitchen open for everyone to see the beautiful purple pizza oven in the far corner.

We ordered our drinks, a large glass of house red for me and an Appetizer for the fella. We settled on 4 cheese garlic bread to share as a starter, the bread was fluffy baguette style with gooey, melty, garlicky cheese on top, it was amazing and the house red tasted superb with it. For our mains we both ordered pizza’s (Martyn took a long time deciding between pizza and lasagne), I had the Origano with tomato, mozzarella, onion, mushroom, red pepper, black olives, santos tomatoes, garlic and parsley and he had Vesuvio  with tomato, mozzarella, diced pancetta, pepperoni, nduja, onion, jalapenos, chillies, garlic, grana padano and parsley. We both ordered the 14” pizzas as it was the middle size, I’d assumed that the couple next to us were having the same size by looking at them… I was wrong! Two massive pizzas turned up at our table pretty speedily, both oozing with cheese and smelling amazing. They were huge, big enough to share between two with a side salad and the 16” were big enough to feed a family of four! I managed 2/3 of the pizza in front of me and had to stop, mostly because I still wanted to leave room for dessert, Martyn managed ¾ so the lovely waitress boxed up our left overs for us and took our gluttonous pudding orders, I had the most moist and creamy tiramisu and Martyn ordered a great slab of lemon cheesecake with a scoop of raspberry sorbet, both were beautiful.

After we had finished our desserts our plates were cleared and we still had our second round of drinks to finish, Martyn was on the Jack and coke by then, we were left to enjoy our drinks. It must have been after 9pm and people were still arriving for dinner and the place was still buzzing with chatter and flickering candle light. We didn’t feel rushed to finish up and free up the table and the staff were lovely and charming, we paid up and grabbed out left overs box and slowly made our way back up the Walk.

Overall Origano was a relaxed and very tasty dining experience. Great atmosphere, friendly staff and good value for money. We’ll be back! 

Origano - 236 Leith Walk EH6 5EL - 0131 554 6539

Leith Market Adventure

Well its finally time for my first blog post. It’s taken me a while to get the guts to start writing and get organised. My first article is about our trip to the Leith Market.

A little background for you guys – Martyn (my bearded companion) and I have recently moved in together after going out for about a year. We have a fab wee place just of Leith Walk and we’ve decided to make the most of the local area but finding a free weekend if very nearly impossible. I’d found out about the market at Dock Place from one of my colleagues, it’s right by her flat. I already enjoy a trip to the Sunday Stockbridge Market but often forgot about it or was too wrapped up in Sunday Bruch to make it down the road.

Leith market only started on the 11^th of July and we were away then and by some miracle we found ourselves without plans his weekend. I proposed the plan during the week, which involved food so Martyn was in, and Saturday afternoon arrived and we headed down. It was a pretty sunny but windy day so I donned my vintage polka dot navy dress, new white sandals from Primark and my vintage woven straw bag, it’s nice and big for produce and off we went. The market is about a 20 minute walk from the flat, though Leith and to the shore.

The Market is at Dock Place by Customs House down at the shore, there were several stalls, not as many as it’s Stockbridge counterpart but I hopefully it’ll grow as it becomes more popular. We arrived just before 2pm so the hot food stalls and vans were busy with people eating amazing looking food around them, there was Mexican, African and the French creperie. The makers stalls were buzzing with prints, crafty trinkets and brick-a-brac, I saw some adorable vintage handbags. The show stoppers were the fruit and veg and bakery stalls, we bought some lovely nectarines,  eyed up some amazing looking brownies and bagged a couple of very tasty pastries from Au Gourmand. Perthshire Preserves were there with their award winning jams and chutneys, I’ve had their spiced plum and apple chutney before and their hot banana chutney has to be tasted, Delish! We also grabbed a jar of Chipotle Ketchup from Gusto Artisan Foods, it’s smoky, sweet with a little kick at the end.

All in all our trip was a great success! I would definitely recommend having a wonder down and checking it out. I’m already looking forward to heading back and sampling some of the food stalls, particularly the Mexican food and the brownies, possibly checking if the handbags are still there.

Leith Market - Saturdays from 10am until 5pm - Dock Place EH6 6LU -Website