Review: The Alchemist, Patron tequila experience

If you either like tequila, or don’t know whether you like tequila, I’d heartily recommend the weekly tasting session at Patron Parlour in The Alchemist on Edinburgh’s George Street. As a way to kick-start an evening on the town, I can’t imagine anything better than this 90-minute masterclass which kicks off at 6pm each Thursday.…

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Review: Margo, Glasgow

Richard Bath road tests the new restaurant from the team behind Ka Pao and Ox & Finch, and comes away deeply impressed.   When I heard that Scoop Restaurants, the team behind the outstanding Ka Pao and one of my most reliable go-to restaurants in Glasgow, Ox & Finch, were launching a new city centre…

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Review: The Inn at Loch Tummel

Richard Bath savours a Sunday lunch as it’s meant to be at picturesque coaching inn The Inn At Loch Tummel.   One of the most memorable episodes of Ben Fogle’s television series New Lives In the Country was when he met PR executive Jade Calliva and his wife Alice, who worked in finance. The premise of the…

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Review: Nàdair, Edinburgh

There’s a new kid on the block in Marchmont, so Richard Bath went to investigate. This new 20-cover Marchmont restaurant from ex-Wedgwood chefs Sarah Baldry and Alan Keery is right on trend. It has the now customary Gaelic name (Nàdair means ‘nature’), it has a five-course set menu (which changes daily), it’s big on the Scottish and…

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Review: Mara, Edinburgh

With good cocktails and small plates, Mara is worth checking out, find Richard Bath. On the site of the old Innis & Gunn bar, Mara is now owned by the same crew who have made such a success of nearby Malone’s sports bar.  Mara has a completely different and more sophisticated atmosphere to the mothership…

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Review: Cabo, Edinburgh

Richard Bath heads to Edinburgh’s first pacific-fusion restaurant to try out the offerings.  Cabo, which has taken over the space once occupied by Scotland rugby legend Simon Taylor’s bohemian 99 Hanover bar, is a month-old new eaterie marketed as sitting ‘at the intersection of Asian and Latin American cuisine, offering a unique Pacific fusion’ that…

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Fringe Review: Jack Docherty in The Chief – No Apologies

There was not a dry eye in the house, says Richard Bath.  ★★★★ If you love Scot Squad, then this is the show for you. Docherty reprises his role as Scotland’s favourite and least self-aware cop to non-stop howls of laughter from an audience which is willing him on as if he’s the best man…

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Fringe Review: Kyle Dolan No Place Like Home

Richard Bath on Kyle Dolan’s solo-show debut at the Fringe. ★ The Fringe jungle drums are obviously working because just three of us turned up to watch this painful hour of confessional stand-up, and I’d brought one of them with me. Dolan, a twentysomething born in Scotland and raised in Australia, comes across as a…

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Fringe Review: Isabella Charlton – So My Dad F****d The Nanny

Richard Bath is still struggling to process this comedian’s tale of a dark steamy affair between her father and the family’s nanny. ★★★ I seriously don’t know what to make of this show, which I’m still struggling to process. Against all expectations, it actually IS about Cheltenham College educated posh girl Isabella Charlton’s bad boy…

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Fringe Review: Juliet Cowan – F*ck Off and Leave Me Alone

Richard Bath heads to Juliet Cowan’s comedy debut which delivers a part teenage confessional, part middle-aged rallying cry. ★★ You know you’ve attained true Marmite status when roughly quarter of the small audience leave longs before your final climax (and there’s a LOT of chat about climaxing in this show) yet the whole of the…

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