A "burning ember'"in Scots, Aizle is a beacon of star dining where the tasting menu makes the difficult choices for you
Ten years is a long time in restaurants, particularly in Edinburgh where trends can change as quickly as a cold easterly whipping around corners. Aizle opened in 2014 on St Leonards Street, the first solo venture for chef Stuart Ralston and his wife Krystal. In what was then a revolutionary move there was no menu, just a list of ingredients chalked up on a board. Inventive dishes arrived tasting menu-style, changing with the seasonal ingredients, keeping diners guessing. In that small restaurant over six years ago I ate a glorious meal I still vividly remember, including a sheep’s milk agnolotti with wild leeks, which is forever my pasta barometer.
No pressure then for the much overdue return visit.
Once a meal began with a starter. Today the greedy diner also gets snacks: an edible opening gambit. With a damson kombucha we’re brought three morsels: a light chickpea panisse with crowdie and pumpkin in XO sauce; a celeriac and elderberry tart with roast onion jelly, and my personal show-stopper, a delicate beetroot tartlet, filled with a rich and salty trout belly mousse, topped with a sliver of radish and trout roe. There’s bread too: a sticky soft brioche glazed with forest honey, served with a lovage, parsley and chervil butter, a bright wasabi green. We’re off to a very strong start. In 2020 Aizle relocated to ‘The Garden Room’ at Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel but the ethos remained unchanged.
At the pandemic-era launch, I had a fixed timeslot with one other journalist to see the space and nibble a canape. Today, even with an early evening reservation, the restaurant fills up quickly.
The view through the plants to the lobby is initially a little disconcerting, with the odd trundling suitcase. That’s entirely forgotten at dusk when the room changes from feeling like an upmarket garden centre to a sultry glasshouse dining room with the night sky above. There’s a mix of diners, some fully prepared and excited, and a few hotel guests unsure quite what they’ve booked.
We’re all in for a treat. Dinner at Aizle is seven courses, though with snacks and added cheese, I make it 10.
Ralston now has four Edinburgh restaurants – relaxed dining spots Noto and Tipo, and dazzling seafood-focussed Lyla. Happily the fish dishes at Aizle are a serious rival for their sister restaurant. An amuse-bouche of citrus cured line-caught Shetland mackerel is served with the last of the Isle of Wight tomatoes, the tomato dotted with green tomato gel and petals of slow braised kelp that remind me of glinting fish scales.
An accompanying tomato and tarragon dashi is so delicious I’d order it at a bar. A hand-dived Orkney scallop is gently barbecued and served in a smoked haddock sauce with tiny spheres of potato, like a homage to Cullen Skink. Pops of apple and fish roe add a little sweetness, while pickled squash and peppery nasturtium cut through the creamy sauce. Pan-fried Peterhead turbot is served with sweet sand carrots, rich vegetable gravy and crispy kale. It’s the most classic dish of the evening and a real joy: the nutty buttery turbot unadorned, highlighting its delicate flavour.
On the side a glistening golden crumpet is poised to catch every drop of sauce.
It’s not just the star ingredients, frequently sidelined produce is afforded the same razor-sharp focus. Hispi cabbage becomes exciting, with crisp hen of the woods mushrooms, pickled girolles, black truffle, and a cloud of whipped cabbage emulsion. The peppery cabbage is accentuated further by a creamy white Rioja.
The cheese course centres on Tain Minger, the silky smooth texture of the pungent favourite whipped into a frozen parfait, with a well of toffeed forest honey and a bee pollen lattice. It’s paired with Hampshire mead: very sweet but not sickly, the medicinal tang of the honey adding depth. It’s a delicious combination but as a cheese course, followed by pre-dessert, dessert and petit fours, something a little earthier and savoury would have been my preference, and I missed the bloom and funk of the unadorned Minger. But who can argue with three puddings? And what puddings. Sorrel sorbet, with pickled damson snow and the last of the brambles, then a miso and toasted grains brownie with salted milk ice cream and a cacao nib tuile. With Ralston now based at Lyla, I did wonder where that left flagship Aizle. In very capable hands it turns out.
In the kitchen are executive chef Ashley Salmon and head chef Phillip Roberts, both bringing a wealth of global restaurant experience and their considerable talents to these very Scottish ingredients. In Scots, an aizle is a burning ember, and it’s safe to say that, while Ralston’s culinary endeavours have expanded across the city, the spark still burns brightly at Aizle.
Seven-Course Tasting menu £105 per person, Five-Course Tasting menu £75 per person, excluding drinks and service
Aizle, Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4HQ
aizle.co.uk
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