As you may know, Dan and I spent last New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh, Scotland for Hogmanay – Scotland’s New Year holiday. Despite Hogmanay being a huge overnight street party with food, drinks, and vendors, we opted to book a formal sit down New Year’s Eve dinner in Edinburgh for actual New Year’s Eve dinner, as we were concerned about the cold and the weather. Turns out, booking that dinner was a GREAT idea, as Hogmanay was largely cancelled two days before the holiday due to high winds (note – we booked over a month in advance of the cancellation). This posts details our New Year’s Eve tasting menu at Cannonball Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, literally steps down from Edinburgh Castle’s main entrance, Cannonball Restaurant is set inside a 17th century building called the Cannonball House. It’s quite easy to locate.  According to the restaurant, it is the former townhome of the First Duke Gordon and is also home to Scotland’s oldest door knocker. For most tourists purposes, however, it boasts a cosy cocktail and whiskey bar and a formal restaurant serving local fare.

We booked Cannonball’s New Year’s Eve Tasting Menu about a month before New Year’s Eve online. The reservation required payment in advance on booking. The restaurant followed up closer to the dinner to confirm allergies, etc. For New Year’s Eve, the entire tasting menu was included in the cost, and diners could add on a wine pairing the night of for 55 euro per person. We skipped the wine pairing, as there were options that we preferred on the main wine list (all of which is available), and Cannonball offered an adorable New Year’s cocktail that featured a firework for 14 euro (sadly the only firework we would be seeing this holiday (due to the wind-induced cancellations)!

COURSE ONE – BREAD & BUTTER

As I imagine most Cannonball meals begin, our meal started with Cannonball’s house made bread. The bread was quite good, being hard on the outside but soft and pillowy on the inside. The bread was served with local whipped butter and Blackthorne sea salt.

COURSE TWO – OF COURSE, HAGGIS

After bread service, Cannonball served an amuse bouche, which was undisclosed on the menu. Not surprisingly, however, it was a cannonball (or really just a sphere) of haggis, a very, very traditional Scottish food. The haggis was served with a tasty sauce and some sort of vegetable spirals. While I am not the biggest haggis fan (I much prefer the vegetarian option that we had in Glasgow), this small bite was very good. The outside was properly crispy and it paired well with the sauce.

COURSE THREE – THE MOST DELICIOUS PARSNIP SOUP

This first “real course” of our dinner was a soup made of parsnip. It was topped with crispy shallots and curry oil. And seriously, this soup was SO GOOD. It was probably my favorite dish of the entire meal. The soup was warm, creamy, and tasted excellent with the curry oil and slightly fried shallots. And, for those wanting a true Scottish dinner, you should know that parsnips are a Scottish staple. We had parsnips on both food tours that we took in Scotland (Edinburgh & Glasgow).

COURSE FOUR – TROUT TARTARE

Our next course moved into the meat/seafood dishes. This particularly course was trout tartare served with beetroot chutney and beetroot jelly. Very interesting. I never order trout, but I generally like it and this tartare was no different. The trout tasted very fresh and paired well with the beet jelly.

COURSE FIVE – VENISON LOIN

Our main meat course came out next, and it turned out to be a local venison loin, served with smoked bacon, cavolo nero (one of my favorites!), and horseradish pomme puree (or mashed potatoes). I am not a big venison person, but Cannonball prepared this very well. The meat was tender and not at all gamey. The cavolo nero and the mashed potatoes were a nice pairing.

COURSE SIX – CHEESE!

The penultimate course was a cheese course, which I love! It featured two cheeses, one of which was, of course, Scottish: St. Andrew’s Cheddar. The second cheese was a truffled Clava Brie from France and topped with a single truffle shaving. The cheeses were paired with quince jelly and oatcakes.

COURSE SEVEN – THE CHOCOLATE CANNONBALL

The final course of the evening was a “Chocolate Cannonball.”  The cannonball was a ball of dark chocolate rolled in more chocolate. It was decadent and rich. The Chocolate cannonball was served with a poached pear splice, roasted almonds, and creme fraiche. This dessert was excellent.

The dinner concluded shortly after midnight, with most diners running outdoors right at midnight to watch fireworks. Unfortunately, due to the wind, no fireworks – at all – appeared. We promptly went back inside to finish our dinner. Otherwise, the restaurant would have provided a great view of fireworks.

All in, we had a really nice dinner and time on New Year’s Eve at Cannonball. The clientele appeared to be many local Scottish people. Most people dressed for the occasion, with lots of sequins for the ladies and blazers for the men. My only complaint about the dinner is that not a even single glass of sparking wine at midnight is included in the dinner, which was pretty disappointing. I could not believe that despite paying nearly $200 USD per person for the dinner, we did not receive even a sip of sparkling wine at midnight. While I am aware that you can order a bottle for midnight, no one want to watch the time that closely, and I have been to a lot of New Year’s dinners and never seen this. Cannonball, if you read this, add a glass of Prosecco to the tasting menu!

STEAL OUR DINNER

Cannonball Restaurant: Cannonball House, 356 Castlehill, Edinburgh, T: 0330 164 0781, cannonball@contini.com. Reservations recommended and can be made here.