Heron

Had a great pleasure visiting the Heron at last for a friend’s birthday. For a one Michelin star restaurant, I had very high expectation. Overall, it was an excellent dining experience, food to service to wine, all good. However, for a one Michelin star restaurant, I was expecting more - kudos to the seasonal ingredients but one of us had the vegetarian menu and it was just mainly courgettes, quite underwhelming. For me and others who had meat and seafood, again things were tasty and everything was decent except for the portion sizes - I finished the dinner still feeling needing some snacks later on 😭 For the wine, the staff member described it as savoury earthy and somewhat complex but in fact it was a lot more vibrant and simple wine - we tasted it before eating the food with relatively neutral pallets and during dining, so not to judge the wine itself but more for expectation management. The service itself was professional, but not necessarily delightful - the atmosphere there at the time felt serious and unrelaxed, staff member was giving a little nervous vibe - hopefully not because of us! Maybe a thing for most Michelin restaurant because of the clientele it attracts 😅 Would I recommend it? Well, I don’t think it really matters because with the one Michelin star status people will wanna experience it as long as there is the budget for it. I’m also glad I get to pocket another Michelin star restaurant experience. But would it make sense to say it has been a very mediocre one star Michelin restaurant experience? 😂 having said this I am open to revisiting it in the future when the menu has changed and be extra careful when picking my wine. Part of me hopes for a better fine dining scene in Edinburgh comparing to the south.