Hello Happy Bunny

Thomas Carr at the Olive Room was recently rewarded a Michelin Star for its use of fresh, local ingredients and superb flavours, and it is certainly very popular. I was wanting to try the food here, but the restaurant is currently closed at lunchtimes and closed on my only day off! So…I have been waiting a long time! On their Facebook page last year, they announced they had late cancellations for Christmas lunch, so why not try something different to your usual Christmas fare? When you arrive, it is not what you would expect a Michelin Star restaurant to be like. It is quite a small restaurant, we almost drove past it! Inside there were only two other tables and the owner’s family seated for Christmas lunch. I can’t imagine a lot of people can be seated on a weekend night. The other Michelin restaurant I have visited was Castle Terrace Restaurant in Edinburgh, where the restaurant was huge, grand and the staff professionally trained. The Olive Room resembles a more smaller and cosie...

Nearby Edinburgh Castle is Castle Terrace Restaurant, which we visited for lunch. We selected the 3 course lunch set menu at £29.50, which for Michelin starred dining is fantastic value! Also included was an amuse bouche – three things to sample on one dish: black pepper pork, mini hamburger and a “Caesar salad”. This was followed by a pre-starter of jelly and tomato gazpacho with a black olive cracker on the side. For starter, I ate the ham hock trifle: ham underneath a pea puree topped off with savoury ice cream and a crisp. For main course, I chose the free-range chicken with chicken ravioli, a buttery sauce and summer vegetables. Dessert was the Eton mess, very unusual compared to a normal Eton mess. The components are there, just re-imagined in a different way. A new addition is the sesame seed casing around the cream. Although not included, I had a Breakfast tea (from the Eteaket range, which I spoke about previously). Alongside my tea, a selection of sweet t...