The Newsroom, Edinburgh

We have visited The Newsroom a couple of times now, it's conveniently located just off of Princes Street.  This time we were here for a late lunch, a pint, and to escape the torrential rain.  We sat near the window and enjoyed watching the people outside get soaked as we were cosy inside, drinking beer and listening to the great soundtrack which was being played.  The guy next to us kept over-enthusiastically singing into his wife's ear, much to her annoyance and to our amusement.

Alan, as ever, had trusty old fish and chips (£12).  I must admit, I struggled to find something on the menu that I fancied.  A lot of the dishes on the menu just seemed a bit heavy for what I was after, considering we were eating quite late and would have supper in a few hours.  These are the sort of things Alan doesn't worry about.  He's always hungry, no matter what.

I settled for chicken wings (£6) with a side of chips (£3.50).  Neither of us were disappointed.  Our food arrived quickly and was hot.  The wings were tasty and juicy, covered in sticky sauce.  The chips were fat and fluffy, just as you would expect in a pub.  Good old 'pub chips'.

The cocktail menu looked really good with lots to choose from.  Next time I think we'll treat ourselves to a tipple or two.  We'll be back.

The Bay / Aunty Bettys, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

 Alan and I are faithful regulars to both of these places - not as regular as we might like what with it being an almost two hour round trip - but as regular as possible.

I believe that both The Bay and Aunty Bettys are second to none.  Whilst I may not be the sort of lass who does cartwheels over either fish and chips or ice cream, I would never, ever pass up either from these lovely places.  

When we visited this time, we were on our way back from the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace and were really meant to have been home mid-afternoon, however we ended up being much later than we had thought and popped into Stonehaven o the way home at around 7.30ish, knowing we had a lack of food in the house and a chip supper was likely anyway.  Our local chip chop in Oldmeldrum is okay.  But just okay.

What I like  about The Bay, amongst a whole load of other things, is the traceability of their products.  The whole menu is set out so that you can see where the fish was caught and by which boat.  It's lovely to see something so local on your wee wooden chip fork.  

I waited in the car with the dug whilst I sent 'him outdoors' to obtain the goods.  I was waiting for a long time.  It was the first Sunday evening of the school holidays though, so I was prepared for a long wait.  The views from the car were super though, I watched four beautiful golden retrievers playing on the beach with their owners.

Alan finally appeared.  I had the 'special' which was a seafood platter.  I have previously had this - it seems to be on the special board a lot, but I don't mind because it's delicious and often has a wee tweak here or there.  It consists of a portion of chips and three small portions of different types of fish.  As I expected, Alan had a haddock supper - he's very predictable!  We polished off our suppers in no time and were quickly eyeing up goodies from the shop next door.  Alan had said to me as we drove into Stonehaven that he wasn't going to have an ice cream.

We both knew that he was kidding himself.

We left the doggy in the car (Don't panic!  We were only gone for five minutes, it was not hot and all the windows were down at least a few inches.) and ventured into Aunty Bettys.  It's an Aladdin's cave of all things sweet.  It's really quite beautiful.  The only complaint I have to make is that the shop is not big enough.  It can be a little difficult to see what you want or reach one of the many, many sweeties without getting up close and personal with a fellow customer.  But it's a petty complaint compared to how many good things have come out of this shop.  

I had a two scoop tub.  One scoop of bramble and the other or raspberry ripple.  Alan had a two scoop cone.  One of mint choc chip and the other of sticky toffee.  The trademark sweeties were added to the ice cream - something they have gained a reputation for in an almost brand like way.  It's great to have something so simple make an experience just a wee bit different.  

Of course, we couldn't forget about our wee pooch in the car.  We got her her first ever doggy cone.  This is a small cone with vanilla ice cream and doggy biscuits instead of sweeties adorning the top.  I only discovered the ice cream was vanilla after I got just a little too curious ad tasted it.  I avoided the dog biscuits although the smell of them made the ice cream taste a bit dog biscuity.  Not something I would ever choose in an ice cream.  

But Fara loved her cone, possibly even more than we loved ours!

Kellockbank, near Insch, Aberdeenshire

I have now been to Kellockbank of a couple of occasions and have always enjoyed the shop, the garden centre and the coffee shop.  This place has lots on offer.

The food part of our trip, as always, was my favourite.  The menu is varied and has lots of delicious sounding combinations on offer.  There is always a menu of the day as well as the standard all-the-time menu.

The coffee shop is self service, with drinks and cakes being taken from the counter and if you order any 'real' food, it is taken to you at your table.  I like this setup as I imagine it must mean that there is a fair amount of fresh food being prepared in the kitchen, leading to less waste.

There were three different soups on offer, a couple of quiches, a few main courses and two puddings on the specials board on the day of our visit.  I opted for a soup to start, and intended to follow it up with strawberries and ice-cream, however the soup was finished!  I then opted for a steak panini - I am an avid meat eater.  If I had spotted it first, I probably wouldn't have even considered the soup!  Unfortunately, again, no steak, so no steak panini!

I felt the pressure to order quickly as the queue mounted behind me.  I ended up settling for macaroni cheese with chips and peas.  I instantly regretted my decision but felt it was too late to change it.

Alan, as usual, opted for a three course monster meal!  He had soup, fish and chips and then sticky toffee pudding.  All of which were of massive quantity.  It's not cheap there, however, they certainly don't scrimp on the portion sizes.  For all of the above, two drinks and a coffee we were roughly £37.


As it was a nice day, we asked if we might sit outside if there were tables.  The double doors were opened into the garden centre area and I had assumed that there may have been some tables to eat at outside.  The young lady at the counter said that there was only one table and pointed in the direction of it.  I found the table, however, it was for sale!  (£395 if you're interested!) I double checked with her and she assured me that it was fine to sit there.  It seemed a shame for there not be be a couple of outdoor tables, given that there seemed to be enough space for some.

My macaroni came along with Alan's soup and both were nice, not fantastic, nothing to rave about, but just good old boring nice.  My macaroni came with tinned peas - something which I really don't like to pay for.  If I had known they were going to be tinned I would have foregone them.  I can't explain my dislike for tinned veg.  The macaroni itself came in a wee dish of its own on the plate with the chips.  It was piping hot and had good flavour, but the pasta seemed to be a bit overcooked, falling to bits as I tried to get it on my fork.  The chips were nice.  I ate carefully so as not to spill on the table - I didn't want to be responsible for Kellockbank losing a sale due to cheese related damages.  Alan's fish was ginormous and looked perfectly crispy.  He must  have liked it as he finished before me, despite having the soup too.

I can't remember seeing his sticky toffee pudding, although it did arrive.  I had surely been too busy soaking up the sun (read: worrying about sunburn).

I will still come back here despite it not being quite as successful as the last few visits.  I made a poor choice in food when there were clearly so many other things I would have preferred.  Never mind...