The Witchery by the Castle

愛丁堡必住的酒店！房間絕美，拍照特別出片！有大量古董感的絲絨裝飾，但很乾凈。 房間在前台對面的樓裏，去房間衹能通過樓梯，不過入住時工作人員幫忙把行李送到了房間，還送了歡迎巧克力。 早餐我們選擇了在房間裏吃，種類比較簡單，水果不甜也不是特別新鮮，可能在餐廳吃比較好。 總之還是非常滿意的，價格較高但物有所值！推薦！

This hotel is nothing short of magical. You have to like the traditional, baroque aesthetic, but you are in for a treat if you do. Perfect location, wonderful service, and very unique. The breakfast option of having it set up in the room is lovely. The Sempill suite is enormous. I’ve stayed at 5 star hotels around the world, and this truly lives up to the hype.

This part of my review concentrates on my dining experience in The Secret Garden. Having dined in the Secret Garden once before I knew that I was in for a fantastic experience. You enter through reception and descend down a short staircase into a totally magical space, tastefully decorated and romantically illuminated. On entering there is an army of staff waiting to see to your needs. I cannot stress enough that the service here is phenomenal in my opinion and is one of the major reasons why I have returned and will return again. After being shown to my table (I have to apologise for not remembering the names of the staff that were working that evening) I was offered an aperitif to which I asked for a Cosmopolitan which was nice and cold, sharp and a delight to drink. I had already viewed the a la carte menu online so I knew what I was going to order. I ordered the Balmoral Estate Partridge Schnitzel for my entre and the Cutlet of Glenfeshie Red Deer for my main. The Partridge was tasty, moist and delicious the Cutlets of Red Deer were absolutely gorgeous, chined/french trimmed (call it what you will) the rib bone was cleaned of all meat/sinew and the bone at the base of the cutlets removed leaving a beautiful ‘oyster’ of meat and cooked perfectly, served with a jus, fried cabbage and pomme dauphine. Absolutely delicious. I’m not a big fan of dessert personally but I went with the Vhalrona dart chocolate tort which was lovely and served in a small portion as it’s quite a heavy dessert. Wine…… oh where do I start with the wine list at The Witchery? This is a very extensive wine list and I would advise people to view it online before you go as there is so much choice. I like Californian reds and the wine list has plenty of choices from which to choose from reasonably priced to silly money. I chose the Syrah from Sine Qua Non and it was delicious, once again the well informed staff were able to answer all questions regarding this wine and they were very enthusiastic about showing me label stamp, bottle and cork. To end my evening I had a dram of a single malt from the Ardbeg distillery which truly hit the spot!! Overall the food is excellent, the wine is excellent and the staff are nothing short of the best!!