The Wee Restaurant — Restaurant in North Queensferry

Went here for lunch on Saturday with my husband as we had a rare child free day to ourselves. We had high hopes as the vast majority of reviews are excellent and the menu looked good.

Firstly the positives. A lovely cozy restaurant in a beautiful town and we felt welcome and comfortable. The service was attentive and pleasant and they noticed the little things like we needed more water, which they replaced before we had asked. We ordered the starter of scallops and black pudding to share which was tasty and well presented and got the meal off to a good start.

Unfortunately this is where things began to go downhill. For main courses, I ordered mussels with fries and my husband had the venison and a side of potato dauphinoise. On ordering, my husband was advised that the venison is served pink which he was very happy to accept as it is his preference for meat to be cooked this way. When his plate arrived, he was disappointed to discover that the meat was cooked through and while some pieces were ok, most were pretty tough. The squash served with the venison was black on the skin and the texture was like play dough and not at all pleasant. The best thing on the plate was the onion sauce. My mussels main was tasty but some of the mussels were very stringy and difficult to remove from their shells which is a problem I have never encountered before when eating mussels. My husband's potato dauphinoise side dish was lovely but my fries seemed to be like they were from a packet, I don't think they could have been fresh made and at £5 for a portion I was disappointed with them.

Overall our bill came to £71, for one starter, 2 mains and 2 sides. We didn't have desserts or coffees or any other drinks as we had tap water. Normally we would be happy to pay this amount for really good food however for some reason on this occasion it just didn't hit the mark unfortunately. We were asked a couple of times during our meal if everything was ok and we did say yes, however in hindsight we probably should have brought it to their attention that there were things wrong. We did leave a 10% tip in recognition of the good service and in support of an industry that has been struggling over the last couple of years.

I did initially post this 2* review without explanation as to why we had given this rating, which was promptly followed up by the clearly disgruntled owner calling me and asking for an explanation. Whilst I think we were at fault for not initially giving an explanation behind our review, I didn't appreciate the manner in which the owner contacted me. I hope this serves as an explanation and the feedback is useful...

A medium restaurant with a lot of potential to become one of the bests. Please note this is only constructive critic at all times.

Yesterday was our anniversary and went to have dinner. We saw plenty of good reviews and the restaurant looked romantic and perfect for the occasion. Moreover, the pictures of the dishes at the website looked amazing. We also like to help family businesses like this one as they usually have something special to offer.

It is a small place, but very beautifully decorated in a very nice environment. Tonight was particularly noisy but that was not at all their fault. In fact, I noticed that the waitress told the people at the table to speak a but lower if possible. I couldn't even listen to our waiter who was by the way very kind at all times.

My first disappointment came with the table. When I booked I specified it was our anniversary, so was expecting a nice and intimate table - but they gave us the very next to the bathroom. I noticed there were another 2-3 tables of 2 people free, but did not say anything as thought might be due to social distance.

Now, let's talk about the food.

Bread with olive tapenade and scottish butter was very nice, no objections at all. The Rillete of Duck was surprising and delicious. It was different to everything I have eaten before, the duck egg was very nice and also the salad, which was perfectly seasoned. The linguine. Lights and shadows. All the ingredients were fresh and fantastic, the chanterelles, the pine nuts, the truffles. All of that was fantastic. But the linguine per se was not at all. In my modest opinion the whole dish was craving for a mild creamy mushroom sauce to link the whole dish. Also, if paying 22 pounds for a pasta dish, I would have expected to be fresh handmade linguine. The pork press was very nicely seasoned and very tasty. The price again was a but higher in comparison to the quality. First, I would expected someone to ask me how do I like the meat to be cooked, as for us was slightly overcooked. We are spanish and this meat is very typical there. Again the salad was perfect. Fries with truffle oil was completely perfect and delicious. The tarte tatin was almost perfect. The only comment is that the caramel tasted as if it was a bit burnt and that flavour eliminated the rest of the flavors. Ice cream was very nice.

I believe this is a restaurant that has plenty of potential to become one of the bests of the area. Using fresh ingredients, very nice environment. I would love to repeat at...

Charming little place. This restaurant has everything I wanted it to be.

Don’t miss it if you are near Edinburgh!

The wine list is just not clever but full of non obvious options like the wonderful Albariño Chan de Rosas of Marcos Lojo, not easy to find in the UK but one of the most gorgeous wines you can have with your fish course like my option a beautiful crab salad full of herby flavours. Starters are just the right size to not full you bit keeping you wanting more of this very well executed food, British classics amazingly tasty, full of flavour and presented in a very modern way. The classic scallops with crispy bacon were delicious and had to finished the sauce with a spoon. Crispy cheese with a variation of the Waldorf salad simply beautiful. Mains are bigger and fulfilling, again not the most obvious cut of pork but delicious Goodness me! the Presa Iberica was stunning and melt in your mouth full of flavour (I’m Spanish I know what I’m talking about here). Sea bass in a super tradicional presentation as if you were home, samphire, asparagus and potatoes to garnish the delicate fish. And the lamb soft as you want with a super creamy pea risotto. I couldn’t resist the temptation of the delicious dessert menu and the floating island with creme anglaise and rhubarb had my name on it! I couldn’t be more right to have it... AMAZING TASTY little thing, not super sweet and merengue as light as you would dream in your better dreams... SUPERB DINNER!

Honestly choose anything from the menu and you won’t regret it! Unfortunately we were late for the mussels but I’ll be back for them! We had a second look at the wine list after our meal and we left the place wanting to try some of those wonderful semi-rare wines from South Africa or Chile... The price of the whole meal for 3 and a bottle of wine plus two cocktails leas than you may think. COULDN’T RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH! I will be...