La Potiniere

A couple of Saturdays ago {12th March} we were able to use one of our Christmas presents by having lunch at La Potiniere in Gullane. We were given a voucher from my aunt & uncle and my parents received the same and bought one for my aunt & uncle too so we could all go for lunch together, masterminded by my aunt. Since my dad and aunt had been ill at New Year it was really our new year celebrations. I'm fairly sure we confused the other diners by our 'Happy New Year' toast in March!

The restaurant is quite small and just has 20 seats, which allows one of the owners, Keith, to serve as well as be in the kitchen; this makes it a lot more like being in someones house, rather than in a restaurant which is lovely. They bake two different types of bread so I tried the sunflower kind while we looked at the menu, along with a glass of prosecco for our toast.

With such a small restaurant, they choose to only offer two choices for each course on the menu, with one meat & one fish option for the main course. When you book you are able to tell them if there is anything you cant eat so I'm assuming they would cater for vegetarians that way. We weren't sure if just two choices would be limiting but I honestly could have eaten everything on the menu and I found it hard to decide what to have! All of the food sounded delicious.

I started with a camembert, prune & celeriac tart served on puy lentils while Graham tried the cream of leek soup served with lightly curried profiteroles. I wasn't sure what the prune would be like in the tart but it was lovely with the camembert and the lentils. The soup got rave reviews from everyone else too.

I followed this with the steamed fillet of sole which was filled with a smoked salmon mousse and served on a smoked salmon risotto. Graham had the gressingham duck served on an apricot & potato mash. I love seafood and the sole was gorgeous; the whole dish together was really light. The duck was beautifully cooked as well, as I managed to sample some of Grahams.

To finish I had the chocolate & creme brulee mousse which was delicious while Graham had the cheese plate.

The lunch menu is a very reasonable £18.50 for two courses & coffee or £22.50 for three courses & coffee; we all thought that was really good value for the quality of the food. The dinner menu is £40 for 4 courses & coffee and I would love to go and try that some time.

We finished the day by going back to my aunts for a few drinks then up to my friend Lucy's to catch up with them in their new house; finally getting home after 3am! Lets just say I wasn't very productive on the Sunday! Next we are going to eat at The Kitchin, another one of our Christmas vouchers, when we return from Vienna.