Wild Foraging and Tasting Lunch with Wedgwood Restaurant

17:40
April 28, 2023

PR invite from Soundbite // All thoughts and opinions are, of course, my own.

I had never visited Wedgwood Restaurant here in Edinburgh before so when the invitation dropped in my mailbox I was immediately intrigued. The restaurant is at the Canongate by Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in Old Town and run by Paul and Lisa Wedgwood. They focus on Scottish produce in the restaurant and have also incorporated foraged elements for years. As Paul is a passionate culinary forager he’s now also offering Wild Foraging experiences, which is what I got to take part in.

Scottish Foraging with Paul Wedgwood

We all met up in a secret spot in East Lothian for the Wild Foraging. Paul has a few spaces in his car so you can meet him by the restaurant, and I managed to grab a seat as I didn’t have access to a car this day. For the experience Paul shows you a wide variety of botanicals that you can find in your garden and all around you, focusing on plants, flowers and leaves that are in season. He’s also prepared the plants you’ll be seeing during the walk and cleaned them so that you can try along as you go, without having to worry about them being dirty or visited by a dog or another animal earlier. We went through around 50 different species and the walk was around three hours. We walked through a few different biomes which was really interesting from a foraging view in terms of flavours. I’d definitely recommend bringing good shoes as it can be muddy or wet in places.

My favourites from the walk was wood sorrel, another type of sorrel that I can’t remember the name of, Jack by the Hedge, aka, garlic mustard leaf and Primrose flowers that was surprisingly sweet and tasty.

Foraging Lunch at the restaurant

After a couple of hours in the wood we had certainly worked up an appetite and were more than ready to return to the restaurant for lunch. The menu had been created for the foraging experience and contained many of the botanicals we recognised from the walk. My favourite dishes were the three cornered leek and Cullen skink as well as the corse flower ice cream. The wild flower trifle was probably the most interesting from the foraging perspective as it utilised so many interesting ingredients such as dandelion in the custard, sweet cecily pesto, caramelised violet flower. It was also quite a hefty portion to finish on, but overall the food was well portioned and definitely filling at the end of the eight courses. For the lunch you order your own drinks, be it wine or non alcoholic options, and the bill is settled separately to the cost of the experience before leaving.

For those looking to experience something a bit different and find a different perspective on the food served in Scottish restaurants, I’d definitely recommend this activity.