Makars Gourmet Mash Bar Edinburgh | Foodie Review

Oh my word.. Is all I can to start off this post. What an incredible restaurant. Beautiful Scottish food, incredible staff and service and just overall a great place to visit for lunch, dinner or every meal whilst visiting Edinburgh. We found it online whilst looking for places that catered for vegans around central Edinburgh and came across this ‘Gourmet mash bar’ which immediately stuck out to us as we are HUGE mash fans. I mean, we really are mash enthusiasts so if a restaurant has the word mash in the title, we are heading there right away! Staff were friendly, helpful and so welcoming I wanted to ask for a job; No request was too much for them and you could tell they really cared about their customers, considering they were such a small team too! Thanks to Adam, Emily and Andrew. The venue was lovely too; Modern but rustic and was light, airy and open yet comfortable. Just a really nice place to be.

Main course

The food was absolutely the star of the show. So much so, it made it into my yearly highlights of 2021; Even Makars commented how privileged they felt on Instagram which was so lovely. All I can say is I genuinely have never been in awe of a dish of food before my visit Makars Mash Bar. It was the perfect dish and one I literally daydream about. I want to visit Edinburgh again just so that I can eat at this place again..and again..and again. Honestly it’s that good!

Even my other half was in shock at how beautiful the food was. We both actually sat in silence as we ate, after being pulled in by the first mouthful. We initially came to this bar due to it being a ‘mash bar’ as I mentioned above and my goodness, it came through. It was great to see a lovely amount of options; Not too much and not too little. There are lovely options for meat eaters, vegetarians, vegans and those who follow a gluten free diet too which is lovely. Being a vegan is great in these times but it can still be difficult when you are new to a city or country, so finding a great restaurant with options is heart warming and tummy filling! If you look at the bottom of the menu image below, they also state that they do kids portions too which is so important for a place like this.

What we went for

So the above image is slightly outdated and I know that the menu is different now, you can find the updated one here. So onto the main point. I ordered and was recommended the vegan haggis with the olive oil mash. I was a little worried as I’ve never eaten haggis, even when I was a meat eater so I had no idea what this vegan haggis would be like but I took the risk! When in Scotland ay? I am so glad I did. It was served stacked on top of each other and topped with a delicious root veg type mash too and some fresh chives all accompanied by a beautifully rich onion gravy. Is your mouth watering? It was divine. Every last bit I savoured. It tasted rich but buttery and light with beautiful sweetness from the root veg mash too. The vegan haggis reminded me of a vegan herby, rich sausage patty but tens times better. The combination of flavours and textures is heavenly and I would eat it over and over again if I could.

Lewis is a meat eater and he went for a very meaty dish and as I said earlier, was in awe of the plate of food presented to him. He went for the lamb shank with cheese and chive mash. He adored every bite and takes the same stance as I do; Please take us back there! I can’t really comment much else but can certainly say from his reaction, it was blooming fantastic.

Dessert

Now, I’m not a huge fan of dessert menus to be honest as they often don’t properly cater for vegans and I must say I was a little disheartened by the vegan option here, however, since it was the last place we visited before leaving for home, I thought I’d give it a go since the main was so scrumptious. I am so glad I did. I went for the vegan crumble which was absolutely beautiful served with a vegan sorbet. Lewis went for the rich and chocolatey brownie with ice cream which he loved. So overall, both courses were show stoppers!