Oysters on a salt bed with hot sauce in the middle
April 1, 2023

Seafood Festival

As if we hadn’t been spoiled enough with new openings left right and centre since the St James Quarter popped up in the centre of Edinburgh, we’ve now got a seafood festival on for the weekend.

It’s running from Friday 31st March until 3rd April which leaves plenty of time to get involved with all the events taking place across the weekend. Think demonstrations, masterclasses, dining events, special menus and seafood dishes.

I was invited down to try some of the dishes you will find available over the weekend. Below you’ll find a breakdown of what I was able to capture from the event:

Seafood Festival entrance at St James Quarter
Front of the St James Quarter decorated for the Seafood Festival
Prawn, chorizo and green bell pepper on a skewer during the Seafood Festival
Prawn skewer from Creel Caught

We started our food trail in Bonnie and Wild — one of my favourite food halls I’ve been to. I’ve visited plenty of times but never had the pleasure of ordering from Creel Caught, one of the many food vendors you’ll find there. Creel Caught was started by Gary McLean, the food genius who won ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ and is now working to showcase beautiful seafood through his dishes.  

Bellinis during the Seafood Festival
Smoked salmon blinis
Oysters during the Seafood Festival
Oysters on a bed of salt surrounding a tub of tabasco hot sauce

First things first they brought over a plate of smoked salmon blinis. The salmon was super fresh which made them the perfect way to start off the evening. Following this, they then served us some of the biggest and juiciest oysters I’ve had the pleasure of trying. These came with some Tabasco hot sauce to add on top which I gladly made use of. If that wasn’t enough, the third seafood dish I was able to sample was a prawn skewer which was cooked perfectly — definitely a cracking start to the food trail. 

Whole fried fish during the Seafood Festival
Whole fried sea bream
Squid dish during the Seafood Festival
Stir-fried squid with prawns and green peppercorn

Next up we crossed the fourth floor of the St James Quarter and got ourselves comfy in Ka Pao which is still one of my favourite restaurants to this day! We started off with a glass of ‘Du Vin Aux Liens’ – a lively white wine with notes of yellow plum and spiced apple. To go with this, we were presented with three dishes: smoked mackerel laab, fried sea bream with a nam dtok dressing and stir-fried squid with prawns and green peppercorn. All dishes were great but the fried seabream was just epic…I could have devoured the whole dish to myself if we weren’t sharing.

Fish and potato dish during the Seafood Festival
A roasted fillet of John Dory, served on a bed on beurre blanc & new potatoes
Five rich chocolate truffles for dessert during the Seafood Festival
Chocolate truffles

Duck and Waffle was the last stop on the trail — one of the newest openings in the St James Quarter. We were treated to a roasted fillet of John Dory which came served on a bed on beurre blanc (a butter-based sauce), lilliput capers, samphire, parsley and new potatoes. Again, another dish I could eat up all to myself. Lastly, to end the night we finished with a chocolate truffle which was rich and indulgent. 

Overall, it was just amazing to see what each restaurant came up with. Each dish completely surpassed my expectations — the chefs did a wonderful job showing off the fresh produce they had on hand.

Disclaimer: I was invited to this event with no obligation to post.

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