Emma Mixing up great food and music at Fhior
Fhior in Edinburgh announced an experiential supper club series called Mixtapes towards the end of 2023, and just a few weeks ago we joined chef patron Scott Smith to explore the tasting and listening menu ourselves.
Held in the restaurant’s private dining room, this was our first visit to Fhior but we had enjoyed Scott‘s previous restaurant, Norn, where music was also part of the experience.
Did you ever make mixtapes? We‘re showing our age as we both did when younger, we spent ages putting them together hoping that the recipient who listened enjoyed and understood our musical choices. Scott‘s choices on the night were right up our street and included songs by The The, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Squeeze, and the Pixies amongst others.
Mixtapes is an intimate supper club available for up to 10 people. The changing menu is a compilation of classics, new releases, and one-hit seasonal wonders – this intimate dining experience also allows Scott to feature rare and more unique ingredients that are in too short supply for the restaurant’s main menu.
Each set menu varies in the number of courses and isn’t paired with standard wine pairings but rather a collection of drinks, which could include wines, beers, cocktails, and infusions.
The full menu is revealed during each supper, with only an ‘Ingredients list’ being released in advance, featuring some of the produce, drinks, and a few of the artists on the playlist for the evening to give the diners a flavour of what to expect.
First up on our visit was a Japanese sidecar, which was a strong and boozy fruity nectar – a bit like alcoholic marmalade. This was served with…
Scottish shrimp / garum / trout roe
We first tried garum at Dinner by Heston in London. It’s a fermented fish sauce, popular in Roman times, mixed with shrimp topped with roe in a crispy casing. So lots of flavours of the sea but delicate and smooth tasting with bursts of flavour provided by the roe.
Sika / Apple / Preserved Cherry Blossom
Skewered meat from sika deer, native to Japan but which can now be found in Scotland. We felt slightly guilty eating this, as Sika deer are the friendly bowing deer found in Nara and Miyajima that we fed crackers to when visiting Japan. Putting our guilt to one side, the venison was tender with sweet notes.
Beremeal sourdough, Cultured butter.
Brunost. Whipped buttermilk / Fermented Serrano
Going Norse now, Beremeal is a low-yielding barley that nowadays is only grown on the Orkney islands. Brunost is a sweet, light brown coloured cheese from Scandinavia. We have previously enjoyed this in Oslo, so looked forward to tasting again.
The bread had a chewy crust and perfect pillowy interior, while the whipped buttermilk had a spicy kick, almost like strong blue cheese.
Would the success of the bread and butter mean a successful meal?
Celeriac / Celery / Caviar
Returning to Japan somewhat, we had a disc of celeriac in a salted koji (fermented) marinade that had been reduced with butter. This was finished with fresh celery pieces, dashi and a generous dollop of caviar.
This dish was paired with Antonio Macanita, Caracol dos profetas, Portugal 2022. We were told that the vine’s used to make the wine are 48 year old. It had a saline, nutty aroma and light, peachy taste.
Lobster / Pine / Kohlrabi
Our next course was plump, lobster meat with kohlrabi shaped to look like a rose. This meaty morsel was paired with Bodegas Albamar, Pepe Luis, Spain 2021. This was a nippy, tart, highly acidic wine with a mostly lemon taste.
Scallop toast
Next came ‘posh prawn toast’ (our words) using scallop rather than prawn. From looking, you could tell that it wasn’t prawn but it still had an aroma like regular prawn toast, while the accompanying consommé had an aroma like haggis, so possibly flavoured by mace? Remember to ‘dook’ your toast in the consommé for extra flavour combos.
Berkshire pork / pumpkin / coffee / miso
This was Scottish Berkshire pork. The rump cooked in a water bath, while the pork belly was braised and pressed on a barbecue.
The pork sausage was also braised, so not crispy but gelatinous. The other item on the plate was butternut squash with homemade pumpkin seed miso, and the final dollop was coffee and pig trotter sauce!
This was paired with Domaine Bartschi, Sous Les Rochers Pinot noir, France 2021, which had a funky cherry menthol and leather aroma and dry cherry taste.
An old school mini-dessert of tart rhubarb slithers with meadowsweet ‘Dip Dab’ arrived alongside the dessert itself.
Rhubarb / meadowsweet / sourdough
A bit like mastic ice cream atop a creme brûlée with tart cubes of (forced) rhubarb underneath (phew!). Don’t be put off by the mastic description from us. What we mean is that there was a slight chewy consistency and pine-like taste to ice cream. Something a little different.
This was served alongside Contero moscato d’Asti, Italy 2022, a wine that doesn’t look sparkling but is very spritzy on the tongue. It was really sweet with a syrupy honey, lemon and ginger flavour.
Sea buckthorn / chocolate / orange
We described our penultimate course as a posh Jaffa cake, which was sea buckthorn sorbet and berries with slithers of chocolate, and this paired with Chateau Tirecul La graviere, Les pins 2021, a dessert wine with golden colour, a pineapple and citrus peel aroma, and a sweet orange taste with a zesty marmalade flavour.
Douglas fir marshmallow
Sweet, chewy marshmallow with a surprisingly citrusy taste. Also on the plate are:
Mushroom / white brush / white chocolate
A mushroom-shaped macaron with a minty taste.
And these were paired with Yuzu amaro, which had a strong, bitter, herby grapefruit taste.
Overall verdict
We had been planning to visit Fhior for a long time so Mixtapes was the perfect introduction, allowing us to enjoy several courses of great food in a relaxed setting, to a nostalgic soundtrack that included many tracks we love.
We are fans of tasting menus as we always find it hard to pick our courses, we much prefer to handover the decision making process to the chefs to dish up what they know is their best produce. We also like surprises and enjoy trying new things so if you are like us then you will enjoy the journey.
Each mixtape at Fhior menu is priced at £140 – £150 and this includes all food and drinks on the night. The events are for adults only due to paired alcoholic drinks being included and dietary restrictions cannot be catered to.
How to book Fhior Mixtapes
The next Mixtapes will take place on Saturday 24th February but it’s fully booked already! Future dates are Saturday 9th and Saturday 30th March. All begin at 7pm and finish around 11pm. Book and have a sneak peek at the menu here.
Fhior also have a dinner and sherry event in the private dining area with sommelier Miguel Crunia on Friday 1st March. Tickets are available from the same link above.
We were invited to experience this dinner on a complimentary basis and reviewed as if dining independently.
Where is Fhior?
Fhior, 36 Broughton St, Edinburgh EH1 3SB
