We were lucky enough to be asked to join the Howies Waterloo Place team tasting yesterday (no need to ask us twice when there’s food involved) so we skipped lunch (who are we kidding, we had lunch too) and sprinted down to Waterloo Place. When we arrived, Suzanne O’Connor – who heads up all our kitchens – and Head Chef Graeme Roots had prepared all the new dishes for the team to try.

A typical team tasting involves Suzanne and Graeme taking the guys through a thorough description of each dish – from the look, to the local ingredients used, the flavour profile, allergens that the dish contains and the best bit – the tasting. This gives our team the chance to know each dish inside out, be thinking what drinks they’d recommend to match the dish and be able to give you their top recommendation when ordering.

So what’s on the menu? Of course there’s the Howies classics – Haggis, neeps and tatties, Cullen Skink, Casserole, our famous banoffee pie… but we’re also welcoming a host of new additions including – Scottish game terrine with redcurrant dressing & olive oil rosemary toasted crumb, Soy crust Loch Etive trout bok choi salad & sesame crisp with coriander & chilli dressing and our personal highlight (and the ultimate autumn comfort dish) Isle of Mull macaroni cheese with cauliflower, maple smoked bacon and toasted thyme crumb. Honestly, we could eat a bucket of that! It is lip smackingly delicious.

We also see the welcome return of venison on our dinner menu. All our venison comes from our estate in Perthshire. Our ghillie Jimmy, can tell us an exact timeline from hill top to table. This method of sourcing our meat also allows us to use the meat from nose to tail, working responsibly with no wastage.

You can see the menu for yourself by clicking here.