Haggis!

What can I say, it had to be done sooner or later.

Friday night, we decided to kick off the weekend by going out for some real, authentic haggis. (If you don't know exactly what haggis is, I won't go into detail here, but you can certainly take a look for yourself.) I figured this was going to be a bit of an experience, and as such, required a certain degree of planning. I didn't want to go somewhere cheap and quick (ie, Wetherspoons) since I thought we might get something sub-par, or hurriedly prepared, so I did a little research online before deciding on an actual location. First, I learned that MacSween haggis is reputed to be pretty much the best quality haggis around, and it's made locally in Edinburgh, so that was a pretty obvious choice. It also turns out that most places I looked at on the Royal Mile serve MacSween's, which gave us plenty of options. The eventual pub of choice was a place called The World's End, a pub a little ways down the Royal Mile, which had some really good reviews online. It also had a lot of character (which is important for the overall experience), and also served MacSween vegetarian haggis, in case B was feeling brave too. (She ultimately decided on something different, but it looked delicious, so I don't blame her.)

D and I mulled over the menu at first, giving all our options fair consideration, but the haggis experience was obviously the clear choice, so we ordered. We also had the choice of topping it with either cheese or a whisky sauce, and we opted for cheese. Within what felt like minutes, our food arrived. And at first glance, it looked pretty tasty, and (I will admit) not at all what I expected. I thought it would be a lot runnier.

It actually tasted a lot like heavily spiced ground beef, with a lot of salt thrown in for good measure. And, to my surprise, it was actually quite delicious. Rounding out the dinner were neeps (turnip) on one side, and tatties (mashed potato) on the other side. The cheese was definitely a good idea too. It was also incredibly filling, and by the end we were definitely not looking to eat anything else for a while.

So there you have it. While critiquing food is definitely not a forté of mine, I know what I like, and I like this. I'm also really curious to try the veggie haggis, so maybe I'll be back sometime soon. Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering if I finished it, here's the final evidence.