Yesterday I saw the play “Echoes Across Time”. A show in the Edinburgh Fringe festival.
Easily the most entertaining, engaging show that unapologetically grabs your attention
The whole cast is deaf, so is solely signed, with subtitles and a verbal translation for the sign language illiterate.
For those who don’t already know this brand, “Le Labo” is a perfumerie, which seems to be at the epitome of its trade.
Owned by #estéelauder, the owner has built up #lelabo, to become rather global…. But few know about it. Do you?
No real marketing or PR, their brand theme is vivid, simplistic but not in a modern, “fine art” way.
With lab-based branding combining perfume with science, it really does turn art into science.
Edinburgh’s answer to Gordon Ramsay, this restaurant has a nice ambiance & has a great, central location (on St Andrew Square) but every member is über lovely. But not in a patronising way.
Not hugely creative, but a lot more than other restaurants, & offers a mix of classics (like Beef Wellington) & fish &. chips, to more innovative poké & sushi. Much
Asian dishes on the menu. Although it holds the Ramsey name to advertise it, it doesn’t have such a gastronomic theme. Again, nothing on the nutritional information.
For my food, however, I had a duck salad (see menu). It was tasty, has few carbs & an Asian theme with the addition of mooli.
The only addition of a QR code involved advertisement & quicker easier ordering. This method must be a left over of the effect of the pandemic to this industry
I’d really desire to see QR codes used in a more relevant way, to start with. This can then aspire to information transferred using NFDs (near field devices).
Nice, mid market food. Modern ambience. Friendly staff, nothing regarding the nutrition though.
I see a trend here, that needs to be addressed.
Review; yummy, lovely, nice staff, better than average. Nothing very outstanding, & nothing regarding nutrition. I chose the safe, carb light option using assumption. BHL was 9.1 on leavi.
Very out-of-trend, to go to a hotel to try the restaurant alone (and not an illicit rendezvous), but this was solely for researching this novel form of gathering customer feedback (what they made up with in this method, they lacked in quality)
To do so, they had a QR code on the menu; shows they’re modern, and modern. With this novel method, they can’t have used this feedback well as they lacked in quality.
The QR offered only calorie amounts, not any other nutrient information. And it didn’t even work in giving me the calories… maybe I was just being stupid but seriously lacking ease of use. It only led to hotter deals;
The staff were lovely, the ambiance was average expected, the food was obviously hotel food.
I had the “hearty teriyaki”. Which, again, was average. It ted on to the biological pleasure centres food gives you; good amount of salt, sweet enough but not too sweet. But was cooked rather poorly: broccoli much overdone, as was the couscous (but I like mine ardent rather than floppy) and salmon overcooked.
A good thing (especially for diabetics) is this the first place (so far) including cauliflower couscous. So no carbs!
In conclusion; novelty or quality?
They capitalised on QR mania, but I suggest use that customer feedback to improve quality.
Novelty or quality….?
As a diabetic, I subconsciously avoid carbs. It should be well balanced to my insulin, I know. But because it’s such an extra effort, I try to get the lowest amount of carbs, saving me doing the calculation.
I’ve been here, the “Huxley” at the Rutland hotel, several times before. So as they must’ve impressed me, as I’m returning. Also, I’ve worked out, already, which dishes will suit me.
Sadly, the menu is heavily hot dog affiliated. So, too many carbs in the bun. Salad for Leuty, I guess.
I have already tried some of the salads, and found some I like, which works nicely with my 3 units of novorapid. These include:
Superfood sales (couscous (carrots), tomatoes (fructose), almonds, radish, watercress, chimichirri dressing) as I keep having it again and again, I enjoy the flavours, pairings and presentation. It is not carb heavy so it doesn’t affect my BGL much, and doesn’t leave me getting too full.
Beetroot, feta and watercress salad (sherry vinegar, reduction) again, good reaction of my BGL as this has no carbs. Beautiful flavour pairings again. Mystery of ingredients in dressing, tastes nice, results nutritionally amenable.
Two dish courses are salads so not very filling, and very carb light. So… PUDDING.
I. J. Melis Scottish cheese selection (homemade oatcakes, porridge crackers, grapes, tomato chutney) safe selection of deserts is cheese selection; no carbs in most cheese and this appears on most menus. The accompanies are the treacherous ones which need the carb counting. The grapes are fairly standard 0.5g per grape, having about 7 to make up for the lack of carbs in previous dishes.
Beautiful food, mid-range price. Nice atmosphere. Well paired flavours. Again, NO nutritional information accessible.
It may (most likely) or may not be blatantly obvious I am currently sans emploi (without job), and hate it. So… I did a masters, completed it. And now want something to focus my energy on. So I’m investing my time into developing a business proposal….
This will take 2 things central to my life:
1) i love eating out (seen in recent blog posts, recently). Very harsh reviews, but aim to inspire how to improve.
2) I’m type 1 diabetic (very common, where 1 in 11 of the population has it). Reviews from a metabolic disabled person which gives insight in the nutrition of the ingredients and how it’ll affect the customer (most chefs are solely interested in the flavour of the dish but few know much about the nutritional values)
This is a skill which diabetics must learn, . Diabetic or not, this should also be made imperative for restaurants to provide this information, and to follow the trend of inclusion.
….no alcohol was consumed, unlike what is presumed by the name. Albeit a big cocktail menu.
A very unique & distinctive theme, being Canada. Much of the decorations were Canada themed. As well as the menu, having Canadian classics, purine being an example.
It was, however, what is expected about an “average” restaurant. Pretty reasonable price tag, too.
Certainly trying to fit the needs of the hospitality industry.
No nutritional information at all though. I ordered “cauliflower wings” with a “Korean BBQ”top. I felt like a fool not assuming it’d have soooo much sugar. It was pretty tasty, but with that name, I presumed it would be relatively carb-light, but the cauliflower wings were covered in batter and syrup.
I admit I only took an educated guess on my order choice, choosing cauliflower wings over a hot dog, but with more nutritional information, I could have made a better “educated guess”.