First Coast is first choice with many Edinburgh diners for two decades.
Now the restaurant is celebrating 20 years in business. The secret of success for Dalry Road’s neighbourhood bistro is their no fuss setting and exceptional service, coupled with “interesting & robust flavours”.
To celebrate we are running a competition with First Coast here – enter now and win dinner for two.
One of the longest standing restaurants within the Dalry Road business community is looking forward to taking a nostalgic culinary journey back through the last two decades.
Having built up a solid customer base in the tight knit neighbourhood, and beyond, First Coast, opened in 2003, is named after a small village in Wester Ross. Over the years, First Coast has simply offered popular food that people enjoy eating, without resorting to copying any trends or passing fads. Full of “interesting & robust flavours” on its ever changing menu, it has consistently had diners coming back for more for the past twenty years.
Described as “cosy and never fussy,” and with a roaring fire to make diners feel welcome, First Coast’s interior is enhanced by a series of “rooms”, each with their own atmosphere, and, in the words of one restaurant critic, “their own charms”.
Current plans for the anniversary include revisiting menus from over the years, with two special celebratory evenings, to be held at the bistro on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 March. The menu served will encapsulate some of First Coast’s well remembered and favourite dishes, such as octopus, black rice & saffron ailoi, osso buco, bone marrow risotto with purple sprouting broccoli and lemon gremolata, and a dish of deep fried whole gurnard with jasmine rice, sweet chilli, ginger and lime.
“Our special anniversary evenings will be a nostalgic celebration of twenty years of our approach to food,” said First Coast’s Manager, Anna. “We are very excited and welcome any customers past or present getting in touch with their suggestions and recollections. We’d love to know what they have loved the most about First Coast over the years,” she said.
Anna explained that a “First Coast at Home” 20th Anniversary Takeaway Menu is also available.
“When the pandemic hit, along with many other restaurants, we launched a “take out” service called “First Coast at Home”,” said Anna. “We also launched a festive offering, “Christmas at Home.”
“Unlike some other restaurants, these services are still running three years later, and we are proud of the success they have become.” The meals, able to be delivered or collected, consist of a choice of three different starters and mains, plus a dessert. Simple cooking instructions ensure they can be finished off at home.
Now finding itself in an up and coming area, with the new development at Haymarket, First Coast is doing all it can to make the most of the opportunities presented to itself and the many other small businesses in the area, some of which it supports as suppliers.
“The development currently going on can only be good for the area,” said Anna. “We’re a hive of small businesses here, with many genres of food represented in the local eateries, of which we are the most established. We use Throat Punch Coffee, an independent which is just along the road, and regularly buy ingredients from the local Thai and Mediterranean supermarkets.”
First Coast will publish more details on its 20th Anniversary Celebrations on its social media pages in the coming weeks.
You can win dinner for two at First Coast here.
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