Alex Asacker is a freelancer living in Toronto's West End. 
Orocco Pier
I cannot believe an entire month has passed since my last post. I have experienced many tastes and treats in the past 30 days and it will be my goal to post more frequently in hopes of sharing these with you.
On my first night of work at Le Monde here in Edinburgh I had the good fortune to serve a table of lovely people who work at a restaurant called Orocco Pier. At the end of their meal they encouraged me to dine at their restaurant and even gave me a mobile number on which to reach them as well as directions. At the end of September my boyfriend Paul and I headed out to South Queensferry to celebrate our 14 month anniversary.
Orocco Pier is situated on the main street of the rather quaint town South Queensferry, offering a waterfront view and a panorama of the famous Forth Bridge.
We were greeted upon entering the restaurant and welcomed by rich wooden tones. The lighting though dimmed wasn’t too dark but intimate and warm. The atmosphere was at once comfortable though posh with the levels of music offering privacy even in the seemingly booked restaurant.
Due to the fairly expensive prices we decided to order only mains but were brought fresh bread, which we welcomed. I chose the asparagus and wild mushroom ravioli on a bed of wilted spinach with a pecorino, garlic, thyme and cream sauce. Paul decided on the chicken stuffed with basil, gorgonzola and sun dried tomato on red pesto risotto. The ravioli were flavourful and rich but were a bit overpowered by the saltiness of the garlic cream sauce. I found Paul’s chicken to be moist and the flavours blended nicely without the gorgonzola overpowering as I thought it might do. Our meals were £11.50 and £13.95 respectively, a price we thought was well worth the experience and taste.
As a treat Paul booked us a room in the hotel for the night. The room was fairly small but comfortable and nicely decorated and had a balconey that supplied another beautiful view.
In the morning we had the full Scottish breakfast and I opted for the vegetarian option. The vegetarian sausages, as in my previous experiences, were a let down as they were too dry and lacked interesting flavour. The vegetarian haggis however made up for this being quite flavorful. I was most dissapointed with the “fruit dumpling” which ended up being a slice of fruit cake that was actually fairly hard and contained only raisens.
Overall I quite enjoyed Orocco Pier especially the atmosphere in the restaurant and the mains at dinner. I would recommend it, www.oroccopier.co.uk, and also suggest the small specialty shop down the street from it where I bought delicious Arborio rice with truffle.
