Down The Hatch

It’s finally time for a Scottish breakfast. I haven’t had a breakfast since my wonderful adventure to Paolo’s Cafe in London so I was really looking forward to this one. This time, I’ve located a Canadian diner called Down The Hatch at the Port Edgar Marina in South Queensferry right next to the famous ‘Fourth Bridge’.

I arrived shortly before 11am so quite a late breakfast today and ordered the Full Scottish Skillet (£13.25) which came with Lorne sausages, link sausages, smoked streaky bacon, half a tomato, baked beans, tattie scone, haggis, two fried eggs and a hash brown… a hash brown on a Scottish breakfast? I’m sure that will be controversial.

All served in cast iron skillet, the breakfast arrived within 10 minutes from a very polite member of staff. My early thoughts of the breakfast – visually quite unappealing. The presentation was a tad haphazard with the beans plonked right in the middle of the skillet meaning everything you taste, will have a hint of that sauce.

The link sausages were pretty dreadful. Lacking in flavour, you could almost argue they were catering sausages. Unfortunately, the Lorne sausage didn’t fare much better as it was tough and unusually chewy for a sausage. Onwards and upwards, I enjoyed the bacon which had a hint of that famous Canadian maple which gave it an additional sweetness albeit I’ve had better elsewhere. The haggis was tasty, the tattie scone left me wondering if it was another catering addition to the skillet, similar thoughts with the hash brown. The beans were your standardised beans that I could taste throughout the meal because they were on each individual ingredient!

Overall? Disappointed. Given the reviews online, I expected a lot more. The tea wasn’t included with a breakfast and came to an additional £3 which is quite high for a cup of tea.

I wouldn’t recommend coming here for breakfast but I’ve heard fantastic things about their beef dip and their Poutine which sadly weren’t on offer when I visited as it was too early. Was it a mistake from to go to a Canadian diner for a Scottish breakfast? Perhaps. It’s on the menu and I think breakfasts are reliant upon good ingredients.

A 5/10.