Edinburgh Food Hall Bonnie & Wild honours Scotland’s National Bard with a ‘Burns Feast’ and free ceilidh

Edinburgh Food Hall Bonnie & Wild is going all-out for a week of Robert Burns-inspired dining, dancing and drinking, culminating in a free traditional Scottish ceilidh for up to 400 guests.

With no better way to honour the legacy of Robert Burns than gathering together with honest, sonsie folk and enjoying some exceptional Scottish food and drink, Bonnie & Wild has pulled out all the stops to offer a wide-ranging Burns feast for guests.

Kicking off on Burns Day on Saturday January 25, Bonnie & Wild’s kitchens, bars and speciality retailers are putting on exciting menu specials to show off the innovation and breadth of Scottish fare, and all in honour of Scotland’s National Bard.

The six-day celebration will conclude in a traditional Scottish ceilidh at the popular Food Hall venue on Thursday January 30^th where dancers will be encouraged to take part in the likes of the Gay Gordons, Dashing White Sergent and an Orcadian Strip the Willow to the sound of traditional Scottish music from the Charlie Kirkpatrick trio.

Renowned Scots musician Charlie Kirkpatrick will be on hand to lead the dancing and will also deliver the all-important Address to a Haggis after it is piped in by BBC Scotland weatherman and bagpiper Calum MacColl. Tartan specialists ScotlandShop will also be at the ceilidh to share their expertise about kilts, clans and all things tartan, while also running a poetry competition to mark the occasion.  

Kate Russell, Bonnie & Wild’s General Manager, said: “So much of Burns’s poetry and song was about food and drink, good company and good cheer, so it’s the perfect reason for all of us within Bonnie & Wild’s Scottish marketplace to show off the breadth and depth of Scottish fare on offer here. And if we can have a dram and a dance at the same time then so much the better.

Bonnie & Wild, which is home to 13 independent Scottish kitchens and specialist retailers, says it will have Burns specials from across its award-winning Food Hall from Saturday 25th through to Thursday 30th, including a chip shop-style haggis supper from Gary Maclean’s Creel Caught, haggis pizza from east PIZZA, and a haggis-laden burger from El Perro Negro, twice winner of the UK’s best burger.

Also on offer is a whisky-fused gelato from Joelato and a fusion of Sri Lankan and Scottish cuisine from Kochchi who have brought back their popular Haggis kotthu, made using traditional haggis, flatbread, vegetables, curry sauce and Sri Lankan spices.

For those looking for a taste of “usquabae”, Bonnie & Wild’s Rarity bottle shop will be hosting tasting sessions with Isle of Harris distillery on January 25^th, while the venue’s Malt of the Month is from Lochlea Distillery in Ayrshire, produced on a farm where Robert Burns once worked.

Kate added: “In recent months we’ve won an excellence from Scotland Food & Drink for our commitment to Scottish provenance, and so with Burns it’s fitting we celebrate his legacy with all the amazing food and drink we have in our food hall, and encourage friends and family to gather together in our marketplace and raise a glass in his name.”

The Feast

Bonnie & Wild’s Burns Feast includes specials from:

• Creel Caught
• Haggis Supper - Battered Haggis, chips and brown sauce
• Chooks
• Chicken Balmoral Burger – Black pepper garlic mayo, haggis patty, chicken thigh, burger cheese and chilli jam.  Available single (£13), Meal deal (£16.50) and loaded meal deal (£18.50).
• El Perro Negro
• Ode to A Haggis Burger (Double patty, double cheese, marrow butter, Ramsey of Carluke haggis, caramelised onions, house pickles and burger sauce)
• East Pizzas
• Dough a Haggis. Special Burns pizza with haggis, black pudding, and 'nduja
• Kochchi
• Haggis Kotthu. Sri Lankan kotthu with spicy haggis. Poetry on a plate!
• Soup & Caboodle
• Haggis Scotch Egg with whisky sauce and mixed leaf salad
• Stack & Still
• Rabbie Buns Stack (Double buttermilk with mash tatties, Macsween Haggis, roasted neeps, crispy kale, and whisky pepper sauce)
• Illy
• Mulled Apple juice
• Joelato
• Whisky & Marmalade Gelato
• Cranachan Gelato
• Honey & Ginger Biscuit Gelato
• Chulo’s
• Caramel Shortcake Stuffed Cookie
• Rarity
• Isle of Harris Distillery Tasting – Saturday 25^th January only.
• Bars
• Mocktail: Cup o’ Kindness: made with Feragiaia, ginger syrup, lemon juice and Rapscallion Cranachan soda
• Cocktail: Auld Acquaintance, made with GlenAllachie 12yo whisky, ginger liqueur and Rapscallion Cranachan soda
• Malt of the Month: Stout Cask Finish from Lochlea Distillery