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The Howgate Restaurant & Bistro

Address:	Howgate, Near Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 8PY
Tel	01968 670000
Website:	Visit their website
Price: £30.00	Wine: £14.00	Champagne: £37.00
Opening Hours:	Mon-Sun 12N-2pm 6-9.30pm

Square Meal review of The Howgate Restaurant & Bistro:

Ten miles doesn't seem much - but in Edinburgh terms it takes you from the city centre to a patch of Midlothian utterly disconnected from urban life. The low-slung premises of the Howgate (in a tiny eponymous village outside Penicuik) were once stables, a dairy, & had other incarnations. Now they house this established bistro/bar with crackling open fire as well as a more formal dining space, all done up with obvious taste & care: what a modern restaurant in the country should look like. They pride themselves on the quality of the beef for the charcoal-grilled steaks, but it's certainly not all high class sirloin'n'chips. You could start with a soft Scottish artisan cheese (Howgate Brie naturally) in filo with light plum sauce; move on to sea bass with asparagus & wilted spinach; then finish with a crowd-pleaser like sticky toffee pudding. Decent range of affordable wines although someone will have to stay sober to drive home.