On Friday night we popped down to visit Tigerlily’s new Japanese Garden in collaboration with House of Suntory with a brand new Japanese-inspired cocktail menu.
The cherry-blossom filled wonderland will run until mid-June and offers a fresh, flower-filled and decadent space to sip on limited edition cocktails from an exclusive menu featuring three of House of Suntory’s most popular spirits.
Upon arrival at Tigerlily, we were welcomed by a burst of pink blossom trees that led through the George Street venue into the Japanese Garden.
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Here we discovered a canopy of cherry blossoms draped from the centre of the room with soft lantern lighting that creates an intimate space to relax in.
There was even a unique photo-worthy Instagram wall complete with a gold shimmering sun, blossom tree and hanging Japanese paper lanterns; a hint at what can be found in the garden.
We had three cocktails before heading through for dinner and started with a ‘Kanji Colada’; a ‘juicy, playful whisky Colada’ with Toki Whisky, white peach, passionfruit, strawberry, and coconut. Garnished with icing sugar-dusted physalis and a theatrical firework cocktail stick.
Next, we had the ‘Dragon’s Tail’ described as ‘a fresh and vibrant mojito twist’ with Roku Gin, Velvet Falernum, passionfruit, peppermint, pressed lemon and garnished with a bamboo leaf “dragon tail”.
Finally trying a ‘Rising Sun’ which consists of Haku Vodka in a creamy, citrus-forward drink. Inspired by a Japanese lemon posset pudding, using yuzu sake, pressed lemon and Jersey Cream.
The result is sharp and juicy with a rich, velvety finish. Served with a red Mademoiselle Macaron garnish symbolising the rising sun.
All the cocktails were presented beautifully and each one had a completely different flavour which was refreshing. The cute lemon-flavoured macaroon was a welcome addition to the Rising Sun but my favourite was definitely the punchy twist on a mojito.
Sadly we were led out of the stunning Japanese Garden for dinner and sat down to have three courses along with a couple more cocktails.
To start we tried the salt and chilli calamari with a noodle salad. Calamari is one of my favourite dishes and I have tried it all over Edinburgh.
This was a decent-sized portion but quite dry and definitely could have used some mayo or aioli on the side but we still managed to wolf the whole portion down.
Next, I had a classic steak with triple-cooked chips and a mushroom. My steak was cooked well and the chips were nice and chunky, perfect to be drizzled in the garlic butter on the side.
The actual steak was fine but not particularly flavoursome and just felt like a very standard steak dinner.
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My friend went for a North Sea cod, gruyère and herb crust, tender stem broccoli, saffron potatoes and black garlic aioli. This sounded magnificent on the menu but the cod was a little tasteless and could have done with some more seasoning.
The rest of the accompaniments were delicious and the crunchy tender stem was cooked to perfection.
To end the plush experience we had an incredible Chocolate praline choux pastry, chocolate ganache, praline cream and mint with a selection of I.J.Mellis cheeses with oatcakes, red grapes and Arran chutney.
It was a struggle to manage dessert but I'm so glad we did because they were the perfect end to a wonderful evening catching up and spending some quality time together in the bougie Japanese Garden.
You can find out more and book here.
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