I was blown away at the extent and the transformation of the Ship Inn, Musselburgh. I remember the Ship Inn well, when I was in my late twenties. A dark old mans boozer with a karaoke room away through the back, where every surface was sticky including the carpets. I had many a happy, and yes, drunken Saturday nights in there.

Now it has been transformed into a very large, bright, open beautiful restaurant with an equally large courtyard. The front doors of the Ship Inn still lead you into the bar but it too has had a facelift and the restaurant is accessed separately around the side.

REVIEW - THE SHIP INN, MUSSELBURGH

There aren’t many restaurants in the Musselburgh, Prestonpans, Tranent, Wallyford area. Yes, each area has one or two restaurants but usually most people commute into Edinburgh to eat out; so the Ship Inn is a very welcome addition to the East Lothian dining scene.

The menu and the decor gives off the impression that the food is going to be seafood led and there are many seafood dishes available, but most of the food coming out the kitchen to other diners were mostly meat based.

On asking our server for recommendations, not one seafood dish was recommended. A little taken aback by this, we decided to go for mostly seafood anyway, with only the Hornig’s Haggis Scotch Egg with garlic herb aioli (£6.50) dish being non seafood.

This was a lovely wee starter. The haggis was soft and not overly peppery, with a very thin layer of crumbs around it to hold it together. It looked fragile but tasted delicious. The egg was to my liking, with a soft yolk and well cooked white. Great starter!

Next up on the starters was the North Atlantic Prawn Cocktail with Marie Rose sauce, iceberg, smoked tomatoes and brown bread (£12.95)

Lovely presentation and packed with prawns. Unfortunately, they tasted frozen as the were watery, a little rubbery and if it hadn’t been for the sauce, quite bland.

For mains we both chose from the Ship Inn Classic section of the menu. Dishes here include the Border Beef Burger, Lobster Risotto and Spring Veg Gnocchi.

The Ship Inn Fish Pie (£12.95) sounds and looks the business. A selection of market fish (so its pot luck what you get depending on what fish they’ve managed to secure that week), tarragon cream sauce, gruyere, rooster mash and peas. TartanSpoonie, Clare isn’t a fan of peas so this was swopped out for a salad.

The dish arrived piping hot at the table and initial thoughts were that it looked lush and Clare couldn’t wait to dive in. Wonderful creamy tarragon sauce coated chunks of fish and scooped up with a mouthful of creamy mash, made for a very happy belly. This is a good homemade warm fuzzy dish and come winter, no doubt will be a best seller.

I chose the Monkfish Cheek Scampi (£13.50). Faultless presentation, thick cut chunky, delicious chips with a side of peas and tartare sauce. The scampi let the dish down. Monkfish is meant to be the texture of lobster, its fairly firm but soft; not flaky like other fish. Unfortunately, this was overcooked and had gone stringy. What a pity as I was so looking forward to eating this dish.

Desserts were the saviors and turned the mood around.

This was a dessert that surprised. Strawberry Eton Mess (£5.95). Completely deconstructed allowing you to build your perfect mouthful of meringue, poached strawberry and vanilla cream. Absolutely lush!

You know there is going to be a Sticky Toffee Pudding in here somewhere. This Very Sticky Toffee Pudding (£5.95) was a winner. Being a STP purist though, I’d remove the caramelised bananas but I was super impressed with the sauce to pudding ratio - at last someone understands that the sponge is a sponge and soaks up all the sauce hence you require double sauce to sponge. Applause to the Chef.

The staff are lovely, super friendly and helpful. A decent amount of table check backs, drink checks, and good Covid regulations in place.

The Ship Inn hasn’t been open for very long and as a new business finding their feet and stride, trying to recover from Covid and staff shortages which are affecting most hospitality venues; with a few tweaks and learning it will be a gem in East Lothian.

This place has the potential to deliver some fantastic plates of food, and I probably should have ordered the Steak Pie or the Burger, as those plates were being cleared in record time by very happy and satisfied diners.

The Ship Inn, 184 North High Street, Musselburgh. www.shipinnmusselburgh.co.uk

My Spoon Award : Silver Spoon 8/10. (Food I give 7/10, service 9/10 and ambience 8/10)

I was invited by The Ship Inn to review their menu. Food and drink were complimentary but the views are very much my own