All the ingredients on the Moss restaurant menu are either sourced from the chef-owner’s family farm in Angus
Farm-to-table has become a bit of a marketing buzz phrase in recent times, co-opted by anyone keen to forge a sense of wholesome credibility without doing the hard yards. Occasionally, though, you discover a restaurant that isn’t trying to pull the proverbial organic wool over diners’ eyes.

At Moss, the Stockbridge restaurant owned by Noma-trained chef Henry Dobson, you won’t experience any ‘farmwashing’. All the ingredients on the menu are either sourced from the chef-owner’s family farm in Angus, or from local producers such as Knockraich Farm’s Katy Rodgers. If it doesn’t grow in this country (exceptions are made for some of the wines), you won’t be able to order it, as we discover when we ask for a coffee.
It’s difficult to be disappointed when the alternative is tea made using ingredients gathered from 17 Scottish farms, served in a mug that was also cultivated from farmland. Henry’s wife, the ceramicist Akiko Matsuda (who runs ViViVi Studio in Leith), made all the restaurant’s exceptionally beautiful tableware using clay formed from the soil. Even the bare-wood tables are farm-to-table creations, hewn from timber from the farm’s wind-fallen limes.
It sets an unshowy but thoughtfully crafted scene. The 26-cover restaurant is softly lit and decorated sparingly. The menu shows restraint too. To minimise waste, Moss restaurant has two set menus – the nine-course Tour of Scotland (£85pp) or the four-course Whistle Stop (£65), which is the one we go for.
Obviously, I regret that decision as soon as I spoon the first course, a clear mutton broth, into my mouth. The meat is buttery, the broth salty and garlicky, and I’d drink an entire saucepan of it if I could. Is it normal to be this excited by soup?

It is when it has been made by someone who can transform the humble celeriac, our next course, into a multi-textured marvel; some baked, some pickled, all blanketed in hazelnuts. I try to eat it slowly, I really do, but it disappears as quickly as the broth. Next is wild forest boar, which has travelled from the Highlands to our plate, cooked sous vide and finished on the grill. It’s our first time trying boar, and what an introduction; it’s smoky and tender, the bitter prickle of its charred ash perked up by kimchi and dods of sweet parsnip purée. My friend gets a barley risotto with hers but I’m gluten-free, so mine comes without. It’s my only criticism of Moss restaurant – most dietary requirements can’t be accommodated (but there is a veggie version of the Tour of Scotland menu).
Let’s end on a positive: our final plate, a sort-of deconstructed apple crumble with buttermilk ice-cream, is banging. Everything was grown on the family farm – the oats, the apples, the hay that flavoured the ice-cream. It’s the best dessert we’ve had in a long time. If we could eat the entire meal twice-over, we would.
Visit the Moss restaurant website | Follow Moss restaurant on Instagram
Once you tick Moss restaurant off your To Taste list, book yourself into Aizle, also in Edinburgh, who do aromatic dishes well.
Aizle does tasting menus right, balancing style and sustenance with ease




