We are delighted to be number 46 on Yelp’s Top UK 100 Places to Eat in 2016 list.

For the second year in a row we have made this list and we are absolutely delighted.  The whole team work really hard to deliver a great experience for visitors to Oink and we just love the great feedback and support we get from reviewers.

The whole team work really hard to deliver a great experience for visitors to Oink and we just love the great feedback and support we get from reviewers.

Unlike most restaurant rating lists, which are compiled by food experts, this list is created using the ratings ordinary people give to eateries on Yelp, an online guide to local businesses.

HOLY MOLY! Not Kosher but delicious! Amazing shredded pork
what a find
when they run out…..they run out
go early
always a line
its worth it
Reviewer from San Diego, CA

see other reviews and photos on Yelp
Oink Victoria Street on Yelp
Oink Canongate on Yelp

Oink is proud to have two outlets in Scotland’s Capital City located on the Canongate (bottom of the Royal Mile) and Victoria Street in the heart of the city’s historic Old Town.

Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and those of you who follow us on Facebook and Twitter know that we love to share photos and tips about the fabulous city we are proud to be based in.

So we thought we would share some facts about Edinburgh that you might not know, we have done some research and here are our favourite 5 facts that we discovered.

1.    Listed Buildings
A staggering 75% of buildings in Edinburgh are listed.  In fact outside London we have the most listed buildings of any city in the UK.  Oink is proud to be situated in listed buildings in both our Canongate and Victoria Street shops.  Just think – How many people and businesses that have lived and worked in these buildings before us?!

2.    Royal and a Mile.
The Royal Mile is called this because it is actually a mile from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill to the Palace of Holyrood House at the bottom of the hill.  This means it is almost a mile too between our two shops too.   So you could eat an Oink Roll at Victoria Street and possibly be ready for another by the time you walked to the Canongate shop at the bottom of the Royal Mile.  Well it’s a good excuse for another roll anyway.

3.    A Volcano in the City
Edinburgh’s highest hill at 822 feet is Arthur’s Seat, is also an extinct volcano.  The original Gaelic name means Height of the Arrows.  We do get lots of walkers in our Canongate shop who are well and truly ready for an Oink Roll after their climb.  The view of the city from the top is certainly worth the walk, as is the Oink Hog Roast roll, but in saying that we are showing a certain amount of bias.  Though Trip Advisor and Yelp reviews would prove we are not alone in this.

4.    Gannets at the Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo is one of the most popular attractions in the city.  But did you know that the first animal that was bought by Edinburgh Zoo was a gannet and cost 18 pence?   That is why today a Gannet can be seen on the in the crest of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland to this day.

5.    Tea slurping a national habit?
If you live in Edinburgh long enough you will certainly hear the phrase “You’ll have had your tea?”  It actually dates back to 1729 when the nobleman Mackintosh of Borlum complained of tea-slurping as a national habit and not socially acceptable.  So when out visiting he always said he had his tea in the hope he could get a glass of beer instead.  Seems sensible to us and an Oink roll goes very well with a beer whether that’s a ginger beer or a pint though many like it with a cup of tea too.

With our two great locations in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town in Victoria Street and the Canongate on the Royal Mile, the Oink team enjoy celebrity spotting particularly during the Edinburgh Festival but also benefit from being one of the prime locations for the many movies that are filmed in Edinburgh.  Recent movies filmed here have included One Day and Sunshine on Leith where key Edinburgh landmarks such as the Mound (scene of the song 500 miles) were showcased to a worldwide audience.  There is one film though that has been synonymous with Edinburgh for showing the darker side and that is Trainspotting and in the past few weeks the Oink team along with many in Edinburgh have been talking and spotting the filming taking place for the sequel likely to be called Porno (if it’s true to Irvine Welsh’s sequel book) which is due for release on the 27th January 2017.

All this movie talk got us thinking and we decided to take a look at what has been filmed at or near our two outlets.

Arthurs Seat
Edinburgh’s extinct volcano looks down on the city and particularly the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament (not forgetting our Oink Shop just up from the parliament on the Canongate) and is the scene of movies such as One Day, the 2004 version of Greyfriars Bobby, Battle of the Sexes starring Peter Seller and Chariots of Fire.

The Royal Mile
The Royal Mile linking Edinburgh Castle at the top to the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom is a fabulous backdrop for films with the many closes going off the street and its rich history it is arguably a Directors dream location.  Films shot here include Cloud Atlas shot at the City Chambers where Frobisher (Ben Wishaw) escapes down a drainpipe leaving behind Sixsmith (James D’Arcy).  And in Parliament Square Emma, Dex and friends meet up after a long evening in One Day. It is also the Christmas Market scene in the 1996 film Jude.

The Grassmarket
This is the location for many movies and TV shows including Pramface, Complicity, Filth, Book of Blood, Outcast, Mausam and Taggart.  And an old movie but a classic is the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.  The Grassmarket is the scene in the film when Miss Jean Brodie (Maggie Smith) instructs her girls on Mary Queen of Scots and Mussolini two historical characters not often linked.

James McAvoy filming ‘Filth’ outside Oink on Victoria Street in Edinburgh

Victoria Street
Finally in Victoria Street we have seen quite a few films and TV filmed including James McAvoyy in Filth which was filmed just outside Oink allowing us to take the photo we have included in this article.  Other films shot here include One Day, Case Histories (which again gave viewers a clear shot of our Victoria Street Oink Shop) Driving Lessons starring Julie Walters and Cloud Atlas starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.  Before our time but the 1986 Scottish Film Restless Natives was filmed here with a motorbike chase sequence right above Oink at Victoria Terrace.

We hope we have given you a flavour of some of the movies shot in Edinburgh.  If you would like more information VisitScotland in association with Film Edinburgh, This is Edinburgh and Transport Edinburgh have produced a Edinburgh Film Map so you can see Edinburgh through the lens of the Movie Camera as you travel around the city.

And if you do decide to do the Edinburgh Movie Trail and find yourself popping by our Canongate and Victoria Street Shops, then you have a great excuse to enjoy an Oink or a Grunter.  You might even spot a famous face while you are enjoying your roll.

Read all about it
Our favourite pork cookery books

As you would expect from a company called Oink we are extremely interested in all things pig and pork related.  And that extends to our reading material so we thought it would be fun to recommend some of our favourite pork inspired cookery books – much more interesting than the latest celebrity life story, whodunnit or self help guide in our book!

We hope that you like them as much as we do.

Hog – Proper pork recipes from the snout to the squeak
by Richard H. Turner

Hog is a celebration of all things pig – from breeds and rearing, to butchering and preparing, with techniques, features and more than 150 recipes for nose to tail eating. The comprehensive range of dishes includes hams, bacon, sausages, charcuterie, pates, confits, roasts, grills, hotpots, ragouts, pies, casseroles, scratchings, crackling, trotters and much more.

Pig
by Johnnie Mountain

Pig is divided into four chapters. Chapter One, Home Favourites, gives you simple recipes for the whole family – for example, Grilled Garlic & Sage Pork Chops and Pork & Apricot Tagine. In Chapter Two, Cured, Dried, Preserved & Smoked, you’ll find amazing tastes and textures such as Pea & Ham Terrine and Ham Steaks with Caramelized Apple. Chapter Three, Aromatic & Spicy, shows you how to infuse fiery flavours into dishes like Vietnamese Pork Salad and Char Siu Pork. And Chapter Four, Slow-Cooked, reveals the secrets to truly succulent pork with recipes such as Slow-Roast Belly of Pork and Pork Loin in a Fennel-Salt Crust.

Pure Pork Awesomeness
by Kevin Gillespie

Top Chef Kevin Gillespie from Atlanta became known for his love of pork and literally wears it on his sleeve with his forearm tattoo. His first book, Fire in My Belly, a James Beard Award finalist, included his famous Bacon Jam. Now he shares his unbounded passion for pork in a book devoted entirely to the subject with more than 100 easy-to-follow recipes. Dig into everything from Bacon Popcorn and Bourbon Street Pork Chops to Korean Barbecued Pork Bulgogi, Vietnamese Spareribs with Chile and Lemongrass, and Banoffee Trifle with Candied Bacon.

Pork – Preparing, curing and cooking all that’s possible from a pig
by Phil Vickery and Simon Boddy

This celebration of all that is great about pork showcases its fantastic versatility. Chapters cover Shoulder & Ribs, Belly, Loin & Fillet, Ham, Bacon, Sausages and Oddbits (offal), and cover the recipes and techniques needed to make everything from Dry-cured Ham, Chorizo and Salami to Smoked Pig Cheek Pancetta and Black Pudding Fritters. The 100 international recipes hail from the USA, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary, France and India, among others, and explore the cooking and preserving of pork around the globe.

Pork and Sons
Stephane Reynaud

Pork and Sons is the quintessential pork cookbook. There are 150 simple yet wonderfully original recipes presented by a three-generation old family of pig butchers and farmers in rural France. Interspersed with humorous sketches and intimate photographs, it provides insight into the history of the pig, those who raise them, and finally how to flavour, cook and transform pork into an array of mouth-watering dishes.

Pitt Cue Co. – The Cookbook
by Tom Adams

With great recipes for meats, sauces and rubs mixed with ideas for pickles, slaws, puddings and cocktails, plus features on meats, equipment and methods, the Pitt Cue Co. Cookbook is your guide to enjoying the best hot, smoky, sticky, spicy grub all year round. From Pitt Cue’s legendary Pickle backs and bourbon cocktails, to their acclaimed Pulled pork shoulder; Burnt ends mash; Chipotle & confit garlic slaw; Crispy pickled shiitake mushrooms; Toffee apple grunt; Sticky bourbon & cola pudding and so much more.

It goes without saying that we are passionate about our delicious hog roasts and we know from feedback from you, our customers,  that you do too.  Our aim is to bring a quality natural product from the countryside to the city.  We love what we do at Oink and we do like to have fun while we are working.  So we thought we would write a wee blog piece with five fun facts about pork and an added bonus is that facts one and two also highlight the health benefits of eating pork too.

1.    Iron is a mineral often lacking in infants, teenagers and women. The iron in pork is easy for the body to absorb and also aids the absorption of iron from bread and vegetables.

2.    Pigs are the world’s most consumed animal and a third of that in the UK is made up of our favourite breakfast dish the bacon sandwich.

3.    The work “barbeque” originated with French-speaking pirates who called their Caribbean pork feast “de barbe et queue”. It translates to “from beard to tail,” reflecting the versatility of the hog.

4.    Pork has a high protein content (around 20%). Protein is important for muscle building and for keeping organs healthy.

5.    Finally pulled pork has its origins in the deep south of the United States, in places like North Carolina and Tennessee though at Oink like to think that we have made it our own here in the beautiful city of Edinburgh.  As a recent reviewer from Singapore recently said about Oink.

“Heavenly. This is a place that you have to visit if you are in Edinburgh. We walked pass Oink while walking up to the Edinburgh Castle and I told my wife that I have to eat here. So we did after visiting the castle. My oh my the Pull Pork Sandwiches are heavenly and I had mine with Haggis. It was one of my greatest meals while in UK. I am already dreaming of having it again.”