The perks of writing for a newspaper

If you don't know already, I'm on staff for Student, the University of Edinburgh's student newspaper. Technically, I work as a film reviewer (I've reviewed 2 films, one review was for the internet and the other was published in the paper) and a copy editor, but I branch into other topics from time to time. This week, I was given the restaurant review, so I went to Redfort Indian Restaurant for lunch today with Eve and Kate. I figured that I, as the reviewer, would get some sort of discount, but as it happened, the owner was our waiter (he knew I was coming), and he was so relieved to hear we'd loved the food and he'd be getting a good review that he gave us all three free meals! Love it.

The article follows. It'll be published Tuesday in Student, probably with a few changes.

A FORT-UNATE FIND

While walking up to the Redfort restaurant on a chilly October day, I was almost skipping with excitement. For a lunch deal of £5.95 each, my two friends and I received an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet, a welcome drink and either coffee, tea, or ice cream after your meal. This would be the highlight of an otherwise grey and dismal day.

Seated comfortably at a corner table, my friends and I placed our drink orders and stood to get our appetizers. Three nameless foods sat in front of me: my chickpeas in sauce, spicy chicken legs and red veg balls were all so satisfying I wanted so much more of each. A second trip to the buffet yielded my six different curries. Again, they were nameless – I’d forgotten them all. Distracted by food, I was more concerned with taste than titles.

The meal went over fantastically well with me and my two friends, both of them saying that it was well good. Personally, it was the best I’d had in a long time. Each curry had a distinctly different taste. None were so spicy that you had to stop (a definite plus at an all-you-can-eat buffet), and the chicken and lamb in the meat curries were so tender you could easily cut them with the side of your fork.

The service was also excellent. From the very beginning, when our waiter’s cute little son pulled him away for a moment and his quick apologetic return, to the very end, when he looked relieved that we had truly enjoyed the food, our attentive waiter always gave us something to smile about.

Definitely somewhere I will go again, the Redfort is a great (and relatively cheap) restaurant with notable student discounts, and a good way to break out of the bland ham sandwiches that plague my normal diet.