Once in a while, I hit the jackpot. The restaurant stumbled upon while scouting for somewhere that’s independently run, beloved by the local community, unknown to virtually everyone else, has great service, is brilliant value and — here’s the clincher — cooks fantastic food. The restaurant critic’s manna from heaven. It doesn’t often.
And so to the Creel in Dunbar, which I found through the traditional research method known as panic-googling. I was on the hunt for somewhere to go for weekday lunch in East Lothian, now well established as a foodie hotspot. There’s a lot out there among the seaside towns and fields of wheat and barley: viennoiserie, artisan coffee roasters, distilleries, wild-foraged botanical spirits, the freshest fish and chips, posh farm shops, ex-
