The Paper Mill

I really like this venue, it’s beautifully decorated. There wasn’t anything that wrong with the food, it was just pricey for what it was. My steak was a bit fatty and his burger a bit dry. The staff were very efficient. If I wasn’t driving I would definitely had a cocktail or two, the cocktail menu looked great. I’ll come back for drinks… my husband and I are a little afraid the food might disappoint us again. I’d love to have somewhere fancy like this to bring people instead of nearby Frankie and Bennys.

DELICIOUS ! Attentive staff. Beautiful modernish décor. And did I say DELICIOUS and attentive staff? Highly recommend, they even have parking! Great drinks, and for Americans lots of ice. The pork belly appetizer was great.

Great food, if a tiny bit pricey. Super friendly staff and a great environment. Letterpress décor was pretty sweet.
They have blazing fast internet and accommodated a couple weary travelers who’s airbnb didn’t have internet. They let us stay after closing while they cleaned up the place late at night; now that’s service!

Attended this restaurant for a work Christmas party. Considering there was at least 30 of us, all scrambling for attention or drinks, I think this place deserves some serious props.
First, all the staff were wearing excellent Christmas jumpers. (points!) Second, the interior is lovely with artistic lighted décor and wood tables and floors. Third, the drinks that got us started were delicious and well made.
Then there’s the food. Nom! Okay, admittedly I’m a cheapskate and would probably never treat myself to a place with a price tag like this one. But if you’re looking for a nice meal in a lovely environment, this place is worth scoping out. I had three courses, and each one was delicious. As a veggie, I didn’t have much options, but I was delighted of the quality of the things I did order: some kind of pumpkin (?) soup, risotto, and cheesecake.
I mean, seriously… Usually risotto us boring at best, but this was cheesy deliciousness.
A lovely meal! And bravo to the servers who kept pace with a large group.

This is a little gem. Next to the bridge, at the water and a nice terrace to enjoy your food and drinks.
It’s a bit pricey, but I think it’s the best you can get in Lasswade. Excellent selection of beers and cocktails, wines as well. Would definitely go here again.

Lovely space, great food, friendly staff.
My first visit was for lunch with the lovely Mrs C last summer. The standout was dessert. It was a mint choc desert presented in a flower pot with mint leaves popping out the chocolate crumble earth. It was delicious.
The second visit was mid-​winter with the other half for Sunday lunch. The portions were huge, the waitress was on top form with great banter & I was soo full from main I had no room for dessert.
On Easter weekend it was sunny so we came for drinks & to check out the outdoor space. They have a good selection of drinks. I opted for a cocktail & I’m glad I did. My Raspberry Collins was sunshine in a glass :-)
The outdoor seating area is great for enjoying the sun. We even stayed for dinner which was fab.
Service was good but when inside started to fill up for dinner the service outside suffered. Maybe they didn’t have enough staff or they should’ve had someone dedicated to outside…

Wow this place was great! Top quality food, friendly staff, quick turnaround; just a shame it’s so far out of town. Although, with the riverside views, therein lies most of it’s charm.
A tremendous window seat framed the perfect spot for Sunday lunch. For starts I had the soup of the day. Cream of Roast Chicken with Herb Oils and Croutons. When I saw the price of this on the menu (a fiver!?!) I was feeling like giving them the benefit of the doubt and I have to say I’m glad I did. Stunning. Best chicken soup I’ve had, absolutely worth the money. I followed this delight up with the Roast Beef Sunday Dinner, and again, just wow. Rather than a few thin slices of meat I was presented with one massive, thick-​cut slice, alongside a gereous dollop of roasties, perfectly cooked carrots and parsnip (nice and crunchy) and a medium-​sized yorkie pud. All drizzeled with a fantastic onion gravy. The whole thing was just terrific.
Love the décor here as well, with their book shelves and rustic animal skulls and giant light spheres. So much to look at and talk about. Think I’ll be back very soon and have already made a note to visit when the sun is out… that riverside terrace would be perfect for a pint of Rekorderlig on a roasty toasty afternoon.
Only question is who’s doing the driving???

Living locally, The Paper Mill is somewhere I visit probably more than is healthy.
I have eaten at the restaurant a few times and have never been disappointed. The menu and ingredients are fresh and seasonal, cooked by staff that obviously know what they’re doing. It’s also my new favourite place for a Sunday roast. The pork being ‘melt in the mouth’ perfect. Not even having much of a sweet tooth, I’ll still always order a dessert as well.
However, I usually stick with drinks and the bar menu for food, which is where The Paper Mill impresses me the most. To say it’s well stocked would be an understatement. It has almost any spirit you can think of with a massive wine and cocktail (excellently made) list to match. There is also a great selection of local and craft beers from around the world available on tap and even more bottled. It would surely please anyone, whether barfly or discerning connoisseur.
The bar menu is also a great choice for eats. Dishes are very generously portioned and incredibly good value. A couple of the bar snacks are enough to constitute a meal and most come in at less than £4/​5.
The interior is modern, stylish, comfortable and clean. The staff are friendly, welcoming and know their drinks and menus, overall making it well worth a visit or three.

We couldn’t get a table at The Sun inn on Saturday evening so decided to try the Paper Mill. The food is pretty good without being great. I can’t put my finger on it but for the price, I just don’t think they’re quite there.
There are a few better places in the area. I’m not saying don’t go. it was fine. I would go back, maybe for a light lunch but I just can’t get my head round the high prices and the just ok food.
If the prices were 20−25% less then I reckon it would do quite well. Go and give it a try though, not too bad at all.

I was here last night and every dish I wanted more!
I had orkney scallops for starters — top nosh!
For mains i had Venison two ways — oh my, Utter heaven!
And dessert was lovely as it was a apple and blackberry trifile — DELISH!
For cocktails — I’d recommend «bramble» and the «Daquiri»
It’s just situated on the river bank and has an outdoor patio which is perfect for the summer evenings.
Heading out there? Catch a No. 31 bus and get off at the Laird and dog — 2 – 3 mins walk max!
This is a favourite local eaterie for me and my friends — very stylish too!

First a bit of background: back in 1994 when we first came to the area it was called ‘Koggs’ and was privately owned. It was a nice cosy place with good food and a decent choice of wines, and it also functioned as a bar for non-​diners, though that was a lesser part of the business. Then after a few years the owners sold up to a brewery which gave it a ‘makeover’ to boost its bar side, renaming it The Old Mill, and destroyed a little of its cosiness in the process. It soon closed by this time the ‘Laird and Dog’, a stone’s throw across the river bridge, had become the better place to go. For a number of years various planning applications appeared seeking to demolish the building entirely and build unsightly blocks of flats on the site, which would have destroyed the essential riverside character of Lasswade. None of these came to anything, and the building sat and quietly rotted.
Then to everyone’s delight a new planning application was filed to renovate the building as a bar & restaurant, retaining the historic and distinctive exterior intact. This duly opened its doors for the first time on 6 July and very nearly succumbed the next day to the extraordinary floods that were experienced over a wide area. But they survived that and we eventually were able to try it three weeks after it opened.
The interior has been completely revamped with a new layout which makes better use of the space and gives good access to the terrace that overlooks the river their Facebook page at
has plenty of pictures to show what it’s like (and of the very swollen river!). Still very new, and even after three weeks the smell of fresh paint was noticeable. A lot of bare wood nice dark wood floors and sturdy dark wood tables to match, complemented by plain whitewashed brick walls. Alas, all these hard surfaces reflect sound strongly and it was terribly noisy. Although our table was as far as we could be from the bar area (where a lot of the noise is generated including loud so-​called music), it was still at a conversation killing level. Carpets and table cloths are definitely needed to soak up some of the sound. Certainly not a place to come for a romantic dinner à deux.
The menu has plenty of tempting options and claims to be all local produce, which I can believe. My starter of local shellfish ravioli in a langoustine bisque was very tasty, though bore no recognisable resemblance to ravioli, being a large seafood dumpling clad in a rather eggy substance that bore only a very fleeting resemblance to pasta nevertheless it was very nice, simply the description was somewhat off target. I followed this with duck en croute, others in our party had sea bass or pork belly all seemed pleased with their choices.
Alas, the service would make even Basil Fawlty blush all the serving staff seem to be about 16 y.o. with absolutely no training, very slow and completely clueless. There seemed to be no overall supervision to ensure that orders were taken promptly or to follow up with prompt delivery, or to see that one had everything required etc. It was all so slow that we declined both the dessert menu (so I can’t comment on that) and coffee, retiring to our friends’ house to have our coffee there. It had taken two hours from first arrival to getting to the end of our main course.
I hope that these are just teething troubles that can be overcome, as the food is very promising. But the terrible service and the shocking noise levels require action. We shall certainly try it again, but not too soon to give it time to improve in its present state I can only rise to three stars for it.

The location of this recently re-​opened restaurant seems to be cursed!
I was quite excited when I heard that it had been taken over and had been given a fabulous renovation. Situated on the bank of the River Esk in Lasswade with an outside terrace and seating area it has the potential to be a real gem! We decided to take my dad there for his birthday and see of it lived up to the local hype and am sad to say was really disappointed.
Our table was booked for 4pm on a Sunday and lucklily it didnt seem to busy to we started off very optimistic. The staff were pleasant and we were shown through to the restaurant which I have to say is really beautifully decorated with nice wooden features throughout. We were the only ones in this area of the restaurant (which was good having couple small kids in our party) and were given the menu to peruse. However we seemed to wait an eternity before anyone came back to take either a drink or food order! The lunch menu was ok but very pricey considering the alternatives around in the area and unfortunately for me there was very litte I could have on the menu that was gluten free — and there was no offer of providing alternatives which I’ve grown accustomed to in Edinburgh! I opted for the bavett steak, which was nicely cooked and tasty but without any sides (could be ordered separately for £3 each) I felt it was a bit pricey at £12.95. The general consensus of everyone was that the portions were pretty small and they seemed to be looking for you to order extra sides to make up the meal.
Now it may just be teething problems but the service was pretty bad, long waits then wrong orders put a bit of a damper on the birthday celebration and didnt make any of us want to return. I hope they sort things out as this place could really be something but not without better service!