Le Monde - A whole world of tasteless, cold, badly cooked food

Well the title of the post says it all really. But before I begin, can I just say that despite the food I did have a good night out - due in no small measure to some excellent company.

Le Monde is, and I quote from the website, "one of the premier boutique hotels in Edinburgh. Its popularity and reputation continues to grow." Really?

We met in the bar, Vienna. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised - the clientèle were mixed - pensioners, teenagers and a whole range in between. The bar itself was very nice. A good start. Then we went upstairs to "Paris" for dinner ...

Atmosphere

Styled as "an intimate space for romantic liaisons" (I wasn't there on a romantic liaison) I expected something subtle. Instead we (not me ...!) had to ask for the music to be turned down so we didn't have to shout to one another. I was also a bit put off by people dancing when we were eating - I know, I know: I'm old (fashioned) - a restaurant should just be a restaurant ... No?

And then, as I move a water glass away it sticks to my hand - yuck! New glass requested immediately ... I am left feeling a little bit queasy. I suspect we are not the "restaurant's" favourite table.

Food

I can safely say that this is one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had!

To start: I chose the ham terrine with apple chutney and rye bread. Or to put it another way - a completely tasteless terrine with an identical (non) tasting chutney. At least the toasted rye bread had some flavour to it. There was no salt and pepper on the table either, so I couldn't try to improve it. The textures of the food were different but that's really about all I can say. I would love to admit I was exaggerating here but no - I have never eaten anything before that tastes of nothing. So to get two on the same plate ... well it certainly was an achievement.

We also had mussels, scallops and bruschetta. The most interesting comment passed was that the sauce with the mussels was hot. I said nothing, as did most others ...

For the main: there was a mix up - one person ordered a rib-eye with no tomato, 2 others ordered rare sirloin. The rib-eye came with a tomato, one of the sirloins without ... confusion reigns as I point out that a rib eye is clearly different from a sirloin and that I have the wrong dish - I was happy to swap. No that would not do. The dishes must be taken back to the kitchen because neither of the two waiters knew their rib-eye from their &!*!. Sure enough, a few minutes later, back came the plates with the tomato switched. Apparently I was correct.

So, rare steak should be (more than) a bit bloody, right?? If we peered intently at it we could just about detect a hint of pink. Our rare steaks came medium to well done. If they had been cooked as ordered they would have been very good - the quality of the steak only ruined by the incompetence of the chef. And then the temperature: the steak was cold, the chips that came with it even colder. The mushroom was quite nice (but then it's difficult to screw up a grilled mushroom). I kind of felt obliged to eat the (half green) tomato.

Lamb shanks were also ordered. I was too afraid to ask anyone what they thought, and I suspect everyone else felt the same as we talked about everything but the food.

I skipped dessert and instead chose a large espresso: it was excellent.

The Bill

So we ask for the bill. As we divvy it up, someone mentions a tip. "Have they included a service charge?" someone else asks? Yes they have: so we get a bill with a service charge included plus a space for a tip. Cheap trick? We didn't leave any extra.

Overall Rating

It's not a restaurant. A restaurant should serve good food. A restaurant should not be dominated by a huge bar - reference Harvey Nichols Forth Floor for how it could be done. You should not have to shout in a restaurant. A restaurant should not boast of the quality of its steak and yet be unable to tell the difference between cuts, or be able to cook it correctly. This was a truly terrible dining experience. Burger King is far better - at least you get what you expect there. And I have to say the food is a damned site tastier.

If only 1 person reads this and decides not to go, my work is done. This was a huge letdown.

The Champany Inn: Restaurant with Rooms

For our wedding anniversary this year we decided to go to the Champany Inn for a meal. We had visited the Chop and Ale house last year and vowed at the time to come back to the restaurant. With an eye for the bargain (and in the hope of offsetting some of the cost of the wine!) we plumped for a summer offer - Dinner Bed and Breakfast for £170. This did limit us to the quick supper menu, rather than the full menu, but the range of food looked excellent so we were more than happy to compromise.

Accommodation

It's not an hotel, it's a restaurant with rooms. But I have to say that the rooms were excellent. At what was effectively £90 for bed and breakfast, the price wasn't all that bad either. Facilities included free-view TV, wireless internet, a large super-king bed, and a spacious bathroom (even if the bathroom décor and design was somewhat dated). A very good room indeed.

Wine List

When we decide where to go for a meal, more often than not the choice is governed by how good the wine list is - if it's bad, we probably won't be going ...

The Champany wine list seemed to me to be larger than the Witchery list, which in itself is an accomplishment. But, of course, size isn't everything: the content was equally as good. As usual we found ourselves drawn to the Burgundy, something we don't drink much of at home, but instead settled on a 2001 Delas Hermitage Les Bessards which was stunning: hints of woodsmoke on the nose, red fruits on the palette and complex yet smooth.

Food

Never before have I been offered chorizo bread, or pesto bread - and those were only a small selection of what was available. An excellent and unusual start to the meal.

The Quick Supper Menu had a small but good range. We enjoyed perfect chicken liver pate and brioche, and a Stilton salad for starters. The pot roast was oxtail, but we both chose the sirloin - a large (8oz?) steak on the bone, served perfectly with freshly made chips and the largest array of vegetables I have ever been served in a restaurant: French beans, baby leeks, baby carrots, asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower. All of these were very al dente, which wasn't to my personal taste, but very nice.

Thoroughly full, we finished the wine, and looked at the desserts. In due course waffles arrived, with a delicate maple syrup, and crème brûlée - the latter came, surprisingly, with a pot of ice cream. Whilst nice, it seemed to me like 2 separate desserts rather than 1, and that was the way I ate them. An odd way to serve the pudding.

Breakfast

Breakfast is served in a country style kitchen. I found it slightly off-putting to have the food cooked in the same room, in an open-plan layout, but apart from that it was very good. A choice of fruit juice, cereal, yoghurts etc, and a full Scottish breakfast. We were not overly keen on the sausage (beef) - excellent quality but I think we are traditionalist pork sausage people (you learn somehting new every day). There were more mushrooms than I have ever seen in my life (a plus for me), well cooked eggs, tasty bacon, black pudding and tomatoes. Not a baked bean in sight (!).

Overall Rating

A great evening with very good food. In terms of value for money this was excellent. Was it Michelin star dining? For me the food was slightly below that standard, but we were just having the Quick Supper. The whole experience, however, was certainly up there with the best: the waiting staff, and owners, were attentive and knowledgeable; the sommelier was very helpful in narrowing our choice down from an excellent list; the dining room itself had a very relaxed and intimate atmosphere.

The only downside was that we forgot to check when the wine shop opened. Assuming it opened at 10am in line with licensing laws, and planning a visit after we checked out, we were disappointed to find out it opened at 12pm. Never mind, at least our wallets are a bit less empty than they might otherwise have been.

Go to the Champany Inn at least once in your life. If you don't mind spending £40 on a steak, opt for the full menu: you get a much greater range of steaks to choose from. But the Quick Supper menu offers a great choice and a 3 course meal for the same price - if you like the contents, as we did, it's an excellent option. Either way I am sure you will have a fantastic time.

This could be our last meal out in Scotland for the 2009. The next reviews may be of restaurants and wine slightly further afield ...

Next up in this country, we have 21212 in January - I'm looking forward to it already :-)

Plumed Horse - Best Restaurant in Scotland?

Leith Michelin starred restaurant The Plumed Horse has just been named AA Scottish Restaurant of the Year 2009-2010. You can see the full results from Monday's award ceremony here.

Is it the best restaurant in Scotland? You tell me, as I've not been (yet) although it is creeping higher up my list and we nearly went there last night. Instead we ended up at the Champany Inn - review to follow shortly.

Another winner was The Cross at Kingussie, which got the gong for best wine list - I think this has also just made it onto our 'must go to' list.

Restaurant Review: Cafe Andaluz

With La Tasca seemingly offering a permanent 50% discount on food, could any other tapas bar beat it? I hoped so, because whilst La Tasca is great value, the quality of the food has much room for improvement. So it was with great hope and expectation that I arrived at Cafe Andaluz on George Street, having salivated over the menu a few times whilst waiting for a bus home.

Wine List

OK, we've already established that if you want a cheap tapas night, go to La Tasca. Which is just as well, because the wine here ain't cheap. £18 for a house wine, Siglo crianza, which you can buy in the shops for £7, is expensive. I think La Tasca offers the same wine cheaper (but they don't have their list online so I couldn't confirm this). Other than that the list is limited, but offers a really good selection of styles, including a priorat at £55 and some gran reservas. No vintages are mentioned on the menu, so you'd have to ask to be sure of what you are paying for.

Food

There were six of us in total, and we polished off 2 set menus and a couple of other dishes between us. A menu for two is recommended, but you'd have to be seriously hungry to finish all that between you. The choice was excellent though, and the food fantastic.

From the start, when we were served fresh bread, great olive oil and olives which were so tasty I found myself eating the black ones (which I usually don't like), I knew exactly why I would be coming back here rather than returning to La Tasca - the food is delicious!

We then tucked into a vast array of dishes, including mushrooms in wine and garlic sauce, tiger prawns, tortilla, very spicy patatas bravas, and very smelly goat's cheese and marmalade.

Dishes to highlight for me included the chorizo and the battered chicken. But the star dish of the evening, selected on a friends recommendation, was the chorizo and black pudding - this is a very rich dish, so best shared between a few people!

Overall Rating

Cheap food or great food? Limited menu or a choice including some dishes you certainly won't have tried before? Crammed tables or a bit more space?

The atmosphere at both La Tasca and Cafe Andaluz is equally as good, but the food is infinitely better at the latter establishment. Now I know why the food is always discounted at La Tasca - I'd rather go out less often and pay more. Cafe Andaluz is my new tapas destination in Edinburgh, and I can't wait to go back!

Restaurant Review: Wok and Wine

I'm not ashamed to say up front that Wok and Wine is a huge favourite of mine, so I was looking forward to visiting it last night, as I hadn't been for a while. I'm pleased to say that once again it loved up to my expectations!

Wine List

A great range of reasonably priced and very drinkable wine (although the website is slightly out of date - both range and price).

Food

There were seven of us eating last night, so we were able to order a good selection of starters. For those who have eaten there before, it goes without saying that the chicken moneybags were almost an automatic choice for some (including myself) - minced chicken in a coconut cream, deep fried in filo pastry: delicious! Also on the menu was a won-ton platter, thai fish cakes (spicy but lovely), chicken and corn soup, deep fired aubergine, and a starter sized king prawns in black bean sauce: the prawns were perfectly cooked.

The main courses were of an equally high standard: shredded duck, beef udon, chicken and cashew, whole sea bass steamed with ginger and spring onion, crispy beef, and, the star of the show for me, sizzling hong kong style beef.

Overall Rating

Great service: very attentive and friendly, all the staff seem genuinely happy to be serving you. Excellent food. Lovely basement restaurant, clearly full of return customers. They also operate a takeaway service. Highly recommended.

Tailend, Take Away

A short post on what is rumoured to be the best fish and chip shop in Edinburgh. The Tailend is a restaurant and a traditional chip shop - 2 separate rooms keep the queue at the fish bar away from the diners.

We decided to eat at home, so popped out for a takeaway. 3 Haddock Suppers, and 1 Scampi supper, we headed home. The haddock was freshly cooked and very tasty, the chips were also cooked to order and not greasy. The only disappointment was the scampi: it came in a packet, frozen. In fairness to the restaurant they didn't try to hide the fact as they poured the fish straight from the packet into the oil. When it was eventually unwrapped, the batter was overcooked and dark brown.

Overall Rating

Pretty good for a chippy, but considering their emphasis on fresh fish, I was very disappointed to get frozen. Recommendation: ask about the scampi before you decide to buy it. The fresh fish, however, was very good.

La Tasca - Great Value Tapas

3 months since the last post - what can I say? I've been working hard, doing a bit of running, and sadly, not eating out. All this is about to change though. In the next few weeks I'll be eating at Tail End (acclaimed chippy - can it live up to the hype?), Cafe Andaluz (I've just heard great things from a friend so am very excited), and Wok & Wine.

The more observant amongst you may have noticed that there are no high end dining nights out here ... I'm dropping hints with a view to going to 21212 (I can only hope).

In the meantime, I visited La Tasca last week with the in-laws, so a quick review.

I love tapas, but I haven't tried too many restaurants in Edinburgh recently, apart from La Tasca - see my review from earlier this year.

The Tapas Tree always used to get good reviews, but didn't impress me too much. So far (and this may change soon) my favourite has been in Newcastle - El Torero. It's been a few years since I've been, but if you're in the area I'd recommend giving it a try. La Tasca, for me, has always been good, serving all the favourites and doing a reasonably good job. What elevated this visit for me was that all food was half price (again). If you want to keep abreast of offers on national chains like this then www.vouchercodes.co.uk can send you a weekly email with all the best offers (not just restaurants).

Wine List

Pretty standard list with a good range of value wines and beers. I especially love the cava (!) and the sangria.

Food

Nothing adventurous, nothing spectacular, but pretty tasty and great value. All the usual favourites were there: meatballs, croquettes, prawns, calamari, chorizo ...

Overall Rating

Needless to say the place was filled to the brim. We were on a small table, but all that made us do was order the tapas in stages, which is a good thing. At half price you can't go wrong: 8 or 9 tapas, 2 bottles of wine and a tip for £60. I would highly recommend it for a relaxed meal with friends.

Achiltibuie: The Summer Isles Bar

You've hopefully read the review of the Caberfeidh in Lochinver. Now for The Summer Isles Bar. The Hotel restaurant has a Michelin Star, but we weren't going there. Still, I was hoping for a good lunch in the bar. Sadly the experience did not live up to my expectations, although I have to say that what food we did eat was excellent.

Atmosphere

Somewhat lacking. The bar is very small (some might say intimate). There were a couple of local beers on tap, which is good, but nowhere to sit and eat. Instead the tables were in an adjoining area (fairly open plan) which had little atmosphere and reminded me of a clean roadside café.

Food

Make no mistake, the food was excellent. We had a smoked salmon sandwich and a steak sandwich. Both were high quality: the salmon was delicately smoked and melted in the mouth; the steak was top quality.

My reservations on food came with the choice: sandwiches; a bowl of soup; salads; seafood platters. That was it - and of source a dessert menu. True: for dinner there were a couple of hot meals (literally 2 plus vegetarian) - but they're not served until 5pm. Good for the waistline though, as this is possibly the first 'pub lunch' I've had where there haven't been any chips available.

Overall Rating

Tricky. I expected a good range of pub food: I didn't get it. I expected high quality tasty ingredients: they were there all right. I expected all the best things about a good highland pub: maybe a real fire; relaxed atmosphere; comfy chairs; eating in a pub. I got to eat in an annexe to the pub with little atmosphere on metal chairs. I hoped to be able to drive up there, spend an hour or two relaxing, perhaps even drinking a pint, letting the alcohol wear off, and, eventually driving back home. Instead I had a quick half and a sandwich.

Disappointed? Yes. Would I go back to the bar? No - there are far better bars out there for my taste. Would I consider going to the hotel? Undoubtedly yes, at some point - but I think that at the end of the day, a bar is a bar - it should stick to doing what bars do well: serve a good range of hearty food. In a bar affiliated to a Michelin starred restaurant, you might expect that food to be of a higher quality, but it should still be bar food - not just salads and sandwiches.

Lochinver: The Caberfeidh Restaurant

I'm just back from a week in Ullapool. We were self catering - in these crunchy times it's a good way to keep costs down. We didn't go out for dinner at all but we did venture out for lunch a few times (when it was too wet to walk). Coming soon a review for the Summer Isles Hotel bar (importantly not the Michelin starred restaurant - crunch, crunch). But first the Caberfeidh in Lochinver - so good that we went back for seconds.

We'd been to Lochinver for lunch a couple of years ago, and our choice of venues was decided by going to somewhere we hadn't been before. Fortune, as they say, favours the brave.

Beer

There wasn't a huge selection on tap, but all I really want is a good guest beer or two - and the Caledonian XPA on offer certainly met my expectations.

Food

On our first visit we had a light lunch of a couple of baskets - small portions, but only £6. Scampi and chips and home-made fishfingers with tartare sauce (also home-made). Both were delicious and the tartare sauce was stunning - this from someone who is not a fan in general.

Later that week, when finishing a short walk in Lochinver, we returned. I suspect this visit was prompted by the mouth watering sight of fish and chips at tables other than ours ... I was happy to agree though! Funnily enough fish and chips (beer battered haddock to be precise, with lashings of tartare sauce) was ordered, along with catch of the day - monkfish wrapped in parma ham. Once again the food was delicious. We left quickly before the table next to us had their sticky toffee pudding delivered as our resolve to skip pudding might not have lasted very long.

Overall Rating

This is a great pub and I would highly recommend it: there were locals there both days we visited, as well as tourists; the riverside view is great and on a summers day I can imagine the beer garden would go down a storm; the service was fantastic - the staff made us feel welcome from the moment we stepped through the door, and looked after us superbly. This last quality is something which can be sadly lacking in some highland establishments we have had the misfortune to visit.

If you happen to be in the area, this is a great pub for lunch - they do dinner too. The nearby Michelin starred Albannach also does dinner (we didn't go there either - we must try and make time for fine dining in between walks ...)

Restaurant Review: La Tasca

I love going out for tapas, and over the years I've been to La Tasca many a time. Edinburgh's West End, The Omni Centre (where we were last night) or even in the middle of Liverpool - no matter what branch you go into, you know what to expect, and that is good solid tapas, with all the crowd pleasers, good service, and, especially with a group of people, a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

Wine

You can never go wrong with Rioja, and as for the sangria - delicious. Last night we opted for cava - at £23 not cheap (compared to Scotmid's great value £5 bottles), but excellent. And if you're not in the mood for wine, there's always a good range of Spanish beer. So, 2 bottles of cava later ...

Food

Made all the more tasty by the fact that we had a '2 for 1' voucher, the food was of the usual high standard. We ate a huge selection, including calamari, langoustines, chicken croquettes, spare ribs, meatballs (of course!), chorizo and patatas bravas (and more ...).

Overall Rating

Better than the tourist trap tapas I had in Barcelona, La Tasca remains a firm favourite of mine. Excellent service, good food, nice wine and fab company - a very good night, and great value for money.

Restaurant Review: The Vintners Rooms

And so it transpired that it was time to go out for a special meal somewhere. But where? We researched every restaurant in Edinburgh we could think of, as we really wanted to go somewhere new: once again The Kitchin's menu did not appeal - there's always so much that I don't want to eat; Oloroso, where I have been wanting to go for a long time now, failed to impress on the website; the time was not quite right for The Witchery (you can have too much of a good thing); Martin Wishart doesn't even make our shortlist (we've been once and had 'the experience' but didn't particularly enjoy it - the experience that is - the food was great).

A couple of places appealed to me: The Stockbridge almost made it - the food looked good, but the winelist didn't really impress too much - its definitely made my lunch list though; Wedgewood also looks good, although don't expect too much from the 'private wine cellar'...

But in the end none of the restaurants we looked at could dislodge The Vintners Rooms from prime position. We've been before, we'll probably go again, and we had a great meal there this weekend.

Wine List

The Vintner Rooms is situated in a building steeped in wine history, with wine trading going on at The Vaults since the 15th century. Raeburns supplies at least some of the wines on the wine list, and it is excellent. This time we had a 1999 Bandol - full of great flavours, but slightly alcoholic towards the end. This was our first old Bandol and I'm sure it won't be our last.

Food

I place a lot of store by a website, and one thing which impresses me is that the menu on The Vintners Rooms website is completely up to date. Now as I don't dine there every night, this may be coincidence, but I don't think so. We had a Trilogie of Foie Gras (seared, pâté and soup) and Sauteed Scallops with Whisky, Smoked Haddock and Brown Shrimp Risotto. The Foie Gras was excellent, although a little rich (entirely to be expected - I should have chosen the goats cheese!) and the scallops, including the risotto, similarly well received. For mains we had Rack of Lamb with Aubergine Caviar and Pommes Dauphine, and Roast Aberdeen Angus Fillet with a Perigord Truffle Sauce. I have to say that the rack of lamb was perhaps the best I have had in this country (the only one to surpass it being a rack of New Zealand lamb in Whitianga ... melt in the mouth). The Fillet was of an equally high standard, and the truffle sauce was gorgeous.

What followed was a lesson in how to serve dessert. My Dark and White Chocolate Fondant with Pistachio Ice Cream was perfection on a plate: the fondant was meltingly gorgeous, the pistachio ice cream my favourite, and the brandy snap basket and caramelised grapefruit just heavenly extras. My partner had Coffee Crême Brûlée with Iced Whisky Truffle, which he assures me is better than mine (!) and he left me none to try ...

Overall Rating

If I was being picky I would say that I would like to have had a choice of bread, and perhaps olives with stone in are not the thing to serve in a restaurant. But I am not being picky, and I didn't go to the Vintner Rooms to have walnut bread or suchlike. The food was excellent, the desserts superlative, the wine list very, very good, and the atmosphere welcoming and convivial. The main dining room is an intimate candle-lit affair with 18th century decorative plasterwork and I can think of fewer more appealing restaurants in Edinburgh.

If you want a special meal without going through the full circus of a Michelin star restaurant, then get yourself down to The Vintner Rooms now. You will not regret it.

Kushis to Open in Leith

Exciting news - According to Bite's April issue, Kushi's are to open up a new restaurant in Leith, on Dock Place. I can't find an opening date but a colleague will undoubtedly get an invite to the opening night, so I will find out. Given my recent experience of eating Indian in Leith I am very happy.

I've only ever had good food and service there in the past, although if you read reviews on the List, you may find differing opinions. When it opens it will be reviewed!

Restaurant Review: Britannia Spice

Britannia Spice has been reaping national curry awards pretty much since it opened in 1998, and it also just happens to be my local indian restaurant, although I hadn't been in for a meal for some time. However, last night's experience was far from pleasant, and I don't think I will be returning, which saddens me.

The good points (decent prices, good starter) were far outweighed by the bad - the worst moment of all coming when a friend cut open some chicken to find it completely raw. I have to assume this was a genuine mistake, and it was only the 1 piece, but all the main courses were indicative of an overall fall in cooking standards. Anyway, I guess a formal write-up is still merited ...

Food

Poppadoms were served pretty quickly, with a good selection of accompaniments. This was just as well, because it took a further 45 minutes before anyone would take our food order, although drinks did arrive before that. The starters were as good as I remembered: a selection of pakora, kebabs, and my favourite murgh chandi tikka. So far so good (apart from elapse time ...).

Now I am not a veteran curry eater, tending to be conservative in my choices, but one of my indian colleagues had recommended biriyani to me as a great dish to try. Sure enough my first taste of it at Kushis was fantastic, with a delicate mix of spice. The biriyani here, however, was awful: a huge mound of rice with little flavour and a bit more chicken (or prawn), served with a bland vegetable curry. The best any of us could say about it was that it was edible - not enjoyable though. At least it was edible, which is more than can be said for the chicken shashlik - the aforementioned raw chicken appearing early on in the dish. Other mains, including lamb jalfrezi, seemed to fall into the 'edible' category.

Overall Rating

Whether it was the huge delay at the start, the raw chicken, or the disappointing biriyanis, none of us enjoyed the meal on what was supposed to be a relaxing night out catching up with family. To be balanced, there was a large table next to us who were raving about their meal - perhaps we got unlucky. Whatever the reason, there are plenty other Indian restaurants in Edinburgh, and I won't be rushing back to Britannia Spice. If you've had a better experience, let me know!

Restaurant Review: Vin Caffe

We have a fairly new tradition of rewarding ourselves after completing Christmas shopping in town with lunch at Vin Caffe - good food, accompanied by a splash-out bottle of wine. This year, however, work and prior engagements conspired against us and we completed most of our shopping on the internet, and had to forego our lunch. And then there's Valentines day: an excuse to go out for a meal in a good restaurant, which invariably turns into something of a conveyor belt experience which leaves us wanting somehting more ... So what better idea than to spurn an evening meal, and have a Valentines lunch at Vin Caffe instead?

Wine List

I wonder what attracted us to Vin Caffe in the first place? Could it have been the wine list: a fantastic range of Italian wines (and more), at excellent prices - the markup is barely more than you would pay at the Valvona & Crolla shop. Past experience had led me to expect my other half to order a special (read very expensive) bottle of wine now, so imagine my surprise when we had a stunning 2001 Barbaresco at only £33 - great value. Vin Caffe also make most wines available by the glass via some nifty wine preservation and dispensing kit from Cruvinet.

Food

Vin Caffe always have fresh fish specials on the menu, although today we did not choose any. For starters my partner had calamari and I opted for cichetti - a selection of 5 small appetisers. Both dishes were delicious, and I especially liked the cichetti - a mixture of cold meats, chicken, bruschetta and mozarella with tomato. Starters were followed by mains of chicken with pancetta and sage, on a bed of cabbage and rump of lamb with potatoes. Both meals were very good, although not exceptional. With room for dessert it was time to order tiramasu and bread and butter pudding - lovely!!

Overall Rating

A great place to go for an enjoyable lunch, good atmosphere and service, and a fabulous wine list. Next time a visit to rival Centro Tre might be called for though, as its been a long time since we've eaten there.

Restaurant Review: The Bonham

January is far too busy a month for my liking - still I should be able to avoid a few weeks without dining out now ... Dinner with friends, postponed from early December, resulted in a meal at the Bonham last weekend.

Wine List

A pretty good selection - we tried a lovely crisp sancerre and a meaty ribera del duero. Both were good and also pretty good value.

Food

Truly excellent food. The amouse bouche was a butternut squash soup with vanilla froth. This was followed by delicious mushroom soup (*2), chicken and foi gras terrine, and seared scallops. For main course, we had chicken and venison - again delicious, but more on this later. Dessert was a mixed affair, with everything from banana tart, to trio of chocolate, and a cheese board - once again we all thoroughly enjoyed the food.

Overall Rating

Decent wine and excellent food with good company made for a very enjoyable night out. But here's the rub: wild horses would not drag me back for a second visit. The reason?? I almost had to get a magnifying glass out to see my main course. The venison was, at £23, the most expensive main available - and 3 of us selected it. Imagine our disappointment when we were presented with two very small slices of meat and a similarly small amount of potatoes and vegetables. Now whilst I appreciate that some restaurants like to serve smaller portions ("pictures on plates" as my father would call them), this was ridiculous. I quite like smaller portions, as it allows me to eat 3 courses, but my starter and dessert were both much larger than my main - surely that can't be right? The fact that the main was so delicious just served to underline the fact that there wasn't much of it at all.

Great food, but the smallest main course I've ever seen means that I won't be rushing back.

Restaurant Review: Forth Floor, Harvey Nichols

Harvey Nichols Forth Floor Restaurant is an award winning restaurant with a great wine list. Better still, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, all wine in the main restaurant is half price, making for a much less expensive night out, and an opportunity to try something special without breaking the bank.

Wine List

What can I say? From a fantastic range of champagnes in half bottles (perfect to share over your starter) to expensive burgundy and a wide variety in between: the wine list is very good indeed. I sometimes feel that the shop prices are slightly more expensive than your other high street wine shops, but this is Harvey Nicks, and they do manage to get wine that you will struggle to find elsewhere (unless you buy online). Take the shop prices into the restaurant, and bargains leap out from every page.

Food

An amouse bouche of goats cheese ravioli started the night - delicious. Not knowing this, I had ordered goats cheese with roasted black figs and onion filo crisps for my starter - but I can never eat too much goats cheese, so I wasn't too disappointed. My partner had hot smoked salmon and avocado purée. Main course, with a great (but not too expensive!) burgundy, was roast chump of lamb with caramelised beetroot, chestnuts, fondant potato: the chestnuts went extremely well, and the lamb was perfectly cooked. Although full, I managed to eat some Apple cheesecake - perhaps the weakest course of the three, but nonetheless very nice.

Overall Rating

I've been to the Forth Floor twice now, and really enjoyed both evenings. The food is very good indeed, the wine list excellent, and the service impeccable. My only complaint is that the restaurant itself is a bit cold - so wear something warm!

Tuesdays and Thursdays offer exceptional value for money.

The Sun Inn, Eskbank: Restaurant Review

The Sun Inn proclaims itself to be Edinburgh's newest gourmet pub. Situated on the A7 near Newtongrange the building, next to Newbattle viaduct, is a landmark I remember from childhood journeys up to the city. It has recently changed ownership, and friends in Newtongrange suggested we go for a meal having read favourable reviews. We booked for a Saturday night and the restaurant was full.

Accommodation

Rooms are advertised from £60 but this appears to be for single rooms, according to the website; doubles look to be about £85 which for Edinburgh probably isn't that bad.

Wine List

An interesting list with a pretty good selection for a pub. They have a nice grüner veltliner but the red we wanted(a NZ Pinot Noir) had sold out over New Year. In the end we settled for a valpolicella which was drinkable. We could have gone for the odd 'trophy' wine - Cristal champagne or Corton Charlemagne for instance. I think it was this that put me off slightly: I don't want to pay £150 upwards for a bottle of wine in a pub, no matter how much of a gourmet pub it's trying to be. Leave that to established top-end restaurants, and perhaps spend the money instead expanding the wine list to include a few more choices.

Food

Very good pub food. The website gives a good idea of what's on offer, and the seafood we tried was excellent. For starters we tasted queen scallops, pate, smoked fish croquettes and langoustines: all were good. The mains consisted of perfectly cooked, good quality sirloin steaks with home made chips and a peppercorn sauce, and game casserole (complete with authentic shot) with barley lentils - both delicious and well cooked. For dessert we tasted a magnificent crème brûlée and a nice, but slightly less inspiring, sticky toffee pudding,

Overall Rating

Food: Excellent pub food - certainly a better selection that the Champany Inn Chop and Ale House, and I enjoyed my dinner here far more than lunch at Champany. Gourmet? Perhaps not quite. Wine list: Trying too hard. Price: pretty good - three 3 course meals, one 2 course meal and 2 bottles of wine worked out at £30 a head (not including tip) - not too shabby at all. Lunch prices are even cheaper.

If I lived in Newtongrange I would certainly go there often. Booking advised for dinner at least.

New Year Walks

A new year, and a new resolution - to work less and get out walking more. The aim - to be able to enjoy a week of walking at the start of May. Now it's been a while, so we are starting small - no Munros for a few weeks yet.

First up then was a stroll over Salisbury crags on New Years day (we were up too late to attempt anything further afield). Arthurs Seat itself was way too busy so we contented ourselves with wandering round the smaller hills.

St Anthony's Chapel

Why climb Arthurs seat on a day like this?

The sun did come out briefly, but there was quite a cold wind blowing, and the swans on St Margarets' Loch were certainly feeling the chill!

Swan on thin ice

The next day consisted of a very muddy struggle through Roslin Glen - not entirely satisfying, so search of something a bit more challenging we headed to the Ochils the day after.

A 10 mile walk over some nice rolling hills, through forests and across open (and slightly snowy) moorland on a circular route around Glen Sherrup. The weather was perfect - freezing (literally) and hardly a cloud in the sky; the views were unexpectedly phenomenal, taking in Ben Lomond, Ben Ledi, Stuc a Chroin and Ben Vorlich, and even Stob Binnein and Ben More far in the distance. A great day out was rounded off with the sight of 3 dippers in the River Devon as we returned to the car.

Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin

Great views!

All Photographs © BrokenMountain 2008