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.