24-03-2007, 07:49 PM
Went to Edinburgh to a well repsected restaurant and, unfortunately, they seem to rely on their celebratory status rather than their food.
We walked down the alley way and we were faced with refuse bins - not a good start for a 2 rosette place. The place itself would have been more at home in Disney with the decor being over the top chocolate brown walls with drawings of skeletons, nymphs and wenches on the ceiling. Fake stone phinements (spelling), large wall tapestry and large toperies in the centre were an 'interesting' addition. Yo could call it Neo Gothic with a hint of Disney.
Sitting was for 1.45pm. The menus arrived along with a novel. The novel was the wine list and was a good 20 pages. Starters and mains were ordered. Half an hour later the starters arrived. The organic leaf salad was old and the balsamic olive oil dressing was more olive oil and no balsamic. The mussels were cooked well, the goats cheese tart was well presented and tasted good. Half an hour after the starters were taken away the mains arrived .... in dribs and drabs. The lamb had a lump of herbed mash on the top -lumpy. The pithivier of mushrooms - pastry was hard, the leeks over cooked. The fillet steak was returned as it arrived cooked medium well instead of meduim rare. The fish was cooked well. All the mains arrived luke warm. When we asked for the steak to be returned we were told that it would take 15 minutes - the attitude was 'who do you think you are?'. To placate us we were offered free tea and coffee.
The saving grace was the way the restaurant looked after a member of our party who had some food intolerances. That was impressive.
We will not be returning to this restaurant. We would rather go to the drab looking Italian where the food was impecable, hot, service excellent, even with the firey tempers.
We walked down the alley way and we were faced with refuse bins - not a good start for a 2 rosette place. The place itself would have been more at home in Disney with the decor being over the top chocolate brown walls with drawings of skeletons, nymphs and wenches on the ceiling. Fake stone phinements (spelling), large wall tapestry and large toperies in the centre were an 'interesting' addition. Yo could call it Neo Gothic with a hint of Disney.
Sitting was for 1.45pm. The menus arrived along with a novel. The novel was the wine list and was a good 20 pages. Starters and mains were ordered. Half an hour later the starters arrived. The organic leaf salad was old and the balsamic olive oil dressing was more olive oil and no balsamic. The mussels were cooked well, the goats cheese tart was well presented and tasted good. Half an hour after the starters were taken away the mains arrived .... in dribs and drabs. The lamb had a lump of herbed mash on the top -lumpy. The pithivier of mushrooms - pastry was hard, the leeks over cooked. The fillet steak was returned as it arrived cooked medium well instead of meduim rare. The fish was cooked well. All the mains arrived luke warm. When we asked for the steak to be returned we were told that it would take 15 minutes - the attitude was 'who do you think you are?'. To placate us we were offered free tea and coffee.
The saving grace was the way the restaurant looked after a member of our party who had some food intolerances. That was impressive.
We will not be returning to this restaurant. We would rather go to the drab looking Italian where the food was impecable, hot, service excellent, even with the firey tempers.
