Disappointed is the only word that I can use to describe my experience here tonight.
I've been here a couple of times before with members of my family. The experiences have ranged from very enjoyable to 'meh'. I've not had a consistent experience for some reason plus it's expensive for what you get (even by Edinburgh standards) and the wine is overpriced in my opinion. However I chose to go tonight as my father was visiting from England for the evening and it was the only decent place I could think of nearby that would avoid a trip into Edinburgh. As money isn't a factor with him i didn't worry about the cost. Boy, i wish we'd made the effort to come into the city!!
Food-wise I feel it wasn't as good as I've experienced here before. The positives were the homemade bread and olive tapinade and the starters. The positives ended there unfortunately. My dad opted for the smoked salmon which was nice (not that's there's any cooking involved in that) and I had the pork belly bonbons which were crisp and tasty with a shredded meat filling and came with a refreshing micro salad. Good start.
The mains were really the let down. My dad went for the sea bass and shrimps which was served with Caesar type leaves, an egg and croutons. I went for the roasted butternut squash risotto and fried artichoke. The waitress asked how we were enjoying the food and my dad said that being honest, and since she'd asked, the sea bass fillet was far too small for being the main event of the dish. It was a very small single fillet of fish and for what you were paying for he felt it should have been bigger or 2 small fillets. She said she would pass the comment to the chef. Now, I wasn't really enjoying my risotto either but felt I couldn't really say anything to compound it more (I always cringe in situations like this). My risotto looked like a plate of scrambled eggs and the texture was similar. I'm probably spoiled having eaten numerous risottos in Italy so i know how it should be served and stodgy and slightly overcooked is not correct.
To our amusement we could hear the chef's reply to the waitress from the kitchen. He defended the dish by saying the fish wasn't the only thing on the plate, there was shrimp and an egg too! After we'd finished she came back (not mentioning that a large proportion of my risotto was left) and relayed the message from the chef. Apparently the menu is designed so you are full after 3 courses. After laughing,and explaining he owns a restaurant himself, he said "are you saying that if I only eat 2 courses I'll go away hungry then?!?" I did feel sorry for the poor girl as she clearly didn't know what to say but it was a ridiculous thing for the chef to have told her to say. His fault, not hers.
We opted to cut our losses at that point and finish up. Parting on friendly terms (or so I thought) with the waitress who was friendly and did her job well and was tipped accordingly.
The bill? It came to a whopping £95 for 2 courses each, a bottle of wine and some water. At 2 courses for £27, especially given the quantity and quality of what we were offered tonight, this is excessive. 3 courses would cost you £32 plus an extra £6.50 supplement if you wanted the steak. £6.50!!
Why am I scoring this place a 1 star? I've never scored a place this low. Ever. If I could give half stars I would have probably rated tonight 2.5, but I was all set to score it a 3 as 2 would have been a bit mean. The 1 star came about an hour after we'd left and I received a call from the owner.....
My disappointment turned to "rage" after what i mistakenly thought was a call to offer apologies, turned into a really unpleasant and rude call saying we were never welcome back and my dad should be "ashamed" of upsetting the waitress (who didn't look upset as far as I could tell). He shouted down the phone at me, not letting me speak, saying he designs the menu himself and we were never to come back the he hung up! I can honestly say I've never experienced anything like it! A restaurant owner calling a paying customer back following some asked for feedback on the quantity of a dish, and telling them they're banned?!?! Wow.
So fellow yelpers, no, I would NOT recommend this place. Ever. read more
