Pink Olive
British, Scottish and Bistro Restaurant
from 13 reviews (add your opinion)
55-57 West Nicolson Street
Newington
Edinburgh
EH8 9DB
Phone: 0131 662 4493
Want to book? Try online booking!
Price: £££
Licensed: Yes
BYOB: No
Pre-Theatre: No
Takeaway: No
Opening Hours:
Tue-Sat: 1200-1430
Tue-Sat: 1730-2200
Sun: 1030-1530
Tags: pinkolive restaurant licensed british scottish bistro toptable bookonline
Details last confirmed by andy 6 months ago
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13 user reviews:
from rachybaby (83%) on July 1st, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
I went here on Sunday and had a very satisfying brunch to kickstart my day. Decor is fresh and bright but, with one flaw, why oh why the huge tacky banners out the front? It is already clear what the restaurant is called so absolutely no need for the cheapo banners which make it look naff.
ANYWAY, apart from that, I had a very enjoyable experience at Pink Olive. Brunch was very tasty - I went for the fry up, full of calories I would assume but minus the copious amounts of oil you get in most eateries serving fry up breakfasts. Just the right sized portion too. Also, very reasonably priced at only £5.
Another nice touch was the large selection on Sunday papers for all to read. Haven't tried the dinner menu yet but plan to return sometime soon to give it a try.
Highly recommended and a welcome addition to the Newington area.
(+4) (+1) (+1)
from paddyhr (45%) on July 9th, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
An adequate meal was had at this pleasant enough wee eatery, my chicken main good apart from the chicken, which was soggy enough to suggest re-heating, in an airline style. Yum? Not really, especially without the rest of the meal being served on the same rectangular tray, and I was entrusted with metal cutlery. I digress.
Starter was good, service was fine, setting was light and unoffensive.
Note the shortage of superlatives in this review. But counterbalance this with the 3 star review and only real issue was with a piece of white (soggy) meat. Hope their chef has cooking chicken sorted, and this place may well move towards being as good as some of the other reviewers suggest.
(+2) (+1) (0)
from steven (35%) on June 23rd, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Slightly bemused by all the rave reviews that have been posted for this new restaurant. It's a smart little place and the food was good and the service adequate. But there are loads of places that are equally as good - it certainly does not stand out in my mind as amazing.
We booked a table for 6.15 on a week night, wanting to take advantage of their pre-theatre menu. I arrvied prompt but my friend was stuck in traffic and arrived at 6.30. The pre-theatre menu said we needed to order by 6.30 and leave by 7.30. The waitress approached me while I was waiting for my late friend to point this out. Fair enough, but the restaurant was almost empty and her pointing this out made the experience a bit less relaxing. When my friend did arrive, they were in no hurry to take our order.
I had the oxtail stuffed beef tomato to start. Quite a pleasant, if slightly bland, starter. My friend's grilled haloumi, beetroot, walnut & green bean salad looked like the better choice. We both had the chicken dish for our main course. Again, it was fine, if somewhat bland and unremarkable. The bill with a couple of soft drinks was £20 on the nose, so that was fine.
A cheap, quick pre-theatre meal probably isn't the best way to judge a restaurant and maybe I should return to sample their full menu. Not in a great rush to, however, given my first experience.
(+2) (0) (0)
from glynn (17%) on June 18th, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Have been here for dinner- really tasty. Good fresh simple food, great value pre-theatre. Also tried the brunch on Sunday last weekend... great fry up, and apparently the roast was v good too. Lovely relaxing atmosphere... we will be back!
(0) (0) (0)
from des (17%) on June 20th, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Fantastic value pre-theatre meal at this wonderful new restaurant in the city. The ambience and service was also a delight. We plan to return soon to try the main menu.
(-2) (-1) (0)
from Morrison family (17%) on August 11th, 2008 (4 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Enjoyed the food which was well cooked and presented by pleasant staff who made us very welcome - price was OK as well but then again I don't get out much! Would certainly go back.
Well done and look forward to my / our next visit.
(0) (0) (0)
from Iain Mitchell (17%) on August 21st, 2008 (4 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
I was in last evening for a meal, what an atmosphere, what service and what great food. Simple menu selling good quality food, I'll be back!
(-2) (0) (0)
from slack alice (17%) on December 17th, 2008 (3 weeks ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Good food, good price in a pleasant relaxed atmosphere.
(-4) (0) (0)
from bouncingtigger13 (11%) on October 15th, 2008 (2 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Very limited lunch menu, which I struggled to find something interesting from. Ended up with a homemade burger, which arrived on a small crispy roll, with a limp little gem lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato. I had a couple of bits of gristle in my burger, which wasn't ideal. However, the few chips that came on the side were gorgeous - hot, chunky, crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle.
Wine was expensive, for what it was, but no more so than other local restaurants. Decor was uninspired, service was adequate - the waitress obviously didn't hear me asking for the bill until the third attempt. £20 for two burgers and two glasses of wine? Hmmm. Bring back Phenicia, and the wonderful tapas instead.
(+3) (0) (0)
from Inncredible (10%) on September 27th, 2008 (3 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Pink Olive provides honest, unfussy, real food with relaxed friendly service in an atmosphere that appeals to all.
This is the opening gambit on the website and only one part of that is accurate, the service is indeed relaxed, and friendly. The service is excellent in fact, but as effective as using blue-tack to plug the hoover dam.
The problem is this restaurant has no idea what it is or wants to be, there is incredible attention to detail but it is the wrong attention to the wrong detail, it is quite unnecessary. As an example, the toilets have magazine racks. Why? Yes its 'nice touch' but why when you only have one toilet per sex would you encourage people to stay in there any longer than they have to? In fact, why encourage any of your customers to spend time in your toilet rather than your restaurant?
This is not a reason not to eat at Pink Olive however, there are plenty of other reasons not to do that sadly. Remember the 'honest, unfussy, real food' claim? The menu is misleading, the food is needlessly pretentious and what is 'real food' anyway. I try to avoid fake food as best I can, plays havoc with my constitution.
The menu. The starters we had were very nice, excellently cooked. The black pudding was delicious, the soup apparently was tasty and the pate terrine thing was also by all accounts good. So far, its good. Service was quick (as you would hope in a virtually empty restaurant), the food was quick and well presented.
The mains. Having seen the Lythe (Pollock) and Lobster Bisque - it wasn't worded like that, my brain skipped the middle words - I decided on that. The waitress then said that it wasn't what you would consider a bisque, it was in fact fish with 'lobster bisque' drizzled on it. Clearly the chef has a different idea of bisque to most restaurant goers. So I had the 'Venison and root vegetable stew', one friend the Lythe, and the other the Cullen Skink (soup followed by soup). The Skink was 'too small and no better than I make at home' the Lythe was tasty but a bit on the small side and the Stew wasn't a stew.
This is where Pink Olive doesn't fall down, it implodes. What is it? It is fine dining, haute cuisine, yah da yah da posh nosh? No, it doesn't want to be that apparently, it wants to be honest and unfussy and relaxed. A Scottish Bistro I was told, which it quite certainly is not. If it were the Venison Stew would have been a stew. The venison and root vegetable stew consisted of 5 or 6 pieces of Venison, all perfectly cooked by the way, 4 pointlessly hand carved potatoes (it's a stew, why do I need my potatoes crafted?) some microscopically small onions and a drizzle of gravy. It tasted great but it was not honest, it was not a stew. It was a poncy attempt at a stew, and a stew is not poncy, its a stew. When I order a stew I want to get a bowl of gravy with bits of meat and veg bobbing about on the top like ice bergs, tantalisingly promising beautiful treasure below the murky water line. I felt like the titanic quite honestly. I left hungry, and if I ever leave a restaurant hungry I never go back.
We skipped dessert, this is like leaving a cinema before the end of the film, so you have to be really unimpressed. Nice coffee though, apparently a blend designed for them. Its a life boat, but one with a hole in the middle really.
This is not the first time I have been to Pink Olive, you have to give new places a chance to develop and this is still a new enterprise. There are huge positives, the food is good, its really good in fact but just good food is not enough. The staff are friendly (although one woman, I think the manager has a speaking voice so loud that whenever she asked me if I required anything else several ships in the north sea changed course) and knowledgeable and seemingly very keen to make your visit a good one.
Pink Olive needs to decide what it is and find its identity because at the moment it is a mish mash of - some good, some not so good - ideas which do not gell. The chef can clearly cook but 'unfussy' it isn't, its too fussy, misleading and to be honest, despite the taste, disappointing. If you read a menu like the one presented at Pink Olive your mouth waters, but the dish delivered does not match the expectation. Word the menu differently and up the portion size and you change the expectation level.
Oh and it's Stornoway, not Stornaway.
(+2) (0) (+2)
from browne (9%) on June 18th, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
New bistro using local produce. Small menu, but well cooked lovely simple food. Great surroundings - what a change the new owners have made. Friendly staff - we had a lovely relaxing time. Been in for lunch and dinner - must try Sunday brunch next!!!
(0) (+1) (0)
from Laurs (9%) on July 17th, 2008 (5 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
I went to Pink Olive a couple of weeks ago for Sunday Brunch with cocktails, and it was fantastic. I opted for the roast… 3 well sized slices of beef, 2 Yorkshire puddings and tasty, well cooked, roasters and veg. My husband went for the fry up, and he could have done with more, so opted to eat some of mine!
As a former Edinburgh Uni student it’s been a long time since I’ve had brunch in the area, and I was very impressed with the price and friendly service. We both thought the light, bright décor was inviting and relaxing for a lazy Sunday, and I would recommend trying one or 2 cocktails. The Espresso Martini is a must. My only negative is that with an 8 week baby in tow (don’t worry all you outraged parents, daddy wasn’t drinking, coffee only for him… which he said was very tasty), there was nowhere to change a nappy. I will definitely be back for dinner, minus baby, to enjoy the food and without doubt more cocktails.
(+1) (0) (0)
from jimlanderson (8%) on June 22nd, 2008 (6 months ago)
Pink Olive, 55-57 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB, Edinburgh
Great new bistro using fresh produce and the menu was simple but great, portion size was just right and the staff where very friendly and helpful I wish more were like this.
As this was my partner's 50th on the 21st she really enjoyed the experience and I am sure we will be going back, we wish all the staff the best and long may you continue to produce such good food.
The only thing I did not appreciate was the candle in the bottle on the table but that’s a personal thing.
(+2) (0) (0)
- Home Bistro, 41 West Nicolson Street
- Kalpna, 2-3 St Patrick Square
- Buffalo Grill, 12-14 Chapel Street
- Ann Purna, 44-45 St Patrick Square
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