Featured Restaurant Reviews
Browsing the most recent featured reviews on EdinburghMenus.com.
1 - 3 of 11 featured reviews
Pani Solinska
73 Broughton Street, EH1 3RJ, Edinburgh
Traditional Polish cuisine - comfort food at its best
This Polish restaurant that opened up on Broughton Street in March 2008 provides just what you need in these long dark, cold winter evenings in Scotland. Big platefuls of hearty comfort food never fail to cheer you up. We visited on Friday night. We were dining quite early and although we were almost the first to eat, the combination of the live music which had already started and the chatty owner made us feel very welcome.
To start I went for the Polish meat platter, and Jo the dill pickled herrings. Both went down very well - a great combination of flavours. The traditional beetroot horseradish accompaniment was a surprise crowd pleaser.
For mains we both went for traditional Polish staples - a pork shank braised in beer called Golonka and a variety of dumplings. The Golonka looked like it would be impossible to finish when it arrived. A huge amount of meat along with a variety of vegetables. The combination of slow cooking and being cooked in beer meant that the meat was incredibly moist and literally falling off the bone. At £11.50, this was exceptional value and could not be more highly recommended! Jo's dumplings looked like a more modest portion but were surpringly filling. They came with a mixture of fillings, including haggis - an interesting (and successful) fusion of Polish and Scottish cuisine.
To drink we went for one of the Georgian sweet red wines recommended by our server. Very drinkable and the perfect accompaniment to our big meaty main courses. It was so drinkable that we'd finished it by the time we got to dessert, so couldn't resist sampling some flavoured Polish vodkas from their extensive list. I'm no vodka fan, but it went down surprisingly well.
Although our main courses had filled us up we took a break while we had our vodkas and eventually, after things had settled down, found space for dessert - another traditional Polish dish - pancake with stewed apple and vanilla cream cheese.
A meal at Pani Solinska is certainly not glamorous, but that is not what it's trying to be. It's trying to provide traditional Polish food carefully prepared in a friendly setting and it certainly achieves that goal. No doubt visiting Poles may find the prices daunting but when compared to most other Edinburgh restaurants, they are very competitive.
This restaurant certainly has to be tried and doing so won't break the bank. As Polish cuisine is quite different from the Italian, French, Indian, Chinese or British food you come across more commonly in Edinburgh, it's just possible that the combination of flavours won't be to your liking. But it probably will!
Itri
169-173 Gilmore Place, EH3 9PW, Edinburgh
Quality fresh, seasonal Italian food in a charming local eatery
There seem to be 2 types of Italian restaurants in Edinburgh. There are the typical cheap and cheerful Italians serving bolognese, lasagne, carbonara and pizzas. And then there are the nice ones. The ones where fresh, seasonal fish dominates the menu and is served with fresh pasta and simple sauces made with basic fresh ingredients. I am very glad to report that Itri, a relatively new Italian restaurant between Polwarth and Bruntsfield falls firmly into the latter category.
We visited on a Thursday night and fully expected to be about the only people in on such a dreary night in a small restaurant away from the centre of town. Although, of course, the restaurant wasn't full, there was a good number of tables filled and the place had a good atmosphere to it, helped in no small part by the friendly service.
To start we had the bruschetta from the day's specials board and the antipasto selection of cured meats. Both starters were verging on absolutely massive! If you're not as hungry as we were, you could probably get away with sharing a starter between two, and certainly 2 between 3.
For mains I went for the day's special, which was Linguine agli Scampi. I was going to go for the Linguine ai Frutti di Mare until the waiter suggested I try the special instead. And what a good recommendation - the dish arrived with the linguine barely visible below what must have been 8-10 of the finest looking langoustines I've ever seen! What a treat. And at £13.95 excellent value. My companion went for the Spigola del Golfo - a sea bass dish with clams and mussels. It also looked excellent and went down well, though he was very jealous of my choice!
Only one of us managed to squeeze in a dessert - Pannacota covered in Nutella. Very tasty. Like the rest of the menu, the desserts change often. In fact, there was no dessert menu - the waiter simply told us what they were offering that day.
The bill, with a couple of bottles of Peroni and a coffee each, came in well under £60. Excellent value and just shows the benefit of not eating in the centre of town all the time.
If you live on the southside, this place is a must-try. And even if you live on the other side of town, it's well worth the trip.
Britannia Spice
150 Commercial Street, EH6 6LB, Edinburgh
A safe bet for decent Indian food and top notch service
This is a large restaurant, capable of holding hundreds on a busy night. Although it was a quiet mid-week night when we visited and the restaurant felt fairly empty, thinking back, there must have been at least 30 people dining - more than lots of Indian restaurants could handle at capacity. A good place to come with a large group - they seem to be well set up to cater for large numbers.
The decor of thre place follows a nautical theme, to tie in with its name and proximity to the Royal Yacht Britannia moored a few hundred metres away at Ocean Terminal. So it's polished brass handrails, sails hanging from the ceiling and anchors and ships' wheels all the way. I'm sure you get the idea. It's all been done pretty tastefully, and certainly looks smarter than your average Indian restaurant.
We had a three course meal, as well as a couple of poppadoms and some chutneys to nibble on while we waited for our starters. All that food and a couple of pints of lager just nudged the bill over the £50 mark, so there were no nasty surprises to be had when that arrived.
The food was good, if unexceptional. To start I had king prawn butterfly and my dining partner assorted kebab. The highlight of the meal were the main courses, unsurprisingly, which were tasty and well cooked. The dessert menu consisted of a rather unappealing list of ice-creams which were clearly not prepared at the restaurant but still succeed in finishing off the meal if you still have the appetite.
We both felt that both of our main courses could have packed a bit more spice. They were both described on the menu as medium-hot, but I think medium would have been more accurate. In fact, as we sat down, we overheard a middle-aged couple mentioning to the waiter that their curries were far too hot for them. Being such a large restaurant appealing to a broader audience than solely curry afficiandos, perhaps they feel they have to tone down the hotness of their dishes to maintain their mass-market appeal?
The lack of kick to the main dish certainly wouldn't stop me returning. The service was exceptional throughout, and the quality of the food almost without fault. I'll just be sure to order something that they describe as "hot" next time.
