monteiths

we always eat here when we are in edinburgh. it's a hidden gem and i always recommend it to friends. the service is great and the atmosphere in the restaurant is fantastic, there's a great energy with a good mix of people. the steak is a highlight, i ordered a rare fillet and it was cooked perfectly. the orchard bramble cocktail is always a personal favourite but thistimei decided to try a few others too. they offer a cocktail with bee pollen and heather and this is a must try! i can't recall the name of the gentleman serving us last time, i believe he said he was south african? but he was really fantastic and attentive and chatty despite how busy it was.

the haggis drew me in, but what a great bustling little place this is. this basement restaurant is quite cramped, but this probably adds to the atmosphere. the waiting staff are also great and really friendly and generally do a good job keeping so many tables and orders in their heads. the aforementioned haggis is a small affair, but it was full of flavour and restored my faith in this dish. it can be tasty! we also had the squid to start, but they graciously cooked it without the crackling owing to my sons dairy intolerance. a big thank you for that. it was still good quality, thick and firm. and i can only imagine what it would be like with the crackling. we also had the duck, lam, cod and venison. we were pre-warned that the meats would be served pink, which i believe it should be anyway. the quality of the meats was again excellent - no gristle at all and so soft to cut. i had my eyes opened to smoked vegetables - go on try it. the duck fat chips we could have had more of. actually we did order more of them, but they didn't arrive along with the two lots of spinach. hey ho the tenderstem broccoli they gave us instead was perfectly al dente so we didn't send it back. as i say, it was the august and this place was heaving. nexttimewe're in edinburgh, we will book again

i order eggs benedict a lot and this is the firsttimei’ve ever received just one egg. normally you get two eggs served on two halves of an english muffin, so i was quite disappointed to have such a small portion, especially when it cost £9! i would expect double the amount for that price. yes, it was delicious and i especially liked the hollandaise sauce which had just the right amount of vinegar in there to give it an edge, but i finished it in seconds.