Tony's Table

North Castle Street, Edinburgh

visited 26/09/2009

This is an operation run by Tony Singh of the (in my view) somewhat overrated Oloroso. His Table occupies the former Cosmo, a restaurant I never went to because I didn't like the look of the almost entirely red interior. It had the style of a Gentleman's Club in Hell. Tony has wisely painted the walls white, although it's still not much aesthetically. This, however, doesn't matter in the kind of establishment which specialises in unfussy cooking, basic or traditional dishes, and inexpensive ingredients. A lot of these are pork. I had a great terrine made out of some unspeakable yet delicious pieces of pig (very tasty, firm, meaty, not glutinous and especially not served too cold as these things often are). Some of my companions had an equally delicious fritter made of similar items, but minced and fried. They were light and had a wonderful depth of flavour.

Next I had a mushroom risotto which was OK but a bit light on the girolles and thus unsufficiently mushroomy. It also erred on the slushy side. A side salad of rocket and red onion had too much of the latter. Other people had pies. I tasted a very nice beef one with a lighter and cleaner flavour than the standard pub variety. We had a bottle of good Picpoul de Pinet from an otherwise dull but reasonably priced list. Puddings weren't very interesting

This is a good place to go with a group of people when you want to chat rather than appreciate the food in awed reverence--we sat in the window round a decent sized table with space between tables. It's not expensive and for a couple of extra quid you can get a meal several notches above Howie's et al. Service was very speedy. If I lived locally I would probably go a lot.