Brougham Place, Edinburgh
visited 26/11/08
The Bagatelle seems to have been here for ever with no appreciable changes, and I have never had a bad meal. You are unlikely to find anything very surprising on the menu--it's all classic (but not necessarily haute) French cuisine. And it's all very, very, nice: proper reductions, flavours nicely balanced, great ingredients, everything cooked carefully, properly and, well, Frenchly, with no corners cut. You can have snails (always good) but this time I had a nice chicken terrine with a good, not too sweet, redcurrant jelly. There is usually an exemplary pot au feu in a very light gravy which allows all the flavours of the ingredients to emerge but it wasn't on tonight so I had some very good pheasant. The Bagatelle isn't terribly interested in vegetables but they're fine.
The wine list is one of the best in Edinburgh--really interesting French regional wines.
The room is a bit like eating at your granny's (and your granny is quite likely to be there) but the service is friendly and efficient (tonight's waitress charmingly addressed the women as "lady" like a New York Cabbie) and it has a real sense of a neighbourhood restaurant that values its customers.
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