Montieth's

High Street, Edinburgh

visited 27/10/09

This is a restaurant on the Royal Mile, so should be approached with caution. But it’s in the neighbourhood of some pretty good competition so worth a try. Brandishing my listcard, we descended a twee passageway decorated with branches and fairy lights to a narrow basement room. After some faffing about when I was repeatedly asked for my name and offered a low table with a couple of armchairs (a bit weird in a restaurant) we got a good table and after that the service was fine.

The food, however, was a bit dispiriting. Not terrible, but not very good at what it set out to do. I had a “tartare” of mackerel that was in fact more of a pate—perfectly OK with capers and cucumber. This came with some overly vinegary slices of pickled courgette (good texture though) and some of those Spanish vacuum-packed anchovies which are nowhere near as good as salted ones. There was also a redundant smear of beetroot puree. Then I had a confit and loin of hare with a plum tartlet. On the face of it this was a good idea, but the confit was dry and I’m pretty sure badly reheated, and the plum thing over sweet—like having your pudding added to your main course. There was no perceptible sauce, but some bland carrot puree. A dish that really needed something to pull it together. Although I love hare, I got bored with the whole thing after a while—despite a strong whiff of game it didn’t have the combination of graininess, tenderness and depth of flavour that hare can offer.

Montieths isn’t awful. My companion had some properly fresh oysters which was a good sign. But there are restaurants in Edinburgh that do this kind of thing much better. We had a boring and over-priced Southern French Pinot Noir and were not tempted by the puddings. The whole thing made me greatly appreciate my previous entry (North Bridge Brassierie) where we ate some very accomplished cooking for the same price with a great value wine. Monteiths, however, was full by 7.00 so the spurious glamour of the Royal Mile must have worked its charm.