I already love this delightful Edinburgh restaurant, but now it's even more special

It was love at first sight. I was smitten by the corner setting, with its green view of Bruntsfield Links.

The food was magic, the front-room vibes were chilled. It felt a bit like going to a sophisticated friend’s for dinner.

Then, during lockdown, my admiration grew, as they survived by doing some spirit-lifting take-outs, including their legendary shellfish platter.

Last year, this restaurant, which is owned by Rachel Chisholm and chef Phil White, gently expanded, as it became a big sister to the hip new cafe, Margot, just a few doors down.

I’m not sure which venue is my favourite, though they complement each other perfectly.

However, Leftfield has now taken a leaf out of its younger sibling’s book, with similarly fresh decor. It’s no longer dark forest green inside. Instead, they’ve gone for a slightly stippled paint job , with pretty light fittings that resemble iridescent soap bubbles. However, there are still window boxes of herbs outside, so, from your table, you can watch the bees bouncing ineffectually off the lavender.

I’m a fan of the glow-up, and, as restaurant manager Veronica Luque Perez says, it provides a canvas for the food to really shine. And that it does.

Everyone knows it, as proved by the fact that we could only get an early bird 5:30pm table mid-week. Their fan club has more members than KISS’.

We started on a high.

I wouldn’t necessarily have thought my other half could be so bowled over by a lettuce-based starter. This was such a perfect shades-of-green combo, though, with charred baby gem (£8.50), chives, mint, a pea puree, which almost had salad cream vibes,with its sharp and sweet notes, and long shavings of a bold and nutty hard Rainton tomme cheese. Light, yet satisfying.

His transition to guinea pig is complete.

My warm hand dived scallop (£14) was served on the shell, and hidden under a heap of zippy and crunchy bits, like cool ribbons of cucumber, and garlicky crispy onions, with a ginger and chilli kick.

We could’ve gone for a sharing dish next, like the whole fish with all the trimmings (£45), or Gloucester Old Spot pork chop, borlotti beans, cavolo nero and roast apple (£48), but we stuck with the solo options.

His main course was the sea trout (£22), which also came with petit pois - his second round. That was okay, though, as we don’t often see them on menus these days, and maybe they’ve been forgotten about, in favour of trendier and more exotic ingredients.

I’m going to get my Save the Peas placard out, since they’ve already taken care of the bees here.

Anyway, this plateful featured a perfect coral pink fillet that was draped with fennel fronds and came with a pea puree and whole ones, plus sugar-cube-sized blocks of mild chorizo, and butter beans.

I’d gone for the comparatively wintery venison haunch (£25). We never have red meat at home, and this satisfied all my ferritin requirements, with about six meltingly soft slabs of pink protein and a super concentrated salty and glossy jus. The accompanying pheasant back mushroom, with its springy texture, was speckled like a lochside pebble, and lightly pickled, to lift the general meatyness. The plate also featured spears of charred asparagus, and pink-tinged leaves of pleasingly bitter chicory.

Now we need to talk about the side dish of potatoes. My goodness.

I would go back and order three portions of these, for starter, main and dessert.

It consisted of a bowlful of butter-varnished roasted new tatties (£6), with truffle oil and heaps more of that Rainton tomme cheese.

Even though we ate them all, and there were about a dozen or more, we were not going to be defeated before pudding, so he went for the classic Basque cheesecake (£8). It was a gem - a squat and sturdy slice, burnished chestnut on the outside, and fluffy on the inside, with a large dollop of tart rhubarb compote to temper all the sweetness.

I did the chocolate mousse (£8), which was a dense and decadently rich scoop, with a sugar-dusted shortbread hat on top, and lots of mint-strewn and fragrant halved strawberries underneath.

We had them with cocktails - a rhubarb cosmopolitan (£10) with rhubarb vodka, rhubarb and woodruff syrup, orange liquor and lime, for my wannabe Carrie Bradshaw, and a pleasingly medicinal white negroni (£9) that featured Edinburgh’s Lind & Lime Gin, Suze and blanc vermouth for me, Mr Big.

They concluded a lovely meal, but also a perfect evening.

I just like being here and looking out of the window. Overall, the vibes are immaculate, as the kids might say in its sister restaurant, Margot.

I remain a big fan, makeover or not.

Leftfield, 12 Barclay Terrace, Edinburgh (0131-563 1792, www.leftfieldedinburgh.co.uk)