I had dinner at Edinburgh's latest New York pizza restaurant in frenetic and bustling hotspot

After a long train journey on the hottest day of the year thus far, I’d just been decanted at a ridiculously hectic Waverley Station, and was feeling revolting. I had forgotten to pack water, and had wilted like a supermarket pot of basil on a roasting kitchen windowsill.

My makeup had completely melted off, and my face was puce. These temperatures do not suit my Gothic constitution.

Thankfully, five-year-old Bonnie & Wild is an anonymous place, so you can eat like nobody is watching. No dinner suit required.

Anyway, things have changed since my last visit. They’ve had a bit of a west coast takeover. Now, you’ll find chef Julie Lin’s Mexican meets Malaysian place Tacos, Lah, which is just opposite another newbie in the form of pizza and pasta bar Flur. This place features a menu designed by international pizza consultant Anthony Falco and is owned by Ivan Stein from celebrated Glasgow restaurant The Gannet.

We found a communal pew beside the dark green livery of their outpost. It was mercifully situated in a cool jetstream that was wafting from the lower levels of St James Quarter.

As with all of Bonnie & Wild’s offerings, you order at the counter of choice, then take a buzzer, which flashes and leaps when it’s time to collect.

We only had about six minutes to wait for our offerings. Once we’d offloaded the contents of our tray, we tried one of the specials - burrata (£6). This creamy cool dollop of olive oil-drizzled cheese seemed to instantly heal me from the trauma of being baked alive on a sizzling train. It comes with nibbly struts of sea salted crispy pizza crusts, and we also ordered a little bowl of frog green and vibrant nocerella olives (£5).

There are six varieties of pizza, which are sold by the slice or as a whole 18” Frisbee.

Now, Neapolitan pizza has taken over the restaurant scene over the last decade. This is not that. So, forget about a billowy rubber ring of a crust and sloppily generous toppings.

This is New York style, so they are comparatively very thin, with a sandy crunch, and accoutrements that are flush and flat, so you can easily fold the whole device. It is designed to be eaten on the move, so they serve it on paper plates here. Not now though. I needed a seat.

Our favourite of the trio was the nduja and honey (£4.50) number, with tomato sugo, mozzarella, Parmigiano and a burning hive’s worth of sticky hot honey lashings. It was just spicy enough.

The white pie (£4) is non-offensively gentle and creamy, with creme fraiche, mozzarella, ricotta, roasted red onion and Parmigiano, while the pepperoni (£4.50) features scamorza, which is slightly firmer than mozzarella, as well as three pepperoni discs, a few pickled jalapenos and, supposedly, wild oregano, though we couldn’t see any of that.

Anyway, these slices were very grown-up and classy for New York pizza.

As far as sizes go, I’d probably say do two for lunch, three for dinner.

However, rather unexpectedly, the pasta offering was our favourite thing of all.

There is a slow-cooked beef ziti with ragu Genovese (£13), but it sounded a bit too wintery, so we went for a bucatini carbonara (£12). It was, as the kids say, ‘banging’. There was a vast whorl of chunky and yolky pasta threads, tons of guanciale nibs, Parmesan and the pepper mill had obviously done more grinding than Elvis.

After all that carb loading, we decided that it wouldn’t be a proper visit to Bonnie & Wild if it wasn’t punctuated by a visit to Joelato ice-cream. That’s the law in Edinburgh, though I’ve never seen this vendor with such a queue. The sun had flushed these folks out on a Monday evening

We went for a wee pot each (£3.50). I chose the specials board option of an intensely fruity blackcurrant Greek yogurt number, which was bright purple and tasted like Ribena that’s gone very hench on steroids. He went for a classic and refined raspberry ripple.

Now that my electrolytes were restored, I felt like a plant that had been freshly watered. Boing!

This dinner had saved me from being completely frazzled.

The pizza here is great, but the pasta, with a bit of ice-cream, is my suggested aftersun remedy.

Flur, Bonnie & Wild, St James Quarter, Edinburgh, www.stjamesquarter.com

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