I tried the new £39.50 lunch in Edinburgh's most elegant dining room and it was a proper treat
This five-star hotel restaurant has had a change of direction
In 1925, Stanley Baldwin was prime minister.
The cloche hat was the height of fashion, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway was released, and pork chops and suet pudding were popular home-cooked dishes.
It was the year that The Pompadour opened at The Caledonian, which was still functioning as a railway hotel.
Back then, it was all about the haute cuisine, and dishes included petite marmite, biscuit glace frivolities, and canapes Ecossaise, as attested by the ancient menus that are framed outside the current restaurant. I love that this place is still here, and I’ve reviewed it several times, over the last couple of decades, when it’s had various cheffy occupants, including the Galvin Brothers and Dan Ashmore. It’s always a thrill to be in the beautiful room, with its floral frescoes.
For the last four years, MasterChef alumni Dean Banks has been in the kitchen, and the restaurant has been Dean Banks at The Pompadour. Now, he’s renamed the venue, 1925 at Pompadour, and like many other restaurants in the capital, he’s recently ditched the fine-dining tasting menu in favour of a more flexible a la carte and set options.
The seaside-y interior is the same as last time I was here, when it was first taken over by Banks, who also also owns Dulse, on nearby Queensferry Street, as well as one of the same name in Leith, plus Haar and Dune in St Andrews, not to mention gin and vodka brands.
There are whale sculptures and faux sea grass in boxes. All that’s missing is a ‘to the beach’ sign with an arrow on it. Still, I’m not a Scotland’s Home of the Year judge, so I’ll shut my cakehole, and focus on the food. We tried the very reasonable £39.50 lunch menu.
There were three choices of starter, and we snubbed the burrata in favour of the tempura oyster and the pea and lemongrass veloute. The seafood starter was rather lovely, with three nuggets of seafood, each swathed in diaphanous negligees of batter and dotted with amber-coloured gel, on top of a fresh-tasting mixture of shredded fennel and ginger.
Our bright green veloute was mouth-searingly hot, and had a sweet and poppy flavour, with a halo of crispy puffed wild rice around the edges of the bowl. This offering was topped with a vast cloud of subtle lemongrass-scented white foam.
Good start, but the mains are a step up. I think the magic was in the sauces.
The cornfed chicken leg came with a mouth-coating rich and sticky lardo jus, as well as little cubes of lardo. There were also three ratte potatoes, a cushion of pea and asparagus puree, and a couple of struts of vibrant broccoli. Usually, the chicken is the boring choice, but this was as fancy as Madame de Pompadour’s party wig.
I had the roasted day boat fish - a lovely sturdy piece of coley, which came with broad beans and pickled girolles, with their pleasingly wrinkled and sauce-retaining undercarriages, and a buff-coloured and tangy chicken butter sauce.
We were very happy, though I would definitely order a side, as there’s no bread at the start of the meal. Carb lovers, take note. I had to go for some emergency pomme frites (£7), which were relayed to my table as fast as a donor organ for transplant. There’s also pomme mousseline, Dulse potatoes, broccoli or a summer salad, if you also need a little something extra.
For pudding, he loved his white chocolate panna cotta, with a sweetness that was tempered by a lovely sharpy raspberry coulis and a nutty sail of praline.
I recently had the tiramisu at my new favourite pizza restaurant, Pala, and it has spoiled me for all other iterations. The one at this place is perfectly serviceable, though. It’s served in a sundae dish with plenty of the prerequisite espresso, chocolate shavings, cream and lady finger components, and a crunchy amaretti biscuit on top.
Great food, five-star service, and a view to Edinburgh Castle, for £39.50. That seems like a bargain to me.
I’m sure the new direction will work for Banks, and draw in a few additional diners who might be turned off by fussy tasting menus and white linen tablecloths
I suppose that’s a decent 100th birthday gift to Edinburgh’s most beautiful dining room.
Restaurant 1925 at Pompadour, The Caledonian Hotel, Princes Street, Edinburgh (07401 60638, www.restaurant1925.com)
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.