No. 11

Located within the titular boutique hotel on Brunswick Street, No. 11 is trying to carve out a name for itself in the culinary Royal Rumble of Edinburgh and has entered the fray with big and bold ideas.
Unfortunately the execution of those ideas would be better described as big and bland.
We took advantage of a Living Social voucher (other voucher vendors are available) that offered up a 5 course tasting menu for two. Admittedly when the date came up in the diary I struggled to remember A) buying the thing, or B) where No. 11 was! Marketing clearly not their forte.
Anyway, the first thing we noticed on arrival was how it reminded us of eating out on holiday. The music was elevator-​chic, the clientele predominantly in their 50s-​70s, and the ambience more than a little subdued. Luckily we had each other’s company, which was enough.
The food. We started with a Tomato and Basil Gazpacho with Anchovy Toast; next up was a Chicken Liver Parfait with Plum and Orange Chutney; followed by Salmon Tartare; the main was Confit Duck and Chorizo Ravioli in a Milk Reduction Sauce; and dessert was a Banana Parfait with Crumb Candy and Raspberry Sauce.
Of the five courses only the gazpacho and the tartare stood out. And even the latter was down to the natural strong flavour of salmon. Seasoning was lacking almost everywhere, which meant that, where the meal could have been great, it was merely nice. Middle of the road. A shrug of the shoulders. The gazpacho had great flavour and the anchovy toast was a perfect accompaniment. but cold soup is not everyone’s cup of tea and they got lucky with this one I feel. The tartare was moreish and even the egg yolk — a first for me — was impressive. The parfait was parfait; I suppose it didn’t help I’d had the same starter at the Scran & Scallie two nights prior… no comparison. The ravioli was nice but the duck was flavourless, the chorizo un-​spicy and the dish in general lacked any punch. The dessert, again, was nice. Some good flavours but there wasn’t enough of the raspberry (the best component) to offset the bitterness of the candy and pull it all together for me.
The dining experience was marred slightly by a somewhat forgetful matre de who, after we moved to the lounge (PLEASE NOTE: word to the wise, if you ever visit No. 11, do not — repeat, do not — request to be relocated to the lounge… a lounge, it is not!) proceeded to forget we were there and never even came back to take our order. She redeemed herself slightly when I came to find her, by offering up an apology in the form of free Bellinis. But by then we’d spent 20 minutes in a music-​less, atmosphere-​less waiting room with nothing to look at but a wall and some Daily Telegraphs. Took the edge off the night completely.
I suppose the measure of a tasting menu — specifically those on offer — is whether you would pay full price for the same meal. Our voucher was £39 for two people, vs. the standard price of £43 per head.
£39 for two 5 course meals is a bargain wherever you are, and not to be sniffed at. Would we have paid £86 for the same two meals? Absolutely not.
Oh and as a PS., yet another restaurant where the waiting staff come round mid-​mouthful to ask if everything is alright. This practice should be outlawed. End of.

We visited No.11 for a pre-​theatre dinner using an itison voucher (same deal as Laura D) 3 courses and a glass of house wine for £24 for 2, can’t grumble at that! Although having read Laura’s review I was feeling a little cautious. It was pretty hard to make a booking here, most weekends prior had been fully booked. I ended up asking when they had space and pre-​booked 2 weeks in advance! I expected great things considering how busy they were!
As we entered we were greeted and given a choice of where to sit. Our wine order was taken, water was offered and they followed it with complimentary warm bread with balsamic and olive oil. Things were looking good! They had laid the two different menus on our table, which lead to some confusion at first, «where’s the venison, I can’t see it?» The waiter apologised for the mix up and swapped my day menu for the dinner menu.
I ordered the chicken and mushroom terrine (or pâté as Laura pointed out) which was very tasty, even though it wasn’t a terrine. My friend was about to order the prawn cocktail, when I warned them about Laura’s experience, so they ordered the venison instead. Both starters went down well and the plates were almost licked clean!
Feeling optimistic about the meal so far, my main course arrived. The salmon with pesto from the special board. Presented well, but it arrived with no carbs, no potato, rice — nothing. Thankfully there were some vegetables but it was still very rich. However the pesto over the salmon was so salty I could barely eat it (that doesn’t happen very often)! Even my friend agreed. When the waiter asked how my meal was, I said it was very salty, but ok. He said he’d pass the comments on to the chef, but there was no feedback.
Sticky toffee pudding with ice cream arrived for dessert, which was very nice but my friend said the texture was wrong and felt like there were plastic bits through the pudding. We joked saying our desserts got mixed up after me complaining about the salty salmon, as my pudding was delish!
The two waiting staff were polite and helpful. Each course was delivered to the table by the chef himself, which you don’t see often, but seemed a nice touch. The interior is clean and contemporary with unusual vibrant art on display. Some elements of the dinner were really lovely, but the overly salty salmon and plastic dessert let it down. Wouldn’t have paid full price for this, but for £24 you can’t really complain.

Not quite sure about this place really… Hmmm…
I bought an itison voucher for this place as I always like trying new restaurants, especially when there’s a good deal! It wasn’t a restaurant I’d heard of before and I think I know why. It’s not really a proper restaurant! They call themselves a brasserie but it’s really part of a small hotel and a bit too out of the way to be convenient. In general, I don’t choose to eat at hotels unless they’ve got their marketing right and positioned themselves as ’boutique’ (Tiger Lily or Le Monde being examples). This place isn’t in the same league (not that I’m a fan of aforementioned places) although I can see they’re trying to be… its just not quite right…
In first walking in I waited at the small reception area while the waitress called someone a taxi. I could see into the kitchen which was strange, more so because someone clearly dropped something in there and all I could hear was someone shouting «f@ck» a lot. More swearing was to follow during the time I stood there. The waitress apologized for the language and hastily took me to my table so I could wait for my friend. The décor was just a little bit wrong. Tablecloths that didn’t fit. A weird looking glass cabinet on a bunker that wouldn’t look out of place in an old lady tearoom. Bread basket with plastic covering it on display. Scruffy really.
My voucher basically involved a 3 course meal and a glass of house wine for 2. We got to choose a starter, main and dessert straight from the al a carte which in my vast experience of dining vouchers is unusual but it did give us plenty of choices.
For starters — My friend went for a warm prawn cocktail and I went for the chicken and wild mushroom terrine. What she got were 5 fat prawns covered in a warm cocktail sauce, but it was only when she tried to unsuccessfully cut into them we realized they still had their shells on. Why would the chef then smother them in sauce?!? Her hands were absolutely covered trying to de-​shell these things and when she dipped her hands in the finger bowl provided she screamed out loud as they’d given her boiling water! As I am clearly evil, I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit — it was just so bizarre! My terrine? Well, it ended up being a massive wedge of pâté. Errrrr, nice but it’s not a terrine!
Mains — Nicola went for vegetable risotto with a Parmesan crisp. No vegetables in sight, just a fairly bland white risotto. Obviously the chef thought that by making rice with vegetable stock was sufficient enough to call it a vegetable risotto. No Parmesan crisp… My main was the lamb stew with mashed potato. The mash was dry and lumpy and the lamb severely over cooked with a strange textured sauce, kind of like blitzed carrots or baby food. After a few mouthfuls I gave up. The thing repeated on me for the rest of the evening. Nice.
Dessert — the one saving grace (oh, and the Pepper bread which was nice but lacked some butter!) I chose the sticky toffee pudding with ice cream. Clearly a shop bought ice cream but the pudding was actually quite tasty. Nicola went for the mixed fruit crème brûlée and she ate it all so no problems there.
The service was actually pretty good. Very attentive throughout. I just couldn’t bring myself to complain about the food as I’d gotten such a cheap deal with the voucher. That was until the owner asked how we enjoyed ourselves on our way out. I swithered but then was like «well…» He actually seemed to appreciate the feedback and I was nice about it! Promise!
Unfortunately, I won’t be back and I wouldn’t recommend. If I had a half star option I might have given them 2.5 stars but mainly due to the friendly service. Shame really.

Great little find on
for good deal on champagne afternoon tea.
Feels like this place has just been refurbished.
Really polite staff and nice atmosphere. Check out my many pictures of our champagne afternoon tea.
We started with olives, antipasti and warm bread. Next was a cake stand of sandwiches followed by scones and cake.
Great choice of jams, marmalade and a nice surprise of cream cheese and figs.
Nicely styled place and I would certainly recommend it.