According to urban myth (well, my mum, dad and a few select witnesses), the young Miss Appetit was a chatty little tyke, and even sang along to ‘Happy Birthday’ on her 1st Birthday. There’s also photographic evidence of me clutching a bottle of Labbatt Blue, but we won’t go into that just now. Fast-forward a few years, and I’ve just marked the birthday that takes me halfway to 68, so the celebrations have taken on their usual edible form. Cutting down a bit on the drinkables though, as December was a bit of a ‘sesh’.
Last year’s venue was Amore Dogs (post here) and I guess I wasn’t particularly original in choosing the location for this year’s lunch, as I arranged to meet one of my best buds Emily for lunch at Urban Angel, on the opposite side of Hanover Street. I’ve not been in for a year or so, but word of mouth for this café & bistro continues to be positive since it opened in 2008. Their selling point is fresh, locally sourced ingredients, all prepared onsite, so for example the chicken is free-range, meat is organic, and a lot of the veggies are from Phantassie in EastLothian.
The venue itself is a warren of rooms in the basement of a Georgian Townhouse. Take-away coffees, cakes and sandwiches can be bought from the deli counter, you can sit in for a cuppa, or a proper feed. Décor is inoffensively minimalist, a bit of white-wash paint, plain tables and chairs, which allow some of the building’s original character to stand out in the form of shiny flagstones on the floor, and the original oven range. I’d had a sneak peek at the menu before heading along (research!) and was tempted by the eggs benedict from the all-day brunch menu, however when we sat down, after some deliberation, two of the day’s specials took our fancy.
I chose the organic lamb meatballs with tagliatelle, and Emily shellfishly chose the moules marinières which actually she was welcome to as I’m not a fan of mussels. The photo doesn’t give the meatballs to pasta ratio justice, as there were actually plenty knitted into the tagliatelle. The texture of the meatballs was a little solid, but the flavour and seasoning was great, almost giving that merguez-like taste. The tomato sugo wrapped around the pasta ribbons was sweet and fresh, with a little sprinkling of parsley. I did have to laugh at my poor efforts with the whole pasta-fork-spoon thing though. I’m going to look out for a groupon voucher to ‘Learn how to eat pasta in public’.
Emily, with pincers in hand, methodically (as there is no other word to describe eating mussels) worked her way through the sizeable portion of bivalves. Two giant chunks of sourdough bread were supplied to sop up the liquor, a spoon had to be asked for to help finish off the task. I had a quick taste and satisfied my curiosity that my palate still doesn’t take to this much seafoody flavour.
Next, on to the obligatory ‘it’s my birthday’ desserts.This involved a treck back through to the front shop to check out the refrigerated and counter-top wares. There were flapjacks, meringues, cupcakes and all sorts, however we then spied the super-fancy whole cakes and promptly decided on the vanilla cheesecake and the dark chocolate and amaretto torte. Look…beauties, aren’t they?
Although it was Em’s pick, she did offer me a few generous steals of her cheesecake, which I can state is now my favourite ever cheesecake. The texture was so light, with loads of soft vanilla flavour, and without that sometimes sharp lemony thing and dense texture you get from commercial efforts. Alongside the fluffy whipped fresh cream, this was cloud-like and dreamy. In contrast of texture, the chocolate and amaretto torte was so intensely thick and rich that it should have come with some kind of ‘Adult Warning’. The thin crisp pastry base was perfection, the silky filling slowly melted but not before filling your whole conscious being with chocolate.
In short, tasty, ethically-sourced food and good ingredients and the desserts alone merit a 5star review.Oh, and in time honoured tradition – happy birthday to me! Thanks for all the messages and tweets this week folks.
The Bill: £44ish for two mains, 2 slices of amazing cake, 2 teas and a particularly modest 1 glass of wine each. Service is friendly, mostly good but I think mostly as a reflection of the nature of the venue with all the little separate rooms, was a bit disjointed at times too.
Leave a Reply