Bank Holiday lunch at A Room In Leith

As Blur once sang, Bank Holidays come but six times a year, and so these sneaky little Mondays off work are a pretty rare thing. As a result, the opportunity to seriously enjoy one’s self (on the company’s buck) is hard to resist.

Having gotten ripped into the garden and its foot -long grass a couple of Sundays ago,  it pleasingly left me with nothing to do but to make a reservation for the silver fox and I to enjoy a long lunch somewhere on the Monday holiday. Ideally, somewhere close by, so as not to exert too much energy in transit. A Room In Leith was deemed just the spot, and after a lazy morning, we headed down on the sunny afternoon for a 2pm reservation.

Having developed a bit of a love of water-side dining when I lived in Vancouver, I took a notion to have lunch if not quite by the ocean, then at least in sight of some h20. A Room in Leith has a single dining room, which is the conservatory tacked on to the back of the Teuchtar’s landing pub (formerly known as The Waterfront). On a warmer day, we might have chosen to go for the al fresco option, however the visibly shaking pint glasses, and blue-ish hue of those brave ones sitting outside were enough to suggest that to be on the inside looking out would be just fine thankyou very much. A bright sky gave the conservatory a comfortable warmth, and that was good enough for me.

A popular draw for all three ‘A Room In…’ restaurants are their particularly affordable BYOB charges, at a measly £3 per bottle. Contrary to my usual efficiency, the intentionally effortless start to the day meant that I arrived unprepared, i.e. without bottle. Thankfully the place is fully licensed, and has an impressive wine list. As the fox had clocked the various guest ales on the way in (via the bar) he was sticking to pints, and thus I was on a solo trip around the wine list. I ordered a nice, floral white unoaked Rioja. At just shy of the £20 it was maybe a little over-priced, but que sera and all that.

On the flipside, the Lunch Menu is very reasonably priced at £13.95 for three courses, with just one or two  of the menu items having a small supplementary charge. To start, I couldn’t resist the sound of the King scallops with bacon and leek. The scallops were on top of a superb shortcrust pastry case, which was filled with a warm, just-cooked cream sauce, filled with fine leeks and bacon. Frankly, this part of the dish alone would have been enough to please, but it was even better with the scallops, which were just-seared, semi sweet bites. On the other side of the table, the duck & black pudding salad wasn’t quite so convincing. The Stornoway black pudding was rich and more-ish as it almost always is. The sliced duck breast, on the other hand, was definitely overdone and a bit too chewy for my tastes, but my fella thought it was fine.

Perhaps the taste of the black pud made me go all Scotia, and so somehow I heard myself mirroring my fella’s order for the chicken with haggis. It was about as wintery, and unseasonal a dish as I could have picked, but here I found myself scarfing a huge portion of perfectly grilled chicken breast, accompanied with a spicy haggis – served on a bed of cabbage. Maybe it was spring cabbage. Sure. That sounds better. The chicken/haggis thing is a ubiquitous tourist-friendly dish in many of Edinburgh’s eateries, but I have to admit, for all its simplicity, it sure was tasty.

Anyway, by the time desserts were proffered, I figured I was on a roll, and went for more calories in the form of some sugar-dusted pastries filled with soft apples, and served with a home-made honeycomb ice cream. Absolutely delicious, and enough to send me into a happy post-lunch coma. The chocolate parfait thing that G had looked good, and vanished pretty quickly.  Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any rush to get us out of the place, and there was the rest of that wine to keep on sipping at, keeping me just alert enough to realise what a great afternoon it had been.