Our Man in Milliways - Eighty Queen Street, Edinburgh
Created | Updated Jun 16, 2010
Eighty Queen Street – Queen Street, Edinburgh
Before I launch into this review, I should make one thing clear to anyone reading this. If you want to go to a restaurant in Edinburgh on a Saturday night, book ahead. It's that simple. We stumbled into Eighty Queen Street by chance, simply because after an hour's fruitless wandering we wanted a sit down, a drink, and the bathroom. Luckily, it turned out that they served food too. Even better, the food was good. As you may have guessed by the name, you can find this place at number 80, Queen Street, Edinburgh. And on with the food!
Food
We started off with the Charcuterie board (£7.25 between us) – a selection of cold meats, pickled mushrooms, chutney and bread. All in all, this wasn't a bad little starter. The Parma ham, salami and ham were all nice and salty, which worked well with the vinegar-soaked pickled mushrooms. The only problem was that there wasn't enough bread, and it's hard to look dignified eating cold mushrooms with your fingers.
For the mains, we had a strange role reversal. L, who'd never eaten any seafood until she met me, decided to order the cod and chips (£11.95) while I took a medium-rare slab of dead cow smothered in pepper sauce (sirloin steak and home-made mash, £14.95). My steak was great. For the first time ever in a pub, it was cooked the way I asked, with a nice bit of blood remaining in the middle. The mash was everything the packet monstrosity I suffered at Dexter's should've been – creamy, tasty and with lots of butter. Simple food, cooked well. Brilliant. L's fish and chips were equally as good – although the portion was too huge for her to handle*. I helped myself to one of her two substantial cod fillets and was impressed. Fresh, in a light batter, and cooked to perfection.
Hoping to banish another bad food memory, we finished with two sticky toffee puddings (£3.60 each). Fantastic. Compared to the industrial effort we'd been served up the night before at the Wee Windaes, this was pudding heaven. Highly recommended.
All together, a meal for two, a few pints and a couple of glasses of wine came to almost dead on fifty pounds. Not bad for a city centre pub, where you can expect to find beer at £3.50 per pint.
Atmosphere
Funnily enough, as well as being a bar and restaurant, Eighty Queen Street is Edinburgh's number one jazz venue. Unsurprisingly, this gives the place a cracking, laid back atmosphere, that's enjoyable even if (like me) you really don't like jazz. One for music-lovers and hungry people, this place.
Service
The service can't be faulted at all. Considering the girl that took our order and brought our food was also the girl who served us at the bar, I was impressed by the fact that nobody seemed to be kept waiting. They were a bit miffed that I didn't want to stay for the live jazz band though.
Overall
If you like food and jazz, you'll love it. If you like food but don't like jazz, you'll like it. If you like neither food, nor jazz, you're probably a vegan1 and you'll hate it. Fortunately for you, there's a hedge you can graze on outside. 7/10
10: The Stone Roses 9/8: Oasis 7/6: Happy Mondays 5/4: Inspiral Carpets 3/2: A Certain Ratio 1: Simply RedThis column is open to contributions from all members of the h2g2 community. All submissions are accepted on the basis that they are honest and unbiased, and all opinions expressed are those of the reviewers, who may not be professional restaurant critics. Send your reviews to the usual submissions address.
