LE Café St Honoré needs little introduction to anyone familiar with city centre dining over the last decade and a half.
It may be petite and tucked away unassumingly on a quiet corner of North West Thistle Street Lane, but it enjoys a sizeable reputation for serving up quality French fare in a very convincingly authentic setting.
Given my Francophile tendencies,
it's somewhat surprising, then, that I'd never darkened its doors.
However, it was recently brought to my attention again, courtesy of a recommendation from my French brother-in-law who had thoroughly enjoyed a set menu there around the £16 mark, and the fact that the establishment changed hands this year, with well-kent Capital combo Andrew Radford and Neil Forbes (Atrium and Blue) taking over from longtime proprietors Chris and Gill Colverson.
So, having not long returned from two weeks' family holiday in the upper Dordogne and with many fine meals out sampling the delights of the Corrèze region still fresh in the memory, it seemed the ideal time to finally venture in.
There is certainly no doubting the charms of St Honoré's interior, its cosy intimacy, black and white flooring and easy elegance fix it firmly and utterly convincingly in the classic French bistro mould.
Walk in and you are immediately hit by its assured sense of place.
After finally making it through the threshold, however, I realised my howler of a mistake. I'd booked a table for 7.45pm on a Sunday evening, the set menu was no longer available and the four of us were therefore restricted to the very tasty sounding but considerably more expensive a la carte options.
This was, of course, an elementary mistake in French-style dining; when it comes to value for money, the set menu is the only way to go.
No matter, we resolved to pay for my mistake, bite the bullet and enjoy the experience of eating in a restaurant we'd all, in any case, always planned to sample.
For starters I couldn't resist the scallops with a cep and apple sauce, garnished with very vibrant looking salad.
The portion was small, but the few scallops present were perfectly cooked and the sauce, which had a beautifully subtle flavour, complemented them perfectly.
The salad, however, was liberally salted and a combination which could have worked a treat ended up suffering from overkill. The other recipient of scallops in our company of four had the same gripe.
Fee fancied the sliced pigeon breast and was politely asked if she would mind the dish served, as it should be, with the meat pink in the middle. After wholeheartedly assuring our waitress that this would in any case be her preference it was therefore doubly disappointing when it arrived overcooked.
The dish as a whole was tasty enough, but when you're paying £12.50 for a starter, and for a modest portion at that, better than the average is expected.
The saving grace through this inauspicious introduction was a particularly good house white, a South African Chenin Blanc, which really did hit the spot.
For a main course I chose braised blade of Borders beef bourguignon, served on mashed potatoes. However, this proved to be an underwhelming experience. Perhaps I'm spoiled living in the Borders, with easy access to quality butchers and a partner who excels in the bouef bourguignon depart-ment.
Nonetheless, this offering was nothing to write home about. The meat was perfectly tender but the flavour failed to inspire and the potato mash base was mediocre at best.
Two of our party went for monkfish in parma ham with fresh squid ink linguine and baby asparagus. On paper this sounded the business, and it looked great, but the linguine proved to be bland and the fish was marginally overcooked. The baby asparagus was delicious but out of the two I sampled one was inexplicably oversalted.
The other main course ordered featured chicken and black pudding and, overall, was the most impressive of our three choices.
The wine, though, once again proved the real star of the show, an incredibly vibrant Argentinian Malbec which really did represent value for money and helped lift flagging spirits. There's no doubt that all the fare on offer was of good general quality. But, considering the hefty price tag, on this first sampling St Honoré failed to hit the mark.
Desserts, at £6 a shot, were turned down and proceedings were rounded off with espressos and tasty cortados (espresso cut with hot milk).
It speaks volumes for the seductive atmosphere of St Honoré that regardless of our collective disappointment over the food we still managed to spend a relaxed and enjoyable two hours – and this was no doubt helped by good service.
But, for this diner at least, a return to sample this particular taste of France in the Capital will only be undertaken when set menus are being served.
Le Café St Honoré, 34 North West Thistle Street Lane, 0131-226 2211The full article contains 838 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
