When you’re organising an evening where you’ve invited a range of Edinburgh enthusiasts to a particular venue for the evening, it’s probably a decent idea to know what the food’s like. I realised this an hour before the start of the recent Total Food Geeks open evening at Hemma, so hot-footed it there for a quick inspection of their menu.

Soup

Of course, “menu inspecting” for me tends to mean simply trying their soup, so it was good to see two on offer on their daily-changing specials board, behind the bar. I opted for the pea and spinach.

I’d booked a little seating area at the front of the bar, so took the opportunity to survey my domain from the comfort of an agreeable chaise longue. I really like the place. I know that some criticise it, mainly because “Hemma” means “home” and it’s definitely the least “homely” of the Swedish-owned Boda bar group’s places. However, it is very stylish, particularly the upstairs bar, and has a much warmer feel to it than the previous bar, The Tun, which used to occupy the space.

My dish was soon with me, delivered by a thoroughly friendly waitress barmaid. It looked smart and plentiful, and was accompanied by two generous slices of good olive bread.

The soup had good Scandinavian notes running through it, with intense dill and citrus to accompany the fresh greenery. It was really satisfying, and really a meal in itself.

So overall, I thought Hemma was impressively good. Their soup fortified me for a busy evening of intense socialising in the way that only soup can. I look forward to my next visit, when the plan is to take over the upstairs space for something entirely wondrous. More of that in the next thrilling episode…

Scores
Blythe scores Hemma
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
4/5 for setting
4/5 for service
giving an overall 15.5/20

I ate: pea and spinach soup

I drank: Joker IPA

I wore: geek chic

Total bill: £7.60