The Vintage

After a few days in Istanbul, it was back to Edinburgh lunching, today, with a trip to The Vintage, on Henderson Street.

Exterior

I was joined today by Louise, who is working on an interesting new food events venture, called the Fireside Collective. They have a Burns Supper event at Freeman’s, and big plans for 2014, beyond that. We had a good catch-up about the upcoming Scran Salon launch, amongst other things.

It wasn’t the first trip to The Vintage for either of us. Lou’s office is nearby, so she’s become quite a devotee. I’d visited a couple of months ago, and had a bit of a mixed time.

Soup

On the previous occasion, I tried a selection of dishes from their grazing menu and found as many misses as hits. As with today, I found the setting and service to be very good, though, so having passed on feedback, I decided to give them another visit before settling upon a verdict.

Today, I chose from the a la carte menu, starting with their soup of the day, which was winter greens and pancetta, which Lou also chose, then I followed with their macaroni cheese burger, topped with pulled pork, on the recommendation of the friendly waiter.

Burger

Soups promptly arrived, looking very stylish. The soup packed a considerable punch, with gutsy flavours in nicely harmonious interaction. The accompanying bread was of good quality, and did the mopping up job rather nicely.

The burger was an interesting dish. Gooey mac n cheese was wrapped up in a crisp crumb, topped with sweet pulled pork, then encased in a toasted sesame bun. This was accompanied by good chips and a piquant relish.

It was definitely a knife-and-fork-job, so I set about the task of slicing and dicing. Given the intensely carb-heavy central element, the bun was just a little too much, so I decided to lift and discard the lid. It was a tasty eat, but I think just a little too overwhelming for lunchtime.

We rounded things out with good coffees, then went our separate ways to progress the important matters of state that the afternoon held.

So overall, I enjoyed my visit to The Vintage. Having tried both their grazing and a la carte menus, I’m much more comfortable with the latter, which offered innovative dishes prepared to a high standard. I’ll need to come back to try their excellent and ever-changing selection of beers. Perhaps pared with them, the grazing menu might come into its own, for me.

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

Today’s questers were: Louise, Blythe

We ate: winter greens and pancetta soup (2); mac n cheese burger with pulled pork, olives

We drank: water, cranberry and soda, coffees

We wore: stylish black, dishevelled blue

Total bill: £26.95