The Quartermile development has faced its fair share of challenges, over the past few years, but it’s starting to come together rather nicely. Peter’s Yard has now extended to three shops on the site, Looking Glass Books brings bookish wonderment, Nanyang is a decent Malaysian and Hot Flame is…well, it serves its purpose. Enzo joined the party, last year, and today we gave it a lunchtime visit.

I’d been for dinner not long after it opened and found it slightly struggling to establish itself. Pricing felt very high and the staff didn’t inspire confidence, but some of the dishes were quite impressive (although some, including the pizza, were definitely not). The place felt like it needed some time to bed-in, so I made a note to give it that very opportunity.

I was joined on today’s quest by Elizabeth and Stan, who were in Edinburgh to scope out the city ahead of moving here later in the year.

We found the smart upstairs restaurant space nicely busy as we were shown to a window table. It gave us a good view out to the new Soderberg bakery and pizza place.

The menu offered a keenly priced lunch deal with two courses, comprising bruschetta and a pasta dish of the day, for £8. We found the full a la carte reasonably priced and full of tempting dishes, so decided to choose from there.

Elizabeth’s eye had been caught by a steak tagliata on a nearby table, so she ordered that, while Stan chose the tagliolini with beef and pork ragout. I opted for an old favourite in the shape of melanzane alla parmigiana.

Dishes were soon with us looking neat and tidy. My melanzane was presented in a little stew pot and accompanied by a simple rocket and parmesan salad. It proved a very tasty eat and one of the better versions of this dish I’ve sampled in the city.

Elizabeth’s tagliata and pepperonata packed really good flavour and Stan’s pasta was given the firm thumbs up.

So overall, it was good to see Enzo on a much surer footing after a slightly stumbling start to its existence. The pricing now seems more likely to find favour with a broader audience and the quality of ingredients on offer has been maintained. I look forward to visiting again, next time I’m in the neighbourhood.

Scores
Blythe scores Enzo
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
3.5/5 for service
4/5 for setting
giving an overall 15/20

Today’s questers were: Elizabeth, Stan, Blythe

We ate: tagliata with pepperonata; melanzane; 30 egg yolk tagliolini with slow cooked ragout

We drank: red wine, water

We wore: layers, blue shirt, www.tieclub.co.uk tie

Total bill: £66