Twenty Princes Street

Twenty Princess Street is located upstairs above the Royal British Hotel. Hidden away opposite the Waverley station steps, it is a positioned very centrally and is the kind of place you probably have walked past fifty times and not realised it is there. Walk up the steps however and you are presented with very light and airy dining space, with great views out onto Princes Street. The place has a very grand feel to it, with very high ceilings, chandeliers adjoining the ceiling mixed with some serious looking suited lunch clientele.

What drew us here was the very excellent sounding lunch deal - Twenty is Plenty, which includes two main meals and two drinks for £20 (runs Sun - Fri). After reading some good reviews about the quality of the food, I had high expectations about the value of this deal. So armed with an even number of lunch guests, we descended upon the place in our lunch break!

The drinks selection was pretty good considering it was a deal - we had a choice of Peroni, Asahi or Modelo. By far the favourite food option was the sizeable sounding burger, with bacon, Innes and Gunn rarebit and triple cooked chips! The steak sandwich also sounded good, however the waiter staunchly defended that the burger was the better option. A couple of people also went off piste and went with the confit of chicken and Hebridean salmon - both looked smaller than the burger, however they definitely stood their ground with their quality. 

The service was friendly however just a little slow, this was not a problem though as we still managed to make it in and out within our designated lunch break. Twenty Princes street is a restaurant with a plush feel to it and excellent quality of food, add in value of the lunch deal and you have a very easy task to recommend restaurant option on your door step!

Quality Food                     8.25

Quality Drinks                   7.13

Value                                 8.63

Service                              7.63

Ambience                          7.25

Overall                               8.00

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Total bill including tip - £11

Comments

- The burger was great and with a beer included in the £10 price tag I think overall the lunch deal was excellent.

- Very good deal, and the burger was excellent - not over-cooked and accompanied by tasty cheese and bacon. The "triple cooked" chips couldn't be faulted. Place was posh, with good views out of the window. We were in and out in an hour.

- At the risk of sounding w*nky, not sure everything on my plate went together, but it all tasted great.

- Great burgers and chips (triple cooked !!!). Thought the room and decor was a bit posh, prefer a more down to earth place. But a great deal for good quality food.

- Good tasty food, at a good price.

- Waiter was a good laugh. Quality of food and value of lunch deal great.

- 10 quid plus tip for a top quality burger AND a drink is brilliant value for money. We should go there for our xmas lunch!

Bonsai

This week we were tempted to have Japanese after seeing a board outside advertising a good value sounding lunch deal. Most options have miso soup included so thought it was worth a try!

On arrival we ordered a round of drinks from the good selection of Japanese beers on offer. The decor of the restaurant was quite relaxed and a little bit plain, you could easily walk past the restaurant and not really notice it. Ordering food we were split between two camps, those who decided to go for the lunch deal mentioned above and those who more hungry and opted for the bento box for £9.90 which included a main dish, nigri sushi, salad and soup. The miso soup arrived promptly - decent enough if just a wee bit watery.

Efficiently after we finished our soup the mains arrived. I ordered the lunch deal meal with the teriyaki chicken option. The quality of ingredients was good, with a decent light flavour to it, however the size of the portion did seem a wee bit small.

Looking over at the bento box next to me, the portion size seemed a lot more generous size. It did cost more, however it looked like it had significantly more food and was more interesting as well! This left me with the feeling that there was quite an inconsistency between the value of the two dishes. I would definitely recommend to any one visited therefore to skip the lunch deal and go with the much better looking bento box instead. 

The staff were friendly and we all left feeling quite cheery, the bento box eaters probably the more cheery!

Quality Food                      8.00

Quality Drinks                    7.40

Value                                  7.40

Service                               7.20

Ambience                            6.60

Overall                                7.40

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Price for lunch deal including beer and tip (£9), bento box (£14)

Comments

- Really good value Bento box. Very tasty Chicken Katsu and big portions. No draft beer, but full range of Japanese beers in bottle.

- Very nice food and beer. Would happily go again!

- Lunch deal serving a wee bit small and food a bit bland. Good selection of Japanese beers. Food served quickly however staff a wee bit apathetic

Zest

Zest is an Indian restaurant located at the corner of St Andrew's square. They normally have some kind of lunch deal on, the current one is 3 courses for around £7-8.

The interior of the restaurant is attempting to be slightly grand inside with large splashes of white everywhere, which actually came across as being quite plain. For drinks all of us decided to go with the massive sounding 660ml cobra beers, thinking we would need it to wash down the 3 courses on the way!

Selection of starters was your usual array of samosas and pakoras. Slightly small in size however not unexpected being part of a lunch deal. The main servings were on the the hand much bigger. Included in the deal was also naan bread or rice, we chose to go for an even spread. The mains had some quite adventurous names including 'P297 Special' and 'Sir Walter Scott Lamb Shorisha'. The quality in the end was decent enough, I have had better and I have had worse. Lastly the choices of pudding were ice cream or the Indian Gulab Jamon. Everyone chose the Jamon which was tasty enough, a little small, having the feeling of just being bolted on to the deal.

The bill came in more expensive than expected, we being suspicious that the drinks and extras containing quite a high mark up. Classic case of lure the patrons in with a deal and make all the profit on the peripherals. Would suggest maybe taking the deal and just ordering tap water.

Quality Food                      6.4

Quality Drinks                   5.8

Value                                 5.8

Service                              7.0

Ambience                           5.6

Overall                               6.4

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Bill including tip - £15

Comments

- Tasty curry at a good price, paid a bit for the beer though.

- och - food was tasty enough, with some chopped herbs scattered over it. Quality of ingredients were average - I think I saw a slither of tomato in the sauce, but the  rest was unrecognisible. Samosas were the smallest I've ever had - just a bit bigger than a 50p coin. For some reason the £9 food bill jumped up to £17 when we paid - we  had extra rice and giant cobra beers pushing up the price.

- Think the lunch deal was pretty good, however classic case of making profit of beers and extras.

- Good food and good size portions. Service quick, effiecient and friendly.

- Ive scored low as quality of food was average but price quite high. I enjoyed the overall experience for lunch,