Papavero

Papavero advertises itself as 'Fine Italian and Scottish Restaurant in Edinburgh...'. Reading this I thought what does this actually mean? We sent in our crew to find out!

It is situated slightly in no mans land on Howe street in the New Town. Too far away to be considered Stockbridge, however not really close to the buzz of the New Town either. There has been a series of restaurants inhabiting the premises in the past - most recently 'A Room in the New Town' owned by Teuchters Bars. So how are they going to be able to succeed where others in the past have failed?

We were lured in by their good value sounding lunch deal - two courses for £9.95 plus coffee. Perusing the menu it was a bit all over the place. Spaghetti bolognese and pizza definitely came from the Italian side of he menu. There was also a burger option and fish and chips, which I am guessing was supposed to be from the Scottish side.  Drinks menu was standard affair for a Italian restaurant - reasonable selection of wines with Peroni and Moretti beers also thrown in. I settled for a small glass of the Chianti wine.

For a starter I ordered a salad caprese. Buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil basil - reasonably well executed so off to a good start. For a main I decided on the sea bass and sautéed potatoes. Fish was nicely cooked in some herbs and topped with some cherry tomatoes. I was a little unsure however about the potatoes, they just seemed like round cut potatoes thrown in a deep frier, not too dissimilar to chips. The food used decent ingredients and was freshly cooked, it was fine however, nothing overwhelming. The people ordering the Italian dishes also felt the authenticity was highly questionable as well!

I would not suggest the service was particularly quick on our visit. To be fair they were dealing with a large group of eleven.  Never though was there any feeling of efficiency on our visit.  The waiter took over ten minutes to take all our orders and still he managed to miss someones main meal order. The place was virtually empty and so I don't know how it would cope with a busy lunch time crowd. In the end we had to skip our coffee as we had simply run out of time and had to head back to office.

If you have the time and are hungry, Papavero provides a good value lunch option in the New Town. The meals are a bit stodgy and you leave feeling that the restaurant is adequate, however nothing really that special.


Quality Food                     6.60
Quality Drinks                   6.20
Value                                 7.60
Service                               5.60
Ambience                           5.50
Overall                               6.30
Bill: Salad caprese, Sea Bass, small glass Chianti, small tip:   £13

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Comments:
- Service was pretty slow. Restaurant was quite cold but that could have been because it was empty. We were supposed to get coffee as part of the lunch deal. Other than that, it was good.
- The tomato soup starter was excellent and the spaghetti bolognese main course was very good as well. The service could have been a bit quicker but overall it was great.
- No great shakes for lunch and about as Italian as a haggis supper.
- Tomato soup stater very good. FIsh and chips were good enough. Nothing amazing but good value 2 courses for £10
- Large portions for a great price. Better than expected quality of food. Shame they forgot one of the orders.
- A bit slow however hard to deal with a large group. Good value lunch deal.

Mathers

Mathers is a no fuss pub situated at the top of Broughton street. Numbers were a bit low this week as the massive train disruptions in the morning left many stranded in Glasgow and Fife. The four cyclists in the team manage to persevere and arrived at the pub hungry and thirsty!

They atmosphere of this pub has real ale written all over it and a perusal of the bar did not disappoint! They had a decent selection of local beers including the popular Williams Caesar Augustus, Deuchers and two from Stewart brewery including their seasonal Christmas beer. I chose a pint of Copper Cascade and headed over the comfortable booth like tables up the back.

The menu was dominated by burgers with a few pub classics thrown in including sausages and mash and fish and chips. I decided to go with the Mathers 25 beef burger which came with peppers, hot sauce and sour cream and skinny chips.

The burger looked quite sizeable on arrival, big enough to pick up however a bit much to eat with your hands which is not a bad thing. They claim to hand make the burgers from Perthshire beef and the patty had plenty of moisture and flavour. Definitely better than what you would get from a chain pub however I have had better. The chips were ok, maybe a little bit thin for my liking. In all in was quite filling and good value for £8.45.

Mathers is not trying to do anything special, however manages to provide a relaxed environment to sink down a pint and eat a filling lunch.

Quality Food                     6.00
Quality Drinks                  7.50
Value                                7.50
Service                              7.50
Ambience                          6.50
Overall                              6.75

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Bill - Mathers 25 beef burger, Pint Stewart Copper Cascade, small tip:  £12

Comments:
- Perfectly fine burger and pint venue, though chips a bit too thin for my liking
- Very good selections of burgers and nice pub atmosphere. Non alchoholic Budvar also !!!!!
- middle of the road burger and a pint joint. Enjoyable, though the place seemed quiet.
- Good range of local beers

2014 - End Of Year Review

It has been a busy year with 42 different restaurants visited by the team. I have crunched the numbers through the lunch review statistical engine and come up with the following results. First onto the category awards!

Quality Food:

1. Howies                                          9.50

2. Miros Cantina Mexicana               9.20

3. La P'tite Folie                                8.90

The food quality at Howies was to a very high standard. It was also one of the few places where we were able sample their puddings!  Comments included 'best salmon I have ever eaten' and one person challenged that  their burger was even better than the Cambridge! Everyone seems to love the nachos at Miros and their mains are also very good. La P'tite Folie served up great French food and threw in lots of bonus bread and salad.

Quality Drinks:

1, Cambridge                                  9.13

2. Miros Cantina                              9.00

3. Guildford Arms                            8.71

No surprise that this section is dominated by pubs that have a large selection of craft beers. The Cambridge just edged to the top it as it had the Barney's beer and the rotating IPA tap. Miros scored highly with their Mexican beer specials menu, their michelada upgrades and their margaritas.

Value:

1. Cosmo                                           9.75

2. Bellevue                                         9.25

3. La Lanterna                                   9.20

No surprise number one is an all you can eat buffet for £8.99. Not the cheapest buffet we went to (£6.95) however they also did not try and charge through the roof for the beers. Could not beat the absolute variety of food on offer. The other entries had very good lunch deals. Bellevue (now The Ox) had two courses £10.00, the quality of food left us stunned at this price! La Lanterna's three courses for £4.95 provided us with one of our cheapest bills of the year!

Service:

1. Miros Cantina Mexicana              8.60

2. La P'tite Folie                               8.40

3. Port Siam                                     8.29

All these places provided friendly and efficient service giving us plenty of time to get back to the office in our allocated lunch hour.

Atmosphere:

1. Cumberland                                   9.00

2. Miros Cantina Mexicana                9.00

3. Cambridge                                     8.63

It is hard to beat sitting outside in the Cumberland beer garden on a hot day in July! Miros provides an intimate and colourful environment with some rocking Mexican tunes in the background. The Cambridge sets a standard that all pubs should aspire to.

Overall:

1. Miros Cantina Mexicana             9.20

2. Howies                                        9.00

3. La P'tite Folie                              8.50

Miros Cantina is the winner for 2014! Coming in second in 2013 it has taken top spot this year with its sheer consistency. It is hard to criticise the place, it provides the perfect environment to relax with a couple of beers, amazing nachos and friendly staff. 

Runner up, Howies is a really solid restaurant provided no fuss Scottish cuisine. What really makes it shine is the amazing value of their lunch deal. 

In a similar fashion, our second runner up La P'tite Folie provided great quality French food, wrapped up in a very good value lunch deal, with bonus bread and salad included. Just a shame that the Frederick Street restaurant is now closed, as the sister restaurant in the West End is not as good. 

Bottom

40. Voodoo Rooms                                         5.50

41. St Andrews Square Garden                      5.14

42. Siam Square                                             4.66

It wouldn't be a review without listing the three worst places this year!

At the bottom, Siam Square was a disaster from start to finish. We turned up to find the place closed and had to knock on the door to be let in. We were then lead through some maze like corridors and seated in a very cold basement. The food was very slow and quite tasteless when it finally arrived. There is just no way we are planning on going back! 

St Andrews Square Gardens brought a bunch of burger vans and festival prices to 

the centre of town in August, it did however provide a half decent environment to soak up the festival atmosphere! 

The Voodoo Rooms is just trying to be a bit too trendy for lunch. It was quite empty, looked a 

bit seedy in the day and the lamb burger with cucumber and feta just did not work very well.

To see the Full Leaderboard for 2014 click here Full Leaderboard

Best comments of 2014:

- I had two great tasting portions of tacos, but left hungry and poor.

- Portions were very small - would have been better with starter & tacos as the waiter suggested. The hip hop was bangin' though. Word.

- My hot beef noodle soup was tasty. However - place was a little cold, and waiter forgot to serve one of us.

- I love this place, it’s just like being in Mexico. The Nachos are to die for, the Steak in the fajita was perfect, the "Death rides a pale horse" IPA beautiful. The Music was also bangin. Best restaurant in 

Edinburgh.

- Food was tasty - but ingredients were cheap, presentation was basic, room was cold, restaurant was locked when we arrived, service was slow and appologetic, restaurant

was a maze... but the beer was good

- Feta + cucumber + burger = wrong / urine aroma = hmmm

- As ever a "mexican" restaurant serving food that is nothing like what you get in mexico, natch amigo! Chili con napalm is a british mutation of bolognaise and nothing to do with mexico what so ever. However 

putting that aside it was good value lunch though I scored drinks down as Im not a fan of watery mexican beer. The waiter was a wierdo.

- perfect lunch - pie and a pint

- Its the festy...rip off prices but good vibes

- Good place to hang out in the summer, would have found it better if the noodle guy hadn't slept in.

- Really cool place. Good selection of sauces. Could do with some more beer options. Staff were good fun and I like the StarWars theme !!!!

- Feels like I have been tourist slapped due to proximity of festival. Good food and drink just a shame about the attitude about the place.

- A sublime hand made burger topped with Ayrshire bacon and served with a delightful crispy salad and classic bun. Washed down with a chilled Ceasar August beer in the sun drenched heavenly beer garden of the 

Cumberland. Service was s***.

- I started with chicken from the lunch deal - fantastic flavours, as the chicken was roasted well, and stuffed with a herby cream paste. The veg was cooked to perfection (long beans and potatoes). This was 

followed by a "strawberry summer pudding". No Tesco jam in this - a kind of pie stuffed full of strawberries, topped with a home made jam and sauce, with cubes of ginger jelly on the side. Both for a tenner, 

and washed down with a bottled dark Scottish beer.

- Can't complain about the food for a fiver.

- Excellent food and a nice resuarant to eat in. Had my first Lhassi amazing hence the high mark for Drinks !!!!

- ¡Mi Enchiladas y Pacifico eran sabrosos!

- The bomb....

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

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

- Food was good not great but value was off the chart.

- I chose badly. Lemon shouldn't feature in a sausage.

- The service was a bit slow but I blame the pork belly people for that.

- Service a bit slow. Would not recommend this place for a date due to the amount of garlic used. Good variety of food at a good price.

- Way too long a wait for our food. Pie wasn't a pie and pastry was a bit pasty.

- Would be nice if they had turned on the heating. A bit slow however good selection of beer.

- Really enjoyed the food, but disappointed by the narrowness of the pavements.

- Beetroot fritter starter was sublime - sweetness of beetroot balancing perfectly with the creamy sauce, peppery cress and slightly salty batter. Lamb  was served more or less as a steak, off the bone. 

Slightly chewy, but not overcooked, and accompanied by crunchy beans, a rich dark jus and buttery parsley potatoes. The wine was smooth yet full bodied, and was a perfect accompaniment to a near-perfect meal.

- Soupe à l'oignon fantastique, suivi par porc terreux avec du boudin noir, le tout arrosé d'une bouteille de vin rouge. Un gagnant digne des 2013 Bright Gruts Awards.

What is in store for 2015??