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
2. Miros Cantina Mexicana 9.20
3. La P'tite Folie
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
2. Miros Cantina
3. Guildford Arms
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
2. Bellevue
3. La Lanterna
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
3. Port Siam
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
2. Miros Cantina Mexicana 9.00
3. Cambridge
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
3. La P'tite Folie
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
It wouldn't be a review without listing the three worst places this year!
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??
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