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
Full Leaderboard
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.
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
Full Leaderboard
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment