Scotsman Review
Our criteria 
  • Ambience - It's important that a restaurant is inviting. We rate the decor, comfort and atmosphere.
  • Drink - Is the wine or cocktail list as exciting as the food, or does it fall short? Same goes for soft drinks. 
  • Food - We judge dishes on flavour, but also use of produce, cooking skill and presentation
  • Service - The staff and pace of a meal can make or break a meal out.
  • Value - From the food on the plate to service and surroundings, we check that you get what you're paying for.
Ambiance
8/10
Food
8/10
Total
0%
September 14, 2018

27 Elliott's, Edinburgh, restaurant review

Join the cool kids at lovely new Edinburgh cafe, 27 Elliott's, says Gaby Soutar

There’s a new hipster haircut.

It’s sort of like someone has stuck a tiny cereal bowl on top of someone’s head, then shaved around it.

There were a couple of people – a man and a woman – at this cafe sporting the latest style, along with tattoos and half mast trousers.

As someone who likes a directional do, I am admiring, though you have to own the right face to carry it off – a bonnie and youthful one, as oppose to the visage of a bitter old raisin.

Anyway, this cafe, in the former premises of Annabelle’s, is styled within an inch of its life.

The owner, Jess Elliott Dennison, has a background in food as well as marketing, prop styling and product and brand development.

She’s written a pretty cookbook called Salad Feasts (we featured recipes in The Scotsman Magazine a few weeks ago). Along with some Kinfolk-esque trendy lifestyle magazines, her latest read was on our table when we visited on a Sunday lunchtime, but was quickly half-inched by other diners.

There’s a perfect sage green interior, seasonal coasters printed with graphic botanicals, Anthropologie products in the loo, teasels and eucalyptus threaded into the light fitting and a woven tote of dried flowers – a “floral installation” – placed just so, as if the owner had just got back from harvesting them on the Meadows, tra-la-la.

There aren’t any printed menus, but the breakfast and light lunch menu is chalked up on a board.

Apart from oodles of sourdough (from Edinburgh’s excellent Company Bakery), the food offerings are quite low on the old carbs, or traditional meat and two veg, preferring vegetable heavy assemblages.

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Although I didn’t exactly feel stoked at the idea of “cumin and dill, braised lentils, garlic yogurt” (£7.40), it was banging, as the kids might say, with wet and meaty lentils threaded with onion and spinach, cumin seeds stuck to a dollop of yogurt, a drift of lemon zest, and drizzle of olive oil.

There was a similar citrus hit when it came to our breakfast option of sage fried egg (£7), which featured leaves of the billed herb on top of an oeuf (perfectly browned along its perimeter, but with a hard yolk, dammit), as well as garlicky spinach, all served on a tombstone thick slice of sourdough, robust enough not to absorb all the liquid.

I’d also ordered their apricot pickle (£2.10) – a sort of take on umeboshi – and strangely moreish.

While this experiment worked, I’m not sure about the cherry and tarragon (£2.20) soda. I enjoyed it as an eminently Instagrammable experience, but it was more of a dessert than a drink, with tons of solids in the form of maraschino cherries, giant ice-cubes and herb leaves that made rehydration rather clunky and potentially unattractive.

The only non-veg dish on offer was the smoked mackerel and horseradish pâté (£9.80), which had a fresh tang and a whisper of heat, and came with two hoof-print-sized slices of nutty crusted sourdough and ribbons of shrimp pink sweet pickled radish. Lush, bit pricey maybe, though every element had been preened to full potential.

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As well as a couple of cakes, we tried another breakfasty thing for pudding. It consisted of a wet compote of cherries roasted with bay, thick strained yogurt, toasted almonds and a flick of honey.

Because there are no prices listed on the receipt, and I had to photograph the blackboard, I’m not sure how much this cost, since the (very nice) waiter’s head was covering it up. Let’s say £5.50, and worth every penny.

We also enjoyed the rich and cocoa dusted flourless chocolate cake (£3.50), though the gluten free orange and almond cake (£3.50) was a bit too rind-y and grainy textured for our gluten loving tastes. Good brown sugar meringue though (£4) –a kinetic looking whirl of sugar, with a slightly gooey centre.

Though I had been worried that this place might be style over substance, the food is as considered as the interior.  If I want to be as hip as their other regulars, I better lick my bowl clean, then get along to the hairdresser.

27 Elliott's

27 Sciennes Road, Edinburgh (www.27elliotts.com)

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Gaby Soutar is a lifestyle editor at The Scotsman. She has been reviewing restaurants for The Scotsman Magazine since 2007 and edits the weekly food pages.
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