The Gardener’s Cottage
1 Royal Terrace Gardens
Edinburgh
EH7 5DX
0131 558 1221
Sometimes, the clue’s in the name. The Gardener’s Cottage used to be, well, a cottage for the gardener in Royal Terrace, set between Edinburgh’s London Road and (I feel I’m beginning to state the b****** obvious here), Royal Terrace, the wide and elegant street that runs behind it.
It sounds as if it ought to be off the beaten track but in reality, it isn’t that far from the centre of the city – just a stroll of a couple of hundred yards from the top of Leith Walk and the busy East End hub that houses everything from the Playhouse Theatre, John Lewis’s and the rapidly disappearing St James’ Centre.
Yet it feels like walking into a quieter, slower-paced world when you turn up a wooded slope and come face to face with this quirky venue and its equally quirky but high-quality product. A Georgian-style, one-storey frontage has rooms on either side of the entrance – we headed in to the left and a light, high-ceilinged room, with open kitchen off, where seats are arranged round refectory-type tables. You do find yourself sitting in close proximity to your fellow diners but somehow it all comes across as cosy rather than claustrophobic. In these days of rugged individualism and the pretty pass to which it has brought many of us, a bit of healthy communal relating to other people and eating together seems like the best type of light relief.
Dinner is a set menu but at lunch-time, a la carte options let you create your own, including a selection of small plates. These can feature sourdough bread and a range of flavoursome dips and pates, followed by a selection of soups and starter-type dishes, with a couple of main courses and a couple of desserts – one sweet and one savoury. Or you can go for the Full Monty with the 30 quid set menu, adding cheeses or tea, coffee and petit fours for a supplement.
All the dishes are finely detailed and there is imaginative use of herbs, veggies and flowers grown in the colourful, well-stocked beds in front of this characterful little building. It couldn’t be more local – some of the produce is literally on the doorstep – or seasonal. If it’s growing when you book to eat here, chances are it will end up on your plate.
The three of us decided to choose individually – I began with the sourdough bread (which was fabulous) and potted kipper at £3.50, while the other two went for the little bowls of fresh cheese, honey and walnuts (£3.50). Other choices included potted venison at four quid, broad bean and mint dip at £3 and creamed corn at £2. The kipper, a cross between a pate and a terrine, was not too strong but full of zest and had a memorable smoky edge. For me (because I nicked some of my companions’ choice) the fresh cheese was too cottagey and mild; although it had a great texture and the mix with the honey and nuts gave it a Mediterranean charm, I could have done with something saltier or goatier. But it all disappeared like snow aff a dyke.
Four larger starters included garden salad, Flower Marie (a ewes’ milk cheese) and broccoli quiche – both £7 – and mackerel with fermented chilli yoghurt, samphire and cucumber (£9).You could see into the kitchen from where we were seated and witnessing the pouring into high white bowls of the delicious-looking pale green soup described as potato and watercress with lovage crème fraiche and buckwheat (£7) made me regret for a moment that I hadn’t opted for it, too.
There were only two main courses and at the risk of conforming to gender stereotypes, the gents had meat, a pink and plushy cushion of lamb served with braised shoulder, barley, patty pan (a kind of sweet-fleshed squash), mushroom puree and kale. It was hailed as a triumph by both my gentleman friends while I (the laydee) made the most of a delicious bowl of perfectly cooked hake, featuring shelled mussels and a broth swimming with broccoli, snap peas, fennel and yellow beans. The aniseed touch of the fennel was lovely and the whole thing incredibly subtle. Nothing unbalanced here; just everything in the right place.
The cheeses were the aforementioned smooth and gooey Flower Marie and Bonnet, a flakier, stronger Ayrshire goat cheese, served with crisp oat crackers (£8). The sweet option was a blackberry mousse dome of fruit jelly filled with crème fraiche sorbet and flavoured with yarrow from the garden, also at £8. It’s the detail that does it, every time. Yum.
A Romanian Umbrele merlot was £25 and stood up well to the strong and singular flavours of the cleverly-created dishes and an old-style cafetiere of coffee – complete with little egg timer to tell you exactly when to depress the plunger – was £7.95.
Definitely going back for dinner. And definitely going for the set menu. When they do things this well, you’d trust them to get it right across the board.
Price: small plates from £2; starters £7-£9; mains from £23; cheese/puddings £8. Set lunch £30.
Food: 9/10
Menu: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Total: 43/50
