Ok so technically this is a Glasgow restaurant guide but occasionally I get out of the city boundaries, On this occasion we were meeting two of my wifes friends in Edinburgh as they had just moved up from London, No surprise really as it is difficult to find many scots in the capital these days.
After meeting in a pub just off princess St we walked across the bridge to La Garrigue. There was a little hype about this particular restaurant after featuring on Gordon Ramsays best restaurants in the French category.
We arrived at the restaurant and were immediately greeted by a young French guy who showed us to our table at the back of brightly lit dining room. THe restaurant has a simple layout with blues and cream with dozens of framed paintings hanging on the walls.
The menus were perched on our tables attached to slates with the first page showing the aperitif menu where we opted for a bottle of Cramant (£28.00) the fizz promtly arrived then we got on to the serious business of choosing our food and wine as we searched through the pages attached to our slate.
A bottle of Sauvignon blanc and a bottle of Merlot were chosen from the "grand terroir" old vine section of the wine list. Both at £28.00 which were both very good.
The £28.50 two course set menu had a good variety of traditional french fayre from soufflés and fish soup for starters to French rabbit and veal cassoulet for main courses.
After much deliberation I opted for the scallops with spinach and garlic butter to start (£3.00 supplement) and the braised leg of veal with haricot beans for main course. Our starters arrived promptly with my scallops being served in a shell. After the endless rosettes and awards this place has had I would have loved to have said that they were great unfortunately they were slightly over cooked and I didn't really get any flavour from the garlic butter. On the other hand my wife and friends raved about the fish soup and blue cheese soufflé.
On to the mains and my veal arrived which was rustic to say the least, this is no doubt traditional French regional simple food but I was just expecting a bit more, whilst what I had was perfectly fine it just lacked that something. My friends had the braised shin of beef with my wife having the french rabbit, black pudding and cabbage. Again there was no complaints with the food but just didn't have the wow factor i think we were all expecting.
After a short brake the desert menu arrived (additional £4.00) where I went for the chocolate fondant with a glass of Maury desert wine on the recommendation of the waitress. The fondant was perfection with a crust on the outside and gooey chocolate sauce in the centre.
All in all a good night out in the capital with great service and somewhat average food.
The final bill £248.00 with 10 percent tip already included.
Rating out of 100
65/100
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