Edinburgh, City of
Frizzante

Frizzante

95 Lothian Road, EH3 9AW, Edinburgh, City of, United Kingdom

Pizza • Pasta • Seafood • European


"Truly one of the worst dining experiences of my life. Not one thing was positive about the dinner except the nice female server. But even she disappeared about stopping by the table twice to take our order. The restaurant itself is very claustrophobic and run down. I don’t think they’ve put one dollar into renovating any of the wickedly old restaurant. Seats are worn out. Tables are beat up. Decor is dated and sad. Cutlery is cheap and dinged up. That being said, the food and the service is where things went from bad to worse. When we walked in my girlfriend was put off by our small table, where servers barely had room to walk by you without hitting your elbows. I told her that the food was probably much better since it is an old Italian family run restaurant. Boy was I wrong. I’ve never been to a restaurant that phones it in more than this one. All the food was atrociously bad. It’s almost like they lied about being Italian. My salad’s produce was wilted and not very fresh. The tomatoes were an absolute joke. Cold, bland, and tasteless. Which makes no sense because everywhere I drove through the UK I could find amazing tomatoes at farmer stands and stores. So they are clearly not putting any money towards good ingredients. Cheap. They provide the table with oil and vinegar which was the first sign that we were in for a bumpy ride. The “olive oil” was almost crystal clear with zero taste. It clearly wasn’t olive oil and instead Canola oil. I asked one of the male servers if I could get a side of olive oil and he told me that the oil in the dispenser on the table was their olive oil. I was dumbfounded by this and asked him for the good olive oil that they cook with and he said that the oil on the table was the oil they cooked with. Once again. Cheap. The main courses finally arrive after a long wait and the pasta was not even on par with elementary school cafeteria pasta and the pizza was even worse. Totally bland. The ingredients once again were trash. Cheap. To call it Italian food is laughable at best. And then the atrocious service. The owner of the restaurant was there, walking past our table a million times but never once addressed us until the very end when I asked for change so I could tip. Both he and the other elderly male server would rush every conversation to the point where it felt like we were bothering them. And believe me I was super polite and kind through the whole process. Every time I asked for anything, I could never get my full request out because the server would run off while I was still talking. Extremely rude and dismissive. My girlfriend and I had pizza at the shopping mall the next day and the pizza was 100 times better. And this was a chain in a mall. Save yourself the money and frustration and AVOID this restaurant unless you want to be scammed into buying a lot of cheap and tasteless food by rude people. Such a joke."

Foresters Guild

Foresters Guild

40 Portobello High Street, EH15 1DA, Edinburgh, City of, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • British • Scottish


"We visited the Foresters Guild after walking past many times. We certainly regret not visiting earlier. The restaurant is really nice. The booking online is generally easy although it would be helpful to see a map of the restaurant when booking, as the bar area is actually bigger than the restaurant area, however, food is served in both sections. Our first visit to the Foresters Guild was for dinner. We had the pan seared scallops as a starter (to share), and the Spanish Chicken burger and Foresters Beef burger as the main. The food arrived quite quickly. The starter was incredible with the black pudding being really juicy. Whilst the chicken burger was the best chicken burger we’ve encountered yet, the beef burger was overwhelmed by a rather big and dry brioche bun. On a later return visit the brioche bun was much fluffier and suited the burger better. Overall, a smaller brioche, or an alternative bun such as ciabatta or pretzel might be a better fit. The real highlight however were the Foresters Fries. We opted for the Truffle Parmesan fries and the Haggis Peppercorn fries. The Haggis fries were a bit messy to eat, as you can imagine, but really flavourful. The Truffle fries are good when craving something lighter and simply heavenly. We would definitely recommend trying either of these and will come back for these fries alone. We returned for breakfast and chose the full breakfast with the option for extra pieces. The sausages and bacon were outstanding. Some of the best bacon we’ve had, and we’ve had a lot of bacon in the past. The black pudding was also very good. The Haggis on this occasion was rather dry and certainly would not have made Robert Burns’ “Ode to the Haggis” proud. But overall it was very filling, worth the price and we will definitely come back to indulge. The restaurant is clean and the servers are nice, although nobody stood out in particular and all interactions were kept very short. The menu also allows plenty of options for vegan and gluten free requirements, without limiting options for people without dietary requirements. One of our celiac friends thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant as well. Overall we were very happy with our visits and will certainly return in the future."

Lady Libertine

Lady Libertine

25 West Register Street, Edinburgh, City of, United Kingdom

Pub • Food • Drinks • British


"Restaurant reminiscent of a speakeasy serving drinks and mainly middle eastern foods. Service (5/5) Very prompt service. I was very satisfied! Came to take my order in a good time. Starter came in just a few minutes. Always notices that I’ve finished my dish very quickly. My main course came soon after my starter, and my dessert order was also taken and served very promptly. Food (4.8/5) The food portions were very generous. I was almost full just after my starter (baba ghanoush). For my side of cabbage, I didn’t expect to get half of an entire cabbage! A big side of salad along with my chicken kofta main, too. They all tasted nice. I particularly liked the pita crisps of the baba ghanoush, which was crunchy in just the right way. However, the chicken kofta did not have “crispy chicken skins”, as the menu suggested. I also wished there were more sweeter drinks available! For dessert, I liked my pistachio meringue, though I wish I could have tried their Turkish delights and baklava (which were part of a 2-person dessert). Atmosphere (4.7/5) Nice speakeasy atmosphere. I really liked the fringed lamps. A tad too dim though (the basement restaurant, at least), so it was bit jarring when I had just been under the bright May sun. Definitely more suitable for dinner. The space was clean and spacious, but I do have to deduct points for the bathroom running out of soap. The menu cards could also have been cleaner."