The grand old lady can still put on a show

Published on Thursday 2 March 2006 02:23

The Pompadour

Caledonian Hilton, Princes Street, Edinburgh (0131-222 8777)

The bill

Dinner for two, 81.25, excluding drinks

IT ,WASN'T the best omen. When I phoned for a taxi to take us to the Caledonian Hotel there was a pause. "Is that the one near Rutland Square?" enquired the operator. "Near Rutland Square?" I repeated in astonishment. "We're talking about the Caley. The Edinburgh landmark. The big, red sandstone Gothic pile which has propped up one end of Princes Street for more than 100 years. "Oh," she said. "I always think of it as Rutland Square."

If she'd told me she always thought of it as made of cheese, I couldn't have been more surprised. Perhaps she asks callers going to the Castle if they mean the one near George IV Bridge. Or perhaps this is just another sad little reminder that the Caledonian Hilton is not the grand old lady she once was.

But assessing the Caledonian's current position in the Edinburgh hotel pantheon is not straightforward. She no longer boasts five stars, so the deluxe signature touches - like a doorman - are now missing. Though Sean Connery still books his favourite suite, the list of celebrities who choose to stay there has dwindled in the last few years. Somehow the Caledonian Hilton seems like the hotel equivalent of Frasers owning Jenners. The extravagant architecture may still trumpet confidence and tradition - but inside, a lot has changed.

Though not, unfortunately, the wallpaper. The 2 million refurbishment which was completed in 1999 to "brighten" the interior saw the Prussian blue Zoffany damask banished from the ground floor and the grand staircase, and replaced with a lurid Regency stripe in burgundy and gold. A gold chequerboard carpet adds extra zap; but the blue damask of yesteryear returns to peer piteously down on its former empire as soon as guests reach the first floor. To say the two clash is something of an understatement. Even a coat of emulsion would be better than this half-done job. It's the dcor equivalent of an Ascot hat teamed with leather jeans.

The Pompadour - the hotel's fabled formal restaurant - was included in the 1999 revamp. The last years of the century had not been kind to the grande dame of Edinburgh dining, although the cooking was never at fault when I visited. Perhaps the lavishness of the rococo dcor was out of sync with the minimalist 1990s, perhaps it had grown a little shabby. One way or another, the restaurant was closed for six months and a team of myopic kindergarten painting teachers dashed in to perk the place up. Fortunately, the lilac-toned wall panels, with their painted flowers and birds, are listed, and hence immune from any impropriety, but scarlet chairs and a vivid green carpet were added and the gilding burnished to a dazzle. So the effect is indeed brassy enough to make Madame de Pompadour wince in her marble vault.

Fortunately, in the evening the lighting is kept romantically dim, and the graceful arched windows are not fully curtained, so guests can enjoy the fabulous views of the Castle and Princes Street. It is still an astonishingly beautiful room.

There is a three-course set dinner offered at 28, but we decided to explore the full extravagance of the la carte list. My guest had driven all the way from Port Glasgow, and intended to celebrate her escape from the black pudding supper with Irn Bru cocktail she had been promised earlier in the day. So she ordered a warm salad of roe deer fillet (8.95) to start. Roe deer with caramelised pears and juniper has yet to make it big in the chip shops of the Clyde coast, she told me. I assume it was the same reasoning that prompted her to choose a medallion of Angus beef with lobster and port-poached figs to follow (25.95). But the very mention of Clyde coast chip shops can make me quite misty-eyed, so the garlic crusted cod (7.50) suddenly looked irresistible. And it was. Sweet and fragrant with cardamom as well as garlic, the pearly white chunks of fish were served on a ragout of puy lentils, bathed with a light, foamy sauce - as though the tide had just washed over it . Sarah's fillet of venison was tender and velvety, and the thyme and juniper dressing pungent, but I preferred the cod.

I ordered organic pork (22.95) for my main course, though I was baffled by the inclusion of "glazed suede" in its description. Was the chef manufacturing pigskin accessories on the side? This was a huge portion - five or six slices of tender pork loin, and a small square of sticky, slow-cooked belly which had not reached that melt-in-the-mouth moment by quite a long way. In fact, I couldn't even cut it. Perhaps this was the suede part, and I was supposed to wear it, not eat it. But the rest of the dish - served with creamed cabbage - was excellent , as was Sarah's beef, though it had mysteriously acquired a slice of foie gras as a little comforter. I'd have to say that beef fillet topped with foie gras and lobster does make for a rather flash-trash assembly, but a day in Port Glasgow can make you appreciate that, I'd guess, as she polished off every morsel.

Puddings were of the grand art variety. An excellent dark, moist Sacher torte with rum and raisin ice-cream for me and baked lemon curd with lime mousse for Sarah - both 7.95 and enchantingly presented. Ten per cent service is included in the bill, but that seemed fair enough, as the service was exemplary.

In fact, apart from the uncomfortable chairs, and some surprising sliced white bread, the Pompadour deserves a more enthusiastic following.