The exciting new Stockbridge restaurant that serves glorious old-school soul food

Stockbridge Eating House | Gaby Soutar

I have to fess up.

I’d never been to the iconic Bell’s Diner - the burger joint that was on St Stephen Street for five decades, but closed down last year.

However, after the owners packed up and retired, and before the last patty off its grill had fully chilled, this institution transformed into the trendy Stockbridge Eating House, and, here I am, scuttling straight along.

I’m sorry, I’m just not a burger fan. This place is much more up my strasse.

Still, I feel guilty about that, as an Edinburgh local, especially as its old green sign is still hanging above the door.

Stockbridge Eating House exterior | Gaby Soutar

My lack of previous experience means I can’t tell you how much it’s changed.

All that I can say is that it doesn’t smell like fried onions, and it’s painted fresh white, with bistro-style checkered tablecloths, pillar candles, paper napkins and menus chalked on boards.

The place is owned by Dale Mailley, of Edinburgh restaurants The Lookout, and Gardener’s Cottage, both of which I loved and have sadly now closed.

I guess this place, which sits 18 covers, is a more manageable size, with rows of communal tables, and a couple pour deux at the window. We bagged one of those.

The starters are the bit you’re going to swither over. There are plenty of jolly decent dishes. I’d describe their style as Enid Blyton meets Noma.

They include traditional things that my parents (and me) enjoy. As part of the online menu, they even offer hare, which is a rare sighting, though there’s none of it on our visit. Instead, there’s radish and whipped cod roe, and devilled mussels on toast, among other things.

However, we were intrigued by the surreal-sounding squid seeds and bacon (£14). What are squid seeds, we wondered. I thought squid laid eggs. It turns out this was an ‘eats shoots and leaves’-style punctuation issue, and we wouldn’t be trying an ingredient that’s as rare as hen’s teeth.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous assemblage, with warm sauerkraut on the bottom, then fat and salty lardons, vibrant cavolo nero, white sheaths of perfectly cooked squid, and tons of nibbly pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Not an obvious combination, but it really shone, and was a huge plateful.

Starters at Stockbridge Eating House | Gaby Soutar

The ‘sausage wrapped, stuffed olives, tangy tomato sauce’ (£14) was another cryptic description in lovely handwriting. We ended up with three ping-pong-ball-sized crispy Panko crumbed bollards that were hewn from fat Gordal olives clad in pork mince, like a take on a Scotch egg, and there was lots of a zippy sauce that was slightly spicy and full of fennel seeds. SO good.

There are fewer mains than there are starters. Choose from a couple of dishes for two, including the bavette steak, salt baked beetroot and crushed beans (£55), which the young lovers next to us were raving over, or individual options, like lamb chops, gratin and carrots (£29). We went for the whole brill (£68).

It had a lemon wedge stuffed in its mouth, as if it had snuffed it while taking a last swig of gin and tonic, and it was a beast of a fellow, like Schwarzenegger in his hench prime. This fish was absolutely heady with wild garlic and swimming in butter. They’d ramped it up to bionic levels. The smell was like entering a woodland in mid-April. Spring has sprung! Do-i-i-ng!

It came with a few wedges of Vermouth poached fennel and a bowl of nutty and knobbly ratte potatoes, which were also wild-garlic-buttered to the max.

Drinks-wise, and we had a very large glass of their Riesling Maximin (£17), as well as a couple of snifters of a lovely and light Cabidos Doux (£8 each) dessert wine. We needed the latter for our final coda.

The puds aren’t on the boards, but Eddie - easily the best restaurant manager in town - told us what was cooking.

We went for rice pudding and blood orange (£7), though we could have chosen a morbier cheese course, or blackcurrant leaf sorbet.

We’d chosen well. This was school dinners made luxe - cold and mouth-coatingly creamy, with a couple of gussies of tangy citrus, and its coral pink jus.

There wasn’t a dud among any of our courses. Each was a total winner.

Sure, I feel bad that I never visited Bell’s Diner, but it’d probably be an even more heinous crime not to have never made it along here.

Stockbridge Eating House, 7 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh, www.stockbridgeeatinghouse.co.uk; They’ve just launched a set Thursday and Friday lunch menu at three courses for £14.95pp, with a carafe of wine for an additional £10.50.