I adore this Edinburgh restaurant and its new £30 lunch is the steal of the century

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In Edinburgh of late, there seems to have been a move away from tasting menus.

Instead, the set menu has come back into vogue.

Hooray, is my opinion. I’m 30 per cent skinflint, and 70 per cent bargain hunter. Prix fixe is my favourite two word phrase in the world, along with second helpings. It’s even better than “pay day” or “love you”. That’s especially when it’s only a cheeky £30 for three courses, or £26 for two, and is available at Montrose - the Abbeyhill sister restaurant to Edinburgh’s beloved Timberyard.

I’ve been here before. I’ve tried the five-course tasting menu upstairs, and loved it, and I’ve hung out in the casual whitewashed wine bar downstairs.

However, I get that multitasking restaurants can be confusing, to some. Since my last visit, they’ve unified those concepts, and now both spaces are softened with pegged caramel-coloured linen curtains, Ercol chairs, pillar candles, and the scent of palo santo.

You can also now have either menu - a la carte or tasting at dinner, or, from Friday to Sunday, the new fixed lunch deal - across both areas. Choose your deck - top or bottom.

We bagged the downstairs window seat, with its view to the Regent Bar. There is the option to sit outside Montrose now, too. Not today though, as the July rain was lashing sideways.

The other covers were hiking-gear-clad tourists, who’d been driven indoors by the inclement weather.

You only have two decisions to make, said our server. Do you want two courses - starter and main, or main and dessert - or all three? The latter, obvs. And, would you like to add any snacks? Hell yeah.

We added three of those, each to serve two, from a choice of five that included Cumbrae oysters, horseradish and elderflower (£4) or Curing Rebels aged ham (£16).

The first to arrive was two thick slices of crusty, warm and heavily seedy bread (£4) with a large quenelle of Burberry-mac-coloured fluffy whipped sesame, honey and miso butter. It was so good that it put the “oh!” in carbohydrates.

Then there were two pretty trout rillettes (£4). Each fluffed-up dollop of peppery and smoky pink fish was gussied up by delicate nasturtium leaves, a chiffonade of chives, and borage flowers, and served on the lightest and crispiest sea-salted and seed-studded crackers ever.

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Our third snack was the cuttlefish empanada (£3). On a typically Scottish summer day like this, you could put these crimp-edged pasties in your pockets, like hand warmers, and take them up Arthur’s Seat. They were toasty, with the crispy pastry and a fishy and fragrantly saffrony vegetable mixture in the centre, and a velvety sweet date emulsion on the side.

After that sparkling introduction to proceedings, we were onto our three courses.

First up was the St Bride’s Chicken and ham hock terrine, which resembled a slice of malachite.

There were cubes of poultry in there, and pieces of ham, as well as a spring flashback courtesy of a bright green creamy wild garlic emulsion. It was rather lovely - a lighter and wetter version of your average protein-heavy terrine chew fest. The malted onions and pickled cucumbers worked better than a dollop of chutney ever could, and there was a shard of melba toast on the side.

The Americans at the table near us were already discussing how they could recreate this at home. I enjoyed watching holiday memories be created.

Next was the mussel spaghettini, which featured datterini tomatoes, fat and wobbly terracotta-coloured mussels, and a salty crumb made of anchovies, parsley, fennel seeds and other delicious bits.

Our final course was the blackcurrant pavlova. It was, of course, Montrose’s typically interesting, slightly feral, sustainable and sophisticated take on this confection. There was the chewy-middled cloche-shaped meringue, but also a berry jus, aniseedy shiso leaves, which curled on top like fortune-telling miracle fish on your palm, a herbal-tasting marigold cream, and a goat’s curd ice-cream.

Gaby Soutar

Gorgeous.

We finished our drinks - a salted lemon gimlet (£11) and a coffee and fig leaf old fashioned (£11) and did some earwigging, while waiting for the rain to stop, or at least for it to start falling horizontally.

I heard one of the tourists saying that this was one of the best lunches they’d had all year.

And, my other half’s mind was blown, when he belatedly spotted the price on the menu.

“£30 for those three courses. Really? No way.” What joy.

See, I told you that prix fixe is the best phrase ever invented.

1 Montrose Terrace, Edinburgh (0131-605 0088, www.montroserestaurant.co)

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