Ask EADith: The business lunch predicament
Got a food dilemma? Need a killer rec to seal the deal? Or just want the inside track on Glasgow and Edinburgh’s eating and drinking scene? Then why not ask EADith, our Eat & Drink team’s helpful agony aunt. This month, she enters the lost land of the business lunch
Dear EADith
I was chatting to my boss on Teams the other day and I was a bit disconcerted by a weird suggestion that we go for what they called a ‘business lunch’. Face to face. In person. I don’t know where to start with such levels of intrusion. Please help.
MealPrepWFH
Dear MealPrepWFH,
Indulge me in a history lesson. Back in the mists of time (aka pre-2008), a ‘business lunch’ was a common bonding activity between teams and clients. It consisted of ‘eating food in public’ often with a ‘glass of wine’ in a pleasant environment called a ‘restaurant’ and usually supported by a ‘lunchtime deal’. Sadly, it’s fallen out of favour in recent years (with a devastating impact on many city-centre restaurants), which is a pity. You’ll prise working from home out of my cold, dead hands, but maybe not everything about the office was bad.
Moving on. I’ve the perfect spot: Under The Table, a cracking basement bistro in Edinburgh’s New Town (named for the fancy sister restaurant upstairs where you talk to strangers at a communal table. I know!). The pedigree is superb; the lunch deal brings all of the bang for less of the bucks. Expect a compact three options for starter, main and pudding, all generous and plated prettily, for a mere £20 for two courses, or £24 for three.
The menu changes frequently, but there’s usually something along the lines of a risotto (kale, barley and pickled beetroot when we visited) and maybe a flat-iron steak or chicken thighs with tarragon. In other words, approachable bistro food. Slightly off the tourist track, lunchtime sees a steady stream of business lunchers and rat-race escapees. Being the New Town, you can expect the odd pair of red cords and wealthy retirees splitting a bottle of champers for the hell of it. On that, there are good choices by the glass, with some stunners by the bottle if the boss is paying/not really expecting much from you in the afternoon. Yes, that used to happen too. You kids really did miss out.
Under The Table, 3A1 Dundas Street, Edinburgh; two-course prix-fixe lunch £20.