The Cottage At Royal Terrace restaurant review: Elegant, cosy warmth
The newly re-designed restaurant offers refined, sophisticated dishes alongside an inviting candlelit charm
After a few fallow years, the hedges have been cut back and the veg beds weeded. With new ownership and a new name, curious diners can return to the gardens to find one of the city’s most interesting dinner tables, hidden in the trees on Royal Terrace. Reawakening the fairytale cottage is Peter Adshead, a familiar figure on Edinburgh’s dining scene, alongside head chef Jamie Stapleton, formerly of Cannonball.
Inside, candlelight flickers across long communal tables and clean-lined interiors. Views into the kitchen (and even the pot wash) add to a sense of openness. With its upbeat soundtrack, easy-going service and intimate scale, it feels less formal restaurant, more particularly stylish dinner party. There’s a five or seven-course tasting menu, or a neat two courses for lunch or pre-theatre (sensible, given its proximity to Edinburgh Playhouse).
The extended experience opens with a trio of deftly executed snacks: warm cheddar gougère, cured trout tartlet and a delicate goat’s cheese tart. Asparagus soup combines green and white spears with black garlic, charred lemon and basil, while a carrot course demonstrates how much can be achieved from a single ingredient. Smoked, pickled and puréed, it’s the best version of itself: sweet, earthy and intense.
A beautiful fillet of Peterhead halibut is gently poached, almost shockingly pale and tender, with pickled red grapes and celery, charred baby leeks and pops of roe cutting through a creamy champagne beurre blanc. The standout main is hogget shoulder (from The Free Company), accompanied by ewe’s curd, juicy St George’s mushrooms and a rich jus. Desserts finish strong courtesy of hibiscus-poached rhubarb with yoghurt mousse and oats, followed by properly punchy dark chocolate tart with candied nuts, crème fraîche and miso caramel. It’s a delightful next chapter for this humble gardener’s cottage.
The Cottage At Royal Terrace, 1 Royal Terrace Gardens, Edinburgh; average price £55 for a five-course tasting menu.