Skua, Edinburgh

Skua is incredible. Apologies if you’ve heard this already, as it seems everyone’s been talking about the new place from the folk behind the freshly Michelin-starred Heron. Obviously, this doesn’t happen for every new restaurant that opens, and it’s worth acknowledging, before we start, the capital-R reasons for that. Perhaps it’s simple hypebeast behaviour by all of us – if everyone’s shouting about something, it must be good; the more shouting, the more good. Could be the power of reputation, or of catching onto a zeitgeist. Maybe, he whispered, it’s the secret power of having someone on hand who can email all the journalists in town at the same time.

With the mea culpa for following the herd out of the way, Skua is still incredible. Heron is Tomás Gormley and Sam Yorke’s airy, breezy fine dining spot by the Shore, and this is its goth, subterranean cousin lurking on St Stephen Street like the guy from the Sickos meme. A jet-black basement that’s moody, low-lit and incredibly warm when we visit, it is possibly the least ‘Stockbridge’ thing imaginable.

The drinks list is incredibly extensive and the team are impressively knowledgeable (more on that later), but it is also a bit intimidating so there are also a few handy shortcuts you can take. First up – get a boilermaker. At £6 for a beer and a bourbon to chase it, you’ll struggle to find a better deal anywhere else.

Next, look at the board – the enormous wine list is mostly by the bottle, but a fair few of those bottles are open and available by the glass on any given day. We probably wouldn’t spend £40 on a bottle of the Saperavi – a fruity, oaky red wine from Georgia – right out the gate, but offer us a glass for £7 and we’re on board. The cocktails are also a good place to go. Ask for any classic and you’ll be met with questions about what you actually like, and a drink that fits the bill. Alternatively, throw yourself on the mercy of a drink like tonight’s special, the Winter in the Andy’s (£9), which takes the unlikely trio of amaretto, mezcal and midori and turns it into a stone-cold banger.

As for the food, this menu doesn’t muck about. It’s all protein and spice and heat, delicious little fiery chunks that can cut through, no matter where you end up on that drinks list. The trout pastrami (£6) brings a hefty aroma and some comical proportions, with big chunks of fish balanced on a tiny little rye bread crisp. With so much going on, the flavours collapse in on themselves a bit – imagine if a brass band all started their instruments at full volume simultaneously – but the combination is still pretty tasty.

The broccoli (£5) is excellent; chargrilled, smeared with gochujang and topped with toasted peanuts, it feels like the brainchild of a pyromaniac barbecue chef told to 'also put some veg together'. The pork larb (£7) brings a funky tartness which cuts through the heat, meat and herbs, while the koji chicken (£8) is basically a big gnarly meatball with a wildly gelatinous soy dip. Bream ceviche (£7) is a more refined step away from the smoky and spicy; it’s subtler but the freshness and zing make up the difference.

Then there’s the fried chicken (£10). This stuff is wild – big juicy chunks in a savoury, spicy and impressively crunchy carapace, topped with some outlandishly tangy fermented peach hot sauce. Get this chicken. Even if you just poke your head in the door for half an hour, ‘oh I saw this place in the paper, that guy was right it is black in here’, get the chicken. You will not regret it. The octopus (£15) doesn’t quite hit the same heights but it gets pretty close, all charred edges, fermented saltiness and big chunks of maitake mushroom thrown in. It is, as our notes say, a wild bit of business.

Equally wild is the sticky toffee pudding, the only dessert on the menu and rolling in at the low, low price of £3. At the risk of going all Old Man Yells At Cloud, you can’t get anything for £3 in these days of the cozzy livs. It’s not the biggest dessert in the world, but it is also (for an incredibly rich, miso-powered sugar bomb after a load of spicy food and a pic ‘n’ mix of drinks) the objectively correct amount, which is ‘a wee bit’.

Skua is, can’t stress this enough, incredible. It’s a super-cool little escape from the normal, a chance to feel like a cool kid in a late night bar in New York or Barcelona, a place where you can get fantastic fried chicken at 11.15pm while the bar staff pull together a mezcal negroni (tastes like an Aperol ice lolly that’s been set on fire, five stars). Everyone is talking about Skua, but this time, you should absolutely believe the hype.

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Skua, 49 St Stephen St, EH3 5AH; Thu-Mon, 5.30pm-midnight
skua.scot

Photos: Stephen Lister