The Basement Bar & Restaurant

Feature by Lizzie Cass-Maran | 13 Apr 2010

Edinburgh stalwart venue The Basement is under new management, but the ethos is much the same. The crazy Hawaiian shirts are still there, along with their speciality cocktails, furniture made of reclaimed machinery, Mexican dishes and really, really good steak.

The menu is incredibly varied, but there's little of great excitement on offer for vegetarians - starters comprising a choice between nachos, bruschetta and hummous. There is an impressive array of seafood dishes, though, and I plump for the Mexican fishcakes. Although rather too filled with sweetcorn, these are satisfying comfort food, much in the same vein as my main course of the vegetable burrito. Although one of only two veggie alternatives, this is brimming with a variety of chunky mushrooms, peppers and aubergines. Teamed with their delicious but deadly Breakfast Margherita (tequila, grapefruit and marmalade), it's a great option for a group of friends to hang out and comes in at just under £12.

However, my guest seemed to be eating at a completely different restaurant. A starter of pancetta wrapped monkfish lacks something in it's accompaniment - the rocket being too overpowering a contrast - but otherwise provides a stunning combination of flavours and textures. A main course of sirloin steak with pepper sauce is still talked about to this day. Cooked to perfection and served with deliciously addictive sauteed potatoes, this does inevitably send the price up a fair whack and turns the whole experience from casual to classy.

Desserts include today's special of chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, which is like a child's culinary experiment gone right.

The contrast between the menu items and further dissociation with decor and dress make it hard to place the best event for a Basement experience. Individual elements are superb, but they seem to be unsure of what they're trying to do with the overall effect, rendering it a somewhat schizophrenic, though nonetheless enjoyable, evening.

Dinner for 2 around £35 (three courses excluding drinks) 10A - 12A Broughton Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3RJ

0131 557 0097

http://www.the basementbar.org.uk