Vinette, Edinburgh

The latest branch of the Stuart Ralston tree that brought us some extremely buttery crab (Noto) and some very, very nice pasta (Tipo), Vinette takes up residence in a cosy little brushed concrete warren on Broughton Street. Head in the door, turn that way, then turn again and you’re in a lovely, cosy dining room filled with warm light, soft furnishings and a surprising number of curtains.

Menu-wise, the preamble talks of a ‘Parisian-style bar à vin’ with ‘bistro-style’ cooking; what that means in practice is a short menu of classic European dishes where you could conceivably want to eat one of everything. Vinette do serve a three course lunch, with wine, for £36 – more on that later – but stuck between the desire to cover the table in dishes and the knowledge that we’ll have to pay for it, we split the difference and go ‘nibbles, mains, loads of dessert’. It’s a classic strategy folks, feel free to use it next time you’re out.

Pig's head croquettes from Vinette.

Our nibbly trio of Rarebit, Pig’s head croquettes and Potato chips (£6 each) are proof of some very clever folk in the kitchen. The rarebit is a square of four smaller cheesy squares, drizzled with Worcester sauce and served with a very nice onion marmalade. Effectively, it’s four small bits of cheese on toast, but in this configuration, on this lovely plate, when you’re waiting for lunch, that’s more than alright. The use of shape is a recurring theme throughout lunch; whether it’s perfectly spherical bread rolls or pleasingly sharp edges on garnishes, fans of geometric shapes will have a great time.

Elsewhere, the croquettes are little but loaded with flavour, extremely crunchy on the outside but inside they’re dribbling with juicy, salty pork from somewhere on the big fella’s head. And the chips are just the fanciest pre-meal snack you’ve ever seen in your life – homemade crisps, served alongside a chivey cream cheese topped with some trout roe. It’s a chip so thin you can almost see through it, and a dip so decadent the gold kintsugi nubbin on the bowl feels completely normal. This trio are an object lesson in taking comparatively straightforward ingredients (A potato! One piece of bread!) and making them look nice and feel special.

The Steak frites (£18) is another geometric wonder, a little rectangle of perfectly cooked bavette on a very nice and, it has to be said, comically large plate. Present the steak like this and bring some excellent fries and a sweet, tangy Choron sauce in separate dishes, and all of a sudden we’ve got some theatre and an ‘ooh look at all my stuff’ moment, before everything inevitably gets dipped in everything else.

If the steak is a nice, contained and refined bit of extremely flavourful business, Vinette’s burger (£18) is like being bear-hugged by the word ‘savoury’. This thing is outrageous: a bacon-heavy relish on the bottom, an immensely cheesy Mornay sauce on top, plenty of pickles, and a beef patty that has all the sear and chew and oomph you could ever need. It has a deceptively straightforward look – grab a pen and draw a burger in the margin of this page, you have five seconds… that’s what it looks like – but the flavour and texture are all there.

Potato and celeriac tartiflette. Photo provided by Vinette

And then there’s the Potato and celeriac tartiflette (£5). A little cast iron dish filled with shredded veg and so much cheese it’s a surprise the thing doesn’t start mooing, it’s exactly the kind of decadent winter treat that makes leaving the house seem worthwhile. It’s oozy, it’s salty, it’s absolutely covered in bacon – it’s root veg and cheese but turned up to full blast.

The Marjolaine cake (£8) is a big rectangle of praline and ganache and crunch and a dollop of ice cream on top. Again, fairly straightforward stuff, but set a good kitchen loose with the ideas of ‘chocolate’ and ‘salted caramel’ and you’re in for a good time. The Basque cheesecake (£8) is another big tick; intentionally burning something is always a bit dicey, but this one has the rich, caramelly outer and spongy middle without going too far. It’s served with some very nice and pleasingly chunky plum compote.

So Vinette is great, in ways both expected and unexpected. Is it a ‘cheap eat’? No. But is it expensive? From our recent experience, not really. If you hit the aforementioned lunch deal you’d get a starter, that extremely good steak, the big praline fella from the last para, and drinks, for under £40, and they’ll have to roll you round those corners to get you out the door. That is a good deal – in this season of goodwill, we suggest you take it.

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36 Broughton St, Edinburgh EH1 3SB
Lunch Fri-Sun, 12-2.30pm, dinner Wed-Sun 5.30-9pm
vinette.co.uk