Creelers

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £9.95 (set lunch)
   £22.50 (evening meal)
• House wine: £14 per bottle

• Hitlisted
• High point: Fine dining in a sedate hideaway
• Low point: Some tables a bit too close together
• Food served: Mon-Thu noon-2.30pm, 5.30-10.30pm; Fri noon-2.30pm, 5.30-11pm; Sat noon-3pm, 5.30-11pm; Sun 1-3pm, 6-10.30pm
• Private dining: 40/21
• Open since: 1995
• Also offers: Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Pre-theatre menu

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

It's hard to know what else owner Tim James can do to demonstrate his commitment to the culinary arts. He oversees the curing and smoking of all his fish from personally-selected Isle of Arran fishermen and even sets out on his own boat, Margaret Eliza, to creel for crab, lobsters and langoustines. All of this would be academic if the food weren't up to scratch. But it is and this charming bistro just off the Royal Mile, amid the buzz of Hunter Square, is where Tim and wife Fran have fashioned a tranquil dining room of tiled floors, blue stained wood and soft, hazy seascapes with an impressive kitchen to boot. The menu is rich and varied, with chef Martin Collins bringing an agile touch to his creative combinations. A perfectly executed starter of dressed crab is bound with egg and breadcrumbs and given a vibrant grainy mustard edge. Equally delicious is the trio of smoked salmon showing off those smokehouse talents to the full - flavoursome cold-smoked slithers served with a chunk of hot, smoked, meaty flesh. From the mains, a pearly white halibut fillet, cooked to perfection, is given a crusty skin of bright green herbs and perched on a mild sour cream mash in a pool of fennel sauce. Or try the innovative -- and vivid - red wine risotto laced with butter and parmesan. It's accompanied by a hearty cod chunk that separates into juicy segments at the lightest touch of the fork.