Smoke Stack
- Food served: Sun–Thu noon-2.30pm, 5–10pm; Fri/Sat noon–11pm.
- Pre-theatre times: Mon–Fri 5–6.30pm; Sat noon–5.30pm (unavailable during December)
- Number of wines sold by the glass: 8
- Private dining: Up to 26 covers
- Also offers: Children's portions, Children's high chairs, Pre-theatre menu, Post-theatre menu, Outdoor tables
- Music on stereo: MOR
- Capacity: 65
- Largest group: 26
- Open since: 1996
- Average price:
£7.95 (set lunch)
£16 (evening meal) - Pre-theatre price: £9.95
- House wine: £13.50 per bottle
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The 2011/12 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).
This review is taken from the current (2011) edition.
Smoke Stack on Broughton Street has long been a popular stomping ground for the card carrying carnivore. Amid the simple, red interior and wooden furnishings, steaks and burgers are very much the order of the day, from the succulent rump and 10oz ribeye to a handsomely portioned fillet steak and seafood offering complete with king prawns and mussels in a sundried tomato and cream sauce – an adventurous change from the ‘surf and turf’. Mains can look a little bereft on the plate, so be sure and stock up on sides: beer-battered onion rings, garlic bread or tortilla chips. For those looking for something less filling, the Cajun chicken salad, while a touch dry, is easily salvaged with a touch of dressing. Lighter snacks from the starters menu, such as the calamari and shrimp tails, are a suitably crisp and filling preamble to the main event. The dessert menu is full of old-school favourites: brownies, sticky toffee pudding or their pièce de résistance, the cheese cake of the day.
- High point: Good location
- Low point: Bereft main courses
Reviews of Smoke Stack (53–55 Broughton Street, Edinburgh)
- 3. sara 26, leith – 10 September 2010, 3:06pmSmoke StackReport
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Sunday breakfast awful. Disinterested staff small portion not good
- 2. Nina, Edinburgh – 25 August 2009, 1:28pm
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I had a steak with Pepper Sauce. It was nice, well cooked but the mash that came with it wasn't great at all. A bit disappointing as I didn't think it was a hard thing for a chef to make properly... The desserts were great, especially the warm sticky toffee pudding. Delicious!
- 1. M – 21 August 2008, 5:01pm
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The Smoke Stack really is a tale of two halves. I've tended to walk on by over the past few years as it does give the impression of being every so slightly run down or dated from the outside.
We were warmly welcomed and show to our table which was a taste of things to come; service was genuine and friendly.
Starters were an absolute delight with the home made leek and potato soup beign the highlight. A hot and rustic home made soup served with fresh crusty bread was a welcome start.
Unfortunatley the main courses didn't live up to the high expectations set by the starters. In particular the prawns served on a bed of salad with sweet chilli sauce just didn't work I'm afraid. The sauce was jsut too heavy for the salad and the addition of olives didn't add anything to the overall taste and put simply didn't work.
On the upside, the portion was very generous with a large number of good sized and well cooked prawns, but the overall combination didn't work. It was a shame, because a change from salad to noodles and pak choi with a lighter sauce would have elevated this dish to where it should be.
Overall the general service was excellent and they did enough to merit a return visit.
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