The Point Hotel

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £6.95 (set lunch)
   £16.50 (set dinner) (evening meal)
• House wine: £12.95 per bottle

• High point: Stylish dining experience without a large bill to match
• Low point: Some food combinations are hit and miss
• Food served: Mon-Fri noon-2pm, 6-10pm; Sat 6-10 pm; Sun 6-9pm
• Bar open: Mon-Sat 10am-1am; Sun noon-midnight
• Private dining: N
• No. overnight rooms: 140
• Open since: 1995
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of menu), Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Wheelchair access

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

This review is from the 2007 edition.

This large ground-floor hotel restaurant is very convenient for pre-theatre/cinema dining as it so near the entertainment mecca of Lothian Road, yet it also offers early eating with style thanks to its glass-walled entrance, white tablecloths and floor-to-ceiling soft white gauze curtains. The large restaurant is divided into three sections, and a large mirror at one end makes the space feel airy yet intimate. The two and three-course set-price menu profiles Scottish ingredients in an imaginative way, such as the starter of crisp spring roll pastry wrapped around a haggis filling. The warm tartlet of leek and wild mushroom has a crisp pastry case and generous mushroom filling. Grilled fillet of sea bass arrives straddling a Puy lentil salad, which has a subtle but distinctive truffle oil dressing, rendering the baba ganoush salad superfluous. Banoffee crème brûlée is an interesting attempt at marrying two great puds - although it's more banana custard with splodges of toffee sauce - but more successful than the warm Belgian chocolate, prune and cognac torte, which lacks flavour from all the major components. This place is good for group dining as big parties can easily be accommodated and the fixed-price menu makes group bills more predictable.