Stravaigin

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £11.95 (set lunch)
   £20 (evening meal)
• House wine: £13.95 per bottle

• Hitlisted
• High point: Multiple menus . . .
• Low point: . . . can make ordering a lengthy process
• Food served: Mon-Sun 11am-11pm
• Bar open: Mon-Sun 11am-midnight
• Open since: 1995
• Also offers: Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Take away, Pre-theatre menu

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

This review is from the 2007 edition.

Stravaigin beckons you into its subterranean hideaway with reassuring confidence: at the bottom of the stairs is a busy kitchen open for all to see. Yet this is not a brash place. The lighting is muted, the furniture modest - tall-backed leather chairs and plain, rectangular tables - and wall-mounted knick-knacks are kept to a minimum. Any extravagant flourishes tend to be reserved for the plate, where global influences are bound to good quality Scottish produce. There is a dauntingly long list of choices, supplemented by the menu from the upstairs café/bar [see Bistros & Brasseries], but courteous, well-informed staff help diners make final decisions. The competing yet melding flavours of anise and orange smoked Gressingham duck with a roast peanut and lychee salad (plus chilli-soused cabbage) is a typically adventurous dish. Of the main courses, the four roasts of Smitton's pork - with baby aubergines, cumin carrots and tomato gravy - are a robust delight, while a meaty grilled sea bass fillet with garlic, parsley and lemon is partnered with saffron Lyonnaise potatoes and an extravagant ruffle of buttery curly kale. Too much, perhaps, for some, but crowd-pleasing desserts, such as chocolate figgy pudding, prove that, for all the cooking's aplomb, Stravaigin still places a memorable meal above fine-dining vanity.