Café St Honoré

It's a rare thing to go out for a meal and not have a single complaint.

There were 5 of us, each getting 2-3 courses, and they were all polished off entirely.

The service deserves a special mention, the waiting staff got the balance perfectly. Really attentive, but not overbearing.

I had the risotto with peas and Lanark blue cheese. It was soul food. Comforting. Delicious. Jam-packed full of flavour. For dessert I had the chocolate brownie. Not something I would choose normally, but god it was good. Rich, moist, sticky. Absolutely yummy.

The cosy French bistro atmosphere complete with candlelight lends itself well to savouring the food and conversation. A real gem of a place.

I'll definitely be back!

So, I was pretty excited to be going to Cafe St Honore since I'd heard lots of good things about it. To be honest, the experience was very mixed - some really good food and some pretty poor food that I'd have been disappointed with had I cooked it.

To start we shared scallops. The scallops were beautifully cooked, I wasn't fussed on the accompaniment but suspect that was personal taste.

Then I had fish (again, it was cooked beautifully), but the accompanying mushrooms were tasteless (although did have a nice texture) and were chronically underseasoned (and I don't add much salt to my food). My husband had steak. The roast potatoes were nice except for the one that was cremated beyond the point of eating. The steak itself was nice, although not as warm as it could be, and was rare in the middle and overcooked on the outside.

My husband's treacle tart was divine - beautiful balance between sweetness and lemon, so the flavour was amazing without being cloyingly sweet. I had a chocolate mousse, which was lovely, with a creme anglais (nice) and a very disappointing coffee ice cream (couldn't really taste the coffee).

We also had prosecco, which was nice too.

A little gem of a place, hidden down one of Thistle Street's backstreets. Feels like you are in France! The food is always tasty, even though it is a bit on the pricey side. The wine list offers something for everyone, with many different grape varieties to chose from. Staff are excellent and are more than willing to explain dishes to you and to recommend wine to go with a particular dish.

Hope you are around for years to come!

We have just enjoyed a truly superb evening in Cafe St Honore. The meal was faultless; tender pigeon with slithers of apple, celeriac and wood sorrel, perfectly cooked salmon in a delicate tomato broth, delicious venison with rosti potato followed by creamy creme brulee and poached pears. Even the coffee was from a local artisan roaster.
For service, location and atmosphere it would be hard to beat. One of the great meals of 2009!

Cafe St Honore was a great experience for us. The food was terrific, the wine was terrific, I loved the whole evening. The staff very friendly and informative. Wide selection of food to cater for all. I will go back as soon as possible.

This delightful restaurant has been a favourite of mine ever since I came to Edinburgh 17 years ago and I am pleased and relieved that the modus operandum is essentially the same since the handover - a concentration on extremely skilled but unfussily executed French cuisine tending to the provincial ( in the best sense of that word), framed by relaxed and efficient professional service. I've just had a close to perfect Sunday lunch with four friends.

The table was spotless with white linen and two tiny orange roses. We were brought warm bread (which I think was Poillane) and offered faultless pumpkin ravioi, an unusual take on coq au vin (with crisped legs) some marvellous locally reared steak and a rather clever dish of cod in a lobster bisque decorated with pea-shoots. I have never had a better bargain for a house red: a very good 2005 Bordeaux- although the list extends to some classy numbers: a special Margaux ( I think Marquis de Terme) and St Estephe. The desserts were broadly of equal quality: a kind of tarte-tatin but with pears, an apple crumble with an intense sorbet; their tiramisu wasn't quite what it seemed - with pannacotta rather than cream - but still very attractive with sweet little biscotti.

Great coffee- my second best espresso in Edinburgh.

The only slight downside is mentioned above in that the old style wooden bistro chairs do not encourage lingering - they are better for a swift cafe-complet on the way to work. Otherwise, this place should be very high up on your list of the best restaurants in the city, especially if you prefer lack of pretention but where they really know how to cook and to create the best atmosphere for a convivial meeting with good friends - especially discerning ones like mine! It also gives far better value than most of its competitors of similar quality. The three courses plus two bottles of house wine, water and coffee worked out at £40 each including a generous tip. Cafe St-Honore has been around for a long time for a very good reason.