The Living Room

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

As the Edinburgh representative of a 13-branch national chain, the Living Room fits snugly into George Street's plush aesthetic. A busy bar leads into a vast dining area, hemmed in by brown leather booths and backlit drapes. Soft browns and beiges run throughout, and a bustling, cheery atmosphere is augmented by tinklings from the pianist in the corner. As a nationwide operation, the notion of seasonality and local sourcing has, until now, been vague at best, though a shake-up of the menu was underway as we went to press in spring 2008. When a fair amount of the large menu is created in a centralised kitchen, it's a pleasant surprise when attractive, fresh tasting dishes arrive at the table. A seam of Chinese and Thai influences runs through the menu: crispy Peking duck, which comes with the essential accoutrements of rice pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and hoisin sauce, is available as a starter or a main. An outlandishly-sized bowl of slow-roasted lamb shoulder is let down by the slightly pasty mash it sits on, but the meat falls off the bone as it should. Desserts offer few surprises: chocolate fudge cake and lemon tart aren't exactly adventurous, but, like the rest of the menu, are real crowd-pleasers.

• High point: Glitz, glamour and good food…
• Low point: …at the expense of intimacy

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