Cruz

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses: £19
• House wine: £12.95 per bottle

• Food served: Sun–Thu noon–10pm; Fri/Sat noon–10.30pm
• Bar open: Mon–Sun noon–1am
• Open since: 2006

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

Built almost 90 years ago in Greenock, the former steam trawler Ocean Mist moored by the Shore in Leith is a surprisingly venerable setting for the style-infused bar, nightspot and restaurant these days known as Cruz. Round leather booths sit beneath portholes in the cocktail bar on the lower decks, while the dining room on the upper decks has an airier feel and offers views of the surrounding Shore and Water of Leith. The offer in the restaurant is two-fold. A relatively conventional à la carte has chunks of beef, lamb or salmon alternating with Italian-style standards such as crostini or rigatoni alla Norma. In a similar vein is a keenly-priced 'business' lunch at £7.95 for three courses. Alternatively, a separate, weekly changing fish menu offers a bit more credibility and dynamism to the kitchen, with six or seven fish cooked in various different ways. Cruz hasn't, perhaps, made the impact it promised as a glitzy new arrival a year or so back, but its status as a distinctive venue isn't in question. [Not recently visited.]