The Orchard

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• Average price 2 courses:
   £10 (lunch)
   £10 (evening meal)
• House wine: £9.50 per bottle

• High point: Slouchy sofas
• Low point: Soggy haddock
• Food served: Sat/Sun noon-8.30pm
• Bar open: Mon-Thu noon-midnight; Sat/Sun noon-1am; Sun noon-midnight
• Private dining: Up to 30 covers
• Open since: 2006
• Also offers: Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Take away

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

This review is from the 2007 edition.

Opened in its fresh new guise last year by the owner of Avoca in Stockbridge, the Orchard brings creams, browns and a focus on eating to a former straight-up boozer in Canonmills. Sport may be on the big screen, but the place is rarely rowdy - very pleasant, in fact, if you're slouched on a battered sofa with a pint, loading up on waist-expanding pub tucker. The Orchard offers a wide spectrum of sustenance: sandwiches and salads, a weekend brunch menu, and a friendly one for the kids, as well as predictable main courses such as burgers, nachos, chilli and fish-cakes. Get going with filling potato skins stuffed with cheese and bacon, or haggis on a spring onion mash that merges merrily with a creamy mustard sauce (there's Drambuie in there somewhere). Hefty beer-battered haddock is sadly soggy, while a splash of Guinness can't disguise tired Scotch steak in the stew: it's a let-down that these choices don't match the starters. As for afters, no-fuss sticky toffee pudding, cheesecake or chocolate brownie with ice-cream will surely satisfy. It is early days for the Orchard and it should continue to improve.