Review: Eve, Edinburgh

Richard Bath tries out Eve, the capital’s newest Italian restaurant.

The commendably swanky Virgin Hotel has its main entrance onto the top of Victoria Street, one of Edinburgh’s most characterful spots, which is just by George IVth Bridge, The Mound and the Royal Mile. The labyrinthine building is so huge that it extends all the way down to the Grassmarket and Cowgate, which is where you’ll find the front entrance to Eve, the hotel’s new Italian restaurant.

For a hotel restaurant, the place is both busy and buzzy. When you enter, there’s a bar, behind which you’ll find an informal, contemporary dining area. It’s large yet surprisingly intimate, thanks to relatively low ceilings and a colourful mural covering most of the main wall. Outside, the other side of large glass doors, there’s an enclosed covered terrace which must be a prized dining spot when the sun is out (and upstairs, there’s a spectacular cocktail terrace with amazing views of the castle). All in all, the place feels relaxed and welcoming.

I’d recommend exploring the terraces, but even more I’d recommend going along and trying one of their pasta-making or cheese and wine workshops. We went on a Wednesday, when two of the restaurant’s chefs hold a pasta-making class, and loved it. The pair of cheery chefs, Robert Vaiciulius and Vasile Muntean, made the experience huge fun and we left with boxes of tagliatelle and tortellini made by our own fair hands. The hour-long course costs £30 per person.

The dinner menu is not huge, and unsurprisingly consists largely of Italian staples. We started with a rather parsimonious plate of the classic Piedmontese antipasto of vitello tonnato (thin slices of cold veal served with tuna sauce, capers and hazelnuts) and a bulging plate of nicely presented calamari with nduja and mayo dip. That was decent, authentically Italian fare, as was my main, a large bowl of the Sardinian semolina pasta fregola, served in a light tomato sauce and seasoned with chilli, garlic, clams, blue mussels and king prawns. Arguably the pick of the dishes, however, was a simple dish of grilled seabass fillet with a caponata salad, salsa verde and lemon dressing.

We rounded off with a Sicilian cannoli (made of sweet ricotta, amarena cherry and chocolate) and a deconstructed affogato (amaretti biscuits, amaretto, vanilla ice cream and espresso), but in truth neither pudding set the heather on fire. With puddings at £6-8, fregola £18 sea bass £27, and both starters £12, this was decent value for a restaurant in a top-end hotel. The house wine starts from £29, but at the prompting of our excellent waiter Harry, we opted for a bottle of Marotti Campi Verdicchio Dei Castelli Di Jesi from Luzano at £42 and congratulated ourselves for taking his advice as we savoured its punchiness.

This Old Town restaurant is a welcome addition to the capital’s impressive armoury of Italian cuisine.

Eve, 18-20 Cowgate, Edinburgh. www.eveedinburgh.com

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