And summer's lease hath all too short a date… john holmes I hope you enjoyed the summer – those 4 days in May when it all lay before us: or so we hoped. We really should know better. But every unmet hope - dashed by the rough winds that shake the darling buds of whatever month we dare to formulate it - never stops us optimists continuing to hope afresh. Sunshine on Leith? Aye, occasionally. It’s the same with restaurants. No matter that only 20% of new restaurants survive, newcomers arrive full of youthful enthusiasm and hopes for the future. In Leith – as our new Chief advised in last month’s editorial - we’ve seen the recent opening of Café Fish, Leith Lynx and Noble’s. Support them and give them a fighting chance. So, I didn’t think I’d be doing Leith in this new “job” but his nibs is trying a new angle this month – three for the price of one (maybe it’s something to do with the credit crunch). And I’m doing Noble’s. But whilst you wouldn’t actually call Noble’s a restaurant, it does serve restaurant-quality food, I’m glad to say. As an excellent bar, it also might just fill the Home’s Bar shaped hole in my life (and the lives of quite a few chaps you see wandering around Leith in a trance-like state, bumping into old friends and enquiring what they’re doing to fill their days since Fitzy deserted us all those long months ago). Noble’s menu is well judged, with seven starters, three sandwich options, seven mains, and five puds. Our starters were soup – a moreish broccoli and cheddar – and ham hock with poached egg and mustard lentils. Despite a slightly over-poached egg, for my taste, both were very good. “Welch’s daily catch” was sea bream with Savoy cabbage, fennel and crushed potatoes, and was excellent value, whilst the beer-battered haddock with chips, mushy peas and tartar sauce was a good example of this resto staple, and was interestingly presented on a chopping board. We didn’t stretch to a pudding (did I mention the credit crunch?) but I’ll be back to righten that wrong, not least because Luca’s ice cream (right spelling this time Precious and Liddy!) features large. Bill for two: Score:
£41.90 (including a very nice South African Chenin blanc) 15/20