Maison Bleue — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

A 5star review quickly turned into a 3 star. We booked here for my birthday and the birthday of my sister. We visited last Saturday and booking was at 9.15pm. We arrived on time and we waited for about 10mins to be seated. That is not an issue at all. When we booked we saw Lamb Tagine and Merguez. I even called and they told me the meat is Halal. My wife is Muslim and Tunisian so to have one of her favorite dishes on the menu was exciting. When we came to order we asked the waitress about the meat if it is Halal, she said Lamb and Chicken Halal but not the beef but she said she will confirm again with the chefs. When she came back she told us that they just changed the butcher and now nothing is Halal. We were quite disappointed as these dishes at least should be Halal due to their origin. But yet again we said no drama let's choose something else. We opted for the Calamari and the fish gumbo. The Calamari are divine and the mains tasty as well. Wine is at a reasonable price and till here service was amazing indeed. The waitress even apologised for the Halal meat situation but we reassured here it's not a problem at all. Unfortunately the night had a very bad twist when the watch was 10.40pm... that's hardly an hour sitting on our table. A new waitress (Red Haired) came to take the desserts order. We explained we needed 10 mins as we just finished our mains. To our astonishment she brought the coffees and desserts straight away, not only, without asking for the bill, she came to get the bill paid. We were rushed to be kicked out as they wanted to close. I mean if you want to close by 11pm don't take bookings at 9.15 or 9.30pm. I work in a restaurant and we never kick people out. Very unprofessional and left disappointed after what had a potential of being a great evening. On another note to the girl in the bar upstairs.... the glass machine can be closed with your hands. No need to kick it with your...

Maison Bleue (blue house) on Victoria Street described themselves as French, North African and traditional Scottish restaurant, although most of my meal seemed to be mainly from French origin. We took advantage of their 1998 prices offer, which is a very thrifty lunch menu £7.50 for two courses. Served from 12-5pm until July 2013. Absolute bargain!

The restaurant is a labyrinth of small rooms on three floors in an Old Town building, with striking blue frontage and charming flower boxes. It's full of character. The ground floor is lowly lit and intimate (maybe too intimate, the tables are pretty closely positioned) but up the original spiral staircase you'll find another lighter open dining area and if you're by the window you'll get a lovely view onto on Victoria street. Toilets are on the top floor, next to the kitchen... Walk slowly by you might get a glimpse of the chef making your main. The decor is understated, warm, comfortable, stone arches, mellow tunes played at a low level, rustic aged wood and thistles on the table.

I went for the steamed mussels with saffron potatoes and a hint of lemongrass for starters. The mussels were big, fat and cooked to perfection. No grit, no dodgy unopened shells, just lovely! Could have down with some bread to mop up the sauce but you can order that as an extra. My mains was darne of Scottish salmon with a creamy white wine, lemon and dill sauce, which was nice but a little too salty. Even my partner agreed and he throws salt on everything! A small disappointment but the starters definitely made up for it. Taking Rayan D's advice on the extortionate wine prices, I avoided the wine list and selected a small bottle of Peroni for under £4.

One small minor point though, for a meal at 4.30pm on a Saturday, the staff did appear overly stress for a relatively quite dining period and as a result seemed stressed, unable to break a...

First impression made us walk back out the door. Minging.

My wife and I booked a table here. As we walked down Victoria Street we saw a man standing outside the restaurant smoking a cigarette. We went inside, explained we had a table booked and the woman, who seemed a bit grumpy, asked us to take a seat.

The man who had been smoking then walked in, went over to a small work area and proceeded to cut up a lime. He didn't wash his hands, even though he had just been outside smoking a cigarette. This is disgusting and certainly not what I would expect in a restaurant.

This really put us off and we decided to leave. The grumpy woman was on the phone, so we just walked out. Always trust your first impression when going to a restaurant - we learned this the hard way.

This was our first, and last, visit to this place.

Even more annoying, we left a review on Trip Advisor, which Maison Blue asked to be removed as we hadn't actually eaten there! Afraid of putting off customers and let off of a bad review on a technicality! Sums the place up.

We never tasted the food as the staff hygiene is non-existent. They can have the best food in Edinburgh, I really don't care if I get poisoned in the process of eating it. So we've marked the food as good in this review, but the service as poor. Hopefully this Google review...