Sotto Enoteca & Trattoria — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

I had very high hopes for this restaurant and have been following them on Instagram before the opening. However the food was a mixed bag and I left quite disappointed. First of all the restaurant is lovely, really nice interior and there is a good atmosphere whilst dining. There were no mocktails on the menu but the bar tender did an excellent job making one for my wife and she really enjoyed it. The snacks were generally quite good, especially the Focaccia. My wife liked her mackerel and carpaccio dishes. I am a vegetarian and my starter and main were just very bland, the courgette baton starter just doesn’t work. The batons are very brittle and cannot be dipped in the ricotta dip (which seemed to be just ricotta). I had the cauliflower and sun dried tomato gratin for main which was just bland and uninspiring. I wish I’d ordered one of the pasta dishes instead. The desert was bad, but to be fair to the restaurant they did de it this from the bill. It was a brioche roll with a chocolate rum ice cream. The ice cream seemed to have crystallised at some point as it wasn’t smooth and oddly ‘tough’. The brioche was dry. This was the only dessert that appealed. There are so many great Italian desserts available yet such boring ones were on the menu e.g lemon granita. To sum up Sotto: lovely venue, friendly staff but uninspiring food. With the dessert being deducted we paid £80 which I think is good value. Might try again in the future if the menu has...

Came in for an anniversary meal on the 4th July. Despite letting the team know it was a special occasion we got the worst table in the restaurant right next to the bar and saw other tables celebrating special occasions being given sparkling wine whilst we didn't even get an acknowledgement. Had to be very conscious of where my head was to not knock over glasses of wine being dispensed onto trays right next to me. My partners cocktail and wine were good to be fair, but my negroni tasted watered down.

As for the food, so so so disappointing. For the price, the portion sizes were laughable. This can be excused if the taste is out of this world but put bluntly, it was average at best. My partner had the parmigiana which was undercooked (hard), tiny with a stingey amount of mozzarella and bland. I had the veal Ragu which was... Fine. Not much depth of flavour and again a laughable size. We decided to go elsewhere for more food after as we were still really hungry.

The service was okay, we felt a bit rushed and the drinks were served suspiciously quick for being cocktails (I'm talking seconds). Normally this would be a good thing but a proper negroni takes time as does a margarita. We never got asked if we enjoyed our experience and the waitress split our bill when we asked her not to. We were given bare...

Sensational! This new addition to the Edinburgh restaurant scene delivers in spades! Delighted to be present on its opening night. Warm welcome and great ambience. The food is outstanding. Each one of the Italian appetisers and snacks was delicious. The Gnocco fritto and Olives Ascolana are to die for. I could see me in the bar upstairs on an alternating cycle of these and several of the luscious glasses of Italian wines on offer! Those at our table raved over dinner about the Tagliatelle with porcini, and venison ragù. I loved the chunk of charred cabbage with the lamb shoulder. There was room for a taste of the poached pear and I have never tasted marscapone within a tiramisu served as on their dessert menu. Wow! James Clark is an aficionado of Italian wine so it was entirely expected that the wine list would cover all bases! The choices on the dinner menu and wine list are not overwhelming. We enjoyed a well priced glass of Langhe Bianco, Roagna Chardonnay and a bottle of Grattamacco Bolgheri with our meal. I have no doubt that this restaurant will be the go to place in Stockbridge but I will not hesitate to cross the city to enjoy...