1925 At Pompadour, Edinburgh

The energetic Dean Banks has been in charge here since 2021, spearheading the revival of this wonderful room as we emerged from The Great Plague. It was reviewed here fairly soon after it opened on a tasting menu, dinner only basis. I simply need to say that it scored 24/25 and was Tom Eats! Restaurant of the Year 2021.

There has, of late, been a move away from tasting menus. I for one am not saddened by this. Dean has revamped the offering here at 1925, now offering an a la carte menu. It's the same room, the restaurant name being the year of its unveiling. He has removed the striking but incongruous dinghy. Sadly, he has retained the hideously uncomfortable tables.

He now also offers lunch from Thursday to Sunday inclusive. L and I took a toddle to see for ourselves. The menu lines up in 3:3:3 formation, priced at £39.50 for three courses. Having just two doesn't seem to be an option. I might have fancied the Isle of Wight tomato with burrata. But with raspberry vinegar? I thought that had died an unmourned death in the 1990s. No use for L because of the cream allergy (burrata is mozzarella filled with cream) and she doesn't like oysters - hardly alone in that. So soup it was, a pea and lemongrass velouté, with a spectacular lemongrass foam on top. Pretty decent.

In a minute or two I had wolfed down the tempura oyster with fennel, and ginger compress. Nice. What's next?

The choices for mains are tofu, fish or steak frites. I can't remember which fish it was, but it came with butter bean and a chicken butter sauce. Tasty enough. The steak was sirloin, good sirloin, but it was slices of steak, not a steak. Good chips.

I normally skip puds but hey! I'm a Fifer. If I'm paying for it... Tiramisu was perfectly pleasant, as was a combo of blackcurrant sorbet and summer berries. As I write this, none of the plates is shouting from my memory banks.

I sneer at food writers who score on ambience, but I need to comment on it here. I have never seen this glorious space with only three occupied tables. Perhaps word hasn't yet got out that it opens for lunch. It just seemed odd. Odder still that despite the lack of bodies the pace of service was glacial. Boss Louise and sidekick Rosa are lovely ladies both, but everything seemed to take an age, and there didn't seem to be the option of bread to fill the time.

Are you getting the vibe of damnation with faint praise? It just all felt flat. To quote your average, semi literate social media reviewer, it was nice. I've eaten in most of Dean's places. Most of the food has had the wow factor. This, sadly, is the first which has just been ordinary, and the dinner menu doesn't look much more exciting. Are the wheels coming off the juggernaut?