the West Room, Edinburgh

What's in a name, eh? I suspect I may have used this opening before, usually to rant against restaurants witih unpronounceable Gaelic names. No such problem here, obviously. But look above the door as you enter. Bar & Cicchetti. Some of you may not know what cicchetti are and of those who do, I suspect that relatively few non Italian speakers will know how to pronounce the word. Chee-KETTY, since you ask.

Sadly the Spanish nibbling culture is more widely known than the Venetian, with even the West Room's own website forced to describe its dishes as true Italian tapas. Cicchetti are small snacks which you eat to accompany your ombra at aperitivo time in Venice. Literally meaning shade, ombra is a small glass of wine, taken on a stroll round your favourite bars (bacarie) to greet friends. In Scotland we would call this a pub crawl - nothing so inelegant there.

The idea is inspired by the civilised Italian practice of always having something to eat to accompany a drink. Crisps and pork scratchings don't count. The West Room was the brainchild of the Pieraccini family. In addition to this place they had Rico's in Castle Street, The Broughton in Broughton Street and the Seafood Ristorante in St Andrews. The empire seems to have shrunk, now comprising just the latter two establishments.

So I have no idea who now owns the West Room, but whoever they are, they're making a pretty decent fist of it. Who better to lunch with than E from Milan, my long time (and long suffering) Italian teacher? She has a major problem for an Italian, being gluten intolerant, which meant that the pasta, bruschetta and pizzette dishes were out of bounds; however there was still plenty of choice from an extensive and attractive menu. Steal of the Day, never mind dish of the day, is the midweek lunch offer. A choice of two plates for a tenner!

I may return for that one day, but on to what they describe on the website as the cicchetti menu. That's a wee bit misleading. There are half a dozen large plates, and a couple of things where you can choose large or small options. I don't recall seeing much pasta in the bacarie in La Serenissima, and there are a few decidedly non Italian options.

With some sections of the menu closed to us, E and I shared two small and two large plates. Arancini (rice balls) can be hit and miss. Spinach, lemon and mozzarella examples were hits, mid chart perhaps. Garlic honey chicken strips with grilled vegetables is another dish fraught with danger. Pitfalls can include dried out fowl or tasteless veg. Here the chicken was decent, albeit a blind taster would have struggled to find garlic or honey. Chunks of pepper and courgette were nicely al dente and, remarkably, were well seasoned, though we couldn't work out with what. These were well complemented with a generous bowl of avocado tzatziki. Both dishes were great value at eight pounds each.

Grilled hake was a generous chunk of fish on a bed of "noodles" of courgette and fennel, with a pleasant saffron sauce and a few mussels. A decidedly un-Italian Spinach Green Chicken Curry was the star of the show. The flavour of the spinach wasn't masked at all. The sauce was smooth and very tasty, with just a little kick of chilli at the end.

Had we had stomach space, dolci could have included a couple of variations on vanilla ice cream, a cheese cake, an orange and polenta cake or an intriguing sounding watermelon and lime granita with mint syrup.

If you're expecting to be transported back to that little hidden square in Venice you may be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you're looking for some tasty, good value grub in the heart of Edinburgh, in an attractive space, served by friendly people, make a beeline for here.

(Tom's closing thought. Why on earth does the phrase to make a beeline for mean to go directly? Have you ever observed a bee in flight?)

News

I gather from social media that Gaby Soutar has written her last restaurant review for The Scotsman. She will continue as Features Editor, so presumably this is more cost cutting. Gaby and I haven't always seen eye to eye - she blocked me on Twitter some time ago - but 17 years is quite a shift. Respect.

This is the last Tom Eats! for a while. Back in October.