Footlights Bar & Grill: Location can be everything in a city and Footlights Bar and Grill is at an interesting intersection in the shadow of Edinburgh castle, around the corner from Lothian Road.
As its name suggests it capitalises on the proximity to two theatres, the Traverse, and the venerable old lady, the Usher Hall.
At night, however, the area is known for younger ladies gyrating around poles in one of the many “gentleman’s clubs” just a thong’s throw away.
For this reason I chose to combine daytime shopping with a late lunch.
The menu contains the pub grub favourites one would expect and my very friendly server told me they do a roaring trade in breakfasts favoured by the hen and stag crowd, who I could see may be taking a walk on the wild side of an evening.
I opted for the beer-battered haddock, a full portion comes in at £10, but I selected the smaller platter at £7.
Fresh North Sea haddock supplied fresh daily by Armstrong’s of Stockbridge, beer battered to order. It’s served with chunky chips, mixed salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, garden peas, lemon & homemade tartare sauce.
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The interiors are cosy, well-lit and welcoming
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For a small portion this was a decent-sized plateful, thoughtfully presented. My server produced a jug of iced water as standard – a nice touch. On a mid-week afternoon the place was very quiet but I could see the appeal in the evenings and weekends.
The interiors are cosy, well-lit and welcoming. There is a games area at the back with a pool table and dart board and a selection of gaming machines. I kept my loose change in my purse.
My fish arrived fairly promptly but not too soon for me to suspect that it hadn’t been cooked from scratch. The half portion of haddock was seriously good, flaky flavoursome fish encased in a perfect batter that was thankfully not too brittle.
The chips were hand-cut and prepped on the premises, while the home-made tartare was very generous and simply delicious. The garnish was delightfully fresh. Now to the garden peas. Well they are not my favourite, but my parents always told me to eat up my greens, and surprisingly they went down well.
This dish was exceptionally well executed and excellent value considering you can barely get a takeaway from a chippie at £7 and that’s without the extras. As a friend of mine always says, it was an ‘elegant sufficiency.’
Other items on the menu include steak pie, another great staple, and a range of eight different burgers priced from £7.50 to £14 if you go for the Castle comprising two double 6oz steak burgers, caramelised onions, crispy bacon, fried egg & double cheese and that’s without factoring in the fries and pickles.
Oh my, try climbing the ramparts after that lot?
Lest readers get the wrong impression, Footlights also has a range of salads, and if my garnish was anything to go by I would be pleased.
It also offers crowd pleasers: nachos, macaroni and cheese and kids dishes at £4.50 with three options. May I suggest more choice as I’ve known many a child who is hard to feed?
After I ate I sank nicely into a Chesterfield style chair and looked on one of the thankfully mute TV screens.
Rating:
Ambience: 8/10
Service: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Food: 9/10
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