Stac Polly

Though Coming here for the Fringe Festival and the great (yes, great, dining) I have been avoiding Stac Polly for about 10 years because of it’s rep as the place for the Scottish Experience. How stupid of me. This is a exceptional dining that I would be happy to see in any great culinary Capitol in
the world.
The food was superb, and we have eaten in most of the top restaurants in Edinburgh over the years, the service professional, and the ambience perfect, in a tucked away corner under the street, very cosy and warm.
Don’t neglect the warm onion tart starter. It far exceeds it’s description. And my friend who is a fan of haggis was thrilled with her wee pouches in a spicy plum sauce.
From there to salmon and lovely lamb rump. Both wonderful.
This was a meal to come back for year after year.

Loved this place. Might have had something to do with the excellent gin cocktails (raspberry Guilin fizz & Valencia orange) that were flowing but it’s not the only reason.
We sat in the wee room to the left of the bar. It was quiet and L & I were the only diners in that space. There were another couple in the more traditional space further round.
We shared the goats cheese served on a bed of rocket, tomatoes & chickpeas for starter. There was also a basket of fresh brown baguette which was very moreish. It set us up nicely for our mains — monkfish & salmon skewers with a courgette rosti & some salad. The fish was perfectly cooked although I thought the rosti was a bit bland.
I had the drambuie panna cotta for dessert. It was a huge portion & despite my best efforts & some assistance from L, I couldn’t finish it.
The service was excellent & the lady who served us was engaging & chatty without being intrusive. I’d definitely return to this branch & I’d like to try St Mary’s Street because that is within stumbling distance of home.

My husband and I hosted a large dinner for family and friends (about 40 people) at Stac Polly on Dublin Street on a Friday night with a set menu from their Autumn 2014 selections. The food was stunning, as always, and at a very reasonable price. The starter of Baked filo pastry parcels of finest haggis, sweet plum and red wine sauce was a real crowd-​pleaser (every plate was perfect) and eloquently introduced the Roasted rump of Borders lamb with mustard and herb crust, aubergine and red onion tart tatin, star anise carrots, fine beans and game jus. Everyone who ordered the Vanilla pod crème brûlée underlain by summer fruit compote all agreed they could have eaten a gallon on it!
I cannot emphasis strongly enough the quality of food and cooking at Stac Polly. I have enjoyed Scottish fine dining in a number of highly acclaimed restaurants in Edinburgh but not one outstrips a meal at Stac Polly. The attentive and relaxed service in a warm and understated atmosphere results in an experience reminiscent of a good meal and excellent company in the home of close friends with the benefit of someone else clearing the table :) I can’t wait to go back!

I had a very enjoyable meal here, and on a Groupon deal too so that’s definitely a bonus. I find online deal meals can be very hit and miss, but in this case I would come back to Stac Polly for sure.
I went to the restaurant on Dublin Street, which is down in the bowels of a building. So it’s not got anything in the way of natural light and it feels a bit catacomb-​like, but for romantic atmosphere that’s probably a definite bonus.
The service was speedy and polite. Waiters and waitresses kept us well-​watered and fed and were very pleasant to chat to.
The food itself was lovely. I ordered a game terrine with piccalilli to start and it was delicious. My main course was lamb with lentils and various other veggies and it was the best piece of lamb I have eaten in a very long time. Yum!
The only thing I would say about this place is that it’s pricey. It’s over £20 for a main course so you had better be expecting some very nice food indeed for that price. But for the quality of food and atmosphere, I’d say it’s definitely worth it for a birthday meal or special night out.

Armed with a voucher for a meal out at Stac Polly, we arrived at a very stylish place.
The surroundings reminded me of the inside of an Tudor Barn home stead, they even had the alcove open hearth. We were greeting with great enthusiasm.
I am firstly impressed with the fact that we were able to use their normal menu, unlike other restaurants that present special voucher menus. The only extra was a supplement on the steak and drinks. So if you are picking up a voucher for this place, you get a real deal!
Second I need to mention the service; pleasant, friendly and efficient. No faults or mishaps detected throughout our visit.
And lastly I commend them for the chef’s skill. Our Ham Hock Terrine and homemade pickle was delicious. The Rabbit was brilliantly paired with the black pudding. My Aberdeen Angus Fillet steak was cooked to perfection and the whole peppercorn sauce was rich and full of flavour. We finished with a rich Chocolate Cheesecake — this proved to be indeed very dense and rich. (Mostly finished off by Anita A.)
— Portion sizes of all meals were spot on.
The normal prices are £22 for the Rabbit and £27 for the Steak. For the quality and skill I would be prepared to pay that.
Also wine by the glass is in relation to the bottle price. Nice.
The coffee came with a fudge (hey, it is a Scottish Fare restaurant after all) which was buttery and sweet.
All in all it was over and beyond my personal expectations. This place has the service, the chefs and the ambience deserving of a 5 star review.
We will definitely go back here this year without the aid of a voucher

So on the advice of our hotel we go to this place… a little long drive as actually they have two locations and we got the wrong address first ;-)
A little empty for a Sunday night but I guess that’s normal for such a day at 9pm…
We discovered a nice restaurant, going down a few stairs, old and cosy. Just looked comfortable and welcoming.
The food is quite typical, offering traditional Scottish food, from haggis to nice fish. It’s all good and tasty. But even though it appears to be quite fresh, I had the impression some of the plates where from food prepared in advance, easy to finish the cooking on the spot. There was no «wow» factor.
Service was quick and efficient.
So all in all good food, nothing amazing, but you will still have a good dinner.

Very disappointed. My husband enjoys fine food and we eat out often. But after telling staff he didn’t enjoy his meal, they were rude and argumentative. We were treated like we were trying to pull a con and get some money off our bill, when my husband had actually found the meat to be tough and just about inedible. Will never go back and think this company need to retrain their staff to show customers a bit of respect and remember where their incomes comes from.

Traditional Scottish restaurant that does what it says on the tin. Old school dishes (game, beef, salmon) served in a traditional environment in the New Town. It ticks the box nicely if that’s what you’re after but hard to think of a reason to go more than once in a blue moon because it’s exactly the same all the time.
I had partridge for my starter which was mixed. The breast and the cabbage and bacon accompaniment were excellent, but the wee leg was charred beyond recognition. I couldn’t get into it with cutlery and was forced to pick it up and take a bite. .. but I couldn’t. Absolutely rock hard. Really didn’t match with the quality of the rest of the dish and the quality of everything else we ate. Maybe it was just one of those things. The venison main was excellent though. The staff were nice, the place is very nicely turned out, if not quite as warm as it could be, so it’s a good place that I would consider taking someone who wanted olde worlde charm, but there wasn’t really anything to drag me back.
And while having the restaurant downstairs is nice enough (although it blocks your phone reception!!!), the empty upstairs bit that’s open to the street is bizarre. A few tables and chairs with no apparent purpose, and you need to go up there to reach the toilet. Weird.
So I’m a bit torn on how many stars to give. Other than my cremated partridge leg, the food was very good, and it’s a nice place, but somewhat meh at the same time.

Game in rich sauce, seafood, little cubes of tablet with your coffee — Stac Polly does good Scottish/​French-​style food. It’s a pleasant venue*, staff are friendly … so it’s hard to put my finger on why it’s just not that exciting.
First, I have to say that everything I ate was delicious — scallops in their shell, pheasant with chestnut purée, a nice bottle of red and then coffee. J’s partridge was tasty but a bit tough, but the venison was amazing.
Like Catriona, I find the fact the menu doesn’t change a bit disconcerting — they must get bored with doing the same stuff, surely? Shouldn’t it depend what’s good on the day/​week? But. they do it well, plenty of practice, I suppose!
I would go back if I had visitors to Edinburgh who would appreciate good Scottish ingredients — you can get haggis in a fairly safe and non-​scary little filo parcel, for example! But not if anyone in the group was vegetarian, as there’s nothing at all listed for them to eat. And if it’s just the two of us — probably not. There’s too many other places in Edinburgh to try.
*I won’t blame them for the lack of phone coverage/​wifi, but it was frustrating for a geek like me. And it’s odd that everything’s downstairs, leaving an empty waiting-​room area on street level. Going up there to go to the loo was vaguely alarming — who knew who had walked in off the street and was hanging about in this empty area?
(Oh, and it bugs me when restaurants add a service charge. Feels sneaky, and like they think you don’t know to tip, We tip! But if you put a service charge on then you’re not getting a penny more than that.)

Having an American friend over to visit, I had to introduce him to the highlights and the lowlights of Scottish fare — deep fried pizza (
); delicious ice cream (
); tablet, broon sauce, pies and the such like, I felt it was required to show him a little more of the high life that us Scots enjoy. He wanted to try haggis before he departed our shores, so we took him to Stac Polly to see what they would come up with.
Stac Polly definitely has highs and lows:
Lows:
* sample menu online is the same as they used on the day we visited — less sample, more stock — bit disappointing as it gave the impression that there was a rotational menu, perhaps on local availability, but it wasn’t the case
* no vegetarian main course. That’s just poor show, chaps
* Cranachan dessert. Given that Stac Polly was the place that introduced me to this fantastic dessert, it was extremely disappointing. Oatmeal that was left far too long in cream and whisky, turning what should be light, into a cream/​oatmeal cake. The raspberries in sauce felt like they came from a tin and far too sweet — gave the heavy cream little if no contrast and became an overwhelmingly rich and unpleasant dessert. Came out far too quickly and clearly sitting in a fridge for longer than necessary. Less haste, more pleasure!
* As the place was heaving, service was a little harried, but the waitress herself was perfectly pleasant.
* No steak knives for the steak, which was a little on the tough side
Highs
* Accomodated my request to remove meat from one of the fish dishes so I could eat it but found random broccoli in the risotto — I have a food intolerance to the stuff, so rather bemused to find it on my plate. along with some buried beans — suspect there was a plating malfunction!
* Lamb was apparently perfectly cooked and cut beautifully
Overall, I am less impressed with Stac Polly than I used to be — I didn’t feel the quality of the food was as good as I remember when this place was a regular haunt for myself and my family — it’s good, but it’s just not that good that I would necessarily pick this as a place to take guests again.

this place looks long past its glory days. most of the reviews on their walls were from the mid-​late 90’s. why was my aberdeen prime rib so tough? sigh. it’s a cute place, but not worth the visit if you’ve only got a few days in town. somewhat overpriced.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been here over the years. This is my all time favourite restaurant, tucked away in a basement, full of charm, character and scottish tradition.
The food is outstanding — I cannot recommend highly enough the Haggis Parcels to start — they are outstanding!
The choice is limited (which I like) but the quality is outstanding. The food is locally sourced, the wine list is very good, the whisky is outstanding, the ambience is formal yet relaxed, the décor is beautiful and the staff are great. It’s a special treat to visit Stac Polly, I think I might just book up soon!