The Honours

December 2014
Having been to Martin Wishart’s place in Leith a couple of years ago, we were expecting good food, service and ambience. I’m happy to say we were not disappointed!
The basement level of Malmaison is completely different to the dark bar that was there before; it’s been opened up and brightened up to good effect. The décor is modern yet elegant.
The bread and butter that we started with was lovely — a warm ciabatta-​like bread which must’ve been freshly baked; dangerous though as we didn’t want to spoil our appetites and politely declined when offered more (we had scoffed two pieces each already!).
It was Mrs G’s birthday treat so wanted it to be special. The menu provided an array of choices and I could have happily had a number of options. After a chat with the friendly and knowledgeable waiter we decided to share the Cote de Boeuf; bone in rib cut. To start, I opted for the Seabream Tartare and Mrs G the Crab Marie Rose.
Both of these starters were very, very good. Mine was refreshingly zingy thanks to some citrus flavors and capers; accompanied by a quails egg, sardine (anchovy?) and a jelly (perhaps quince). Highly recommended. Mrs G loved her crab dish too, so great start to the evening!
The main event; the Cote de Boeuf, wow! Incredibly tasty, incredibly tender and perfectly cooked to our desired medium-​rare (rib on the bone needs just a tiny bit more). The thick cuts of melt-​in-​your-​mouth meat were accompanied by crispy potato wedges, onion rings and a simple salad.
What more could we want? The meat was the main event and was sublime! Not one scrap of meat remained circa 15 – 20 minutes later! I would put it up there with the quality we’d enjoyed at Alston Bar & Grill — can’t decide between the two!
Notwithstanding the fact that we had had enough food by now and anything more would have been pure greed, we decided to go crazy and have dessert. Mrs G chose the Crème Brulee whilst I went for two scoops of ice cream (I was really full!); one of vanilla and one of pistachio.
These delicious sweets really did proffer the icing on the cake (figuratively). What a great way to end such a fantastic meal, absolutely lovely! The brulee was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside (like an armadillo), whilst the homemade ice cream slid over the palate leaving a yummy flavour and pleasant coolness.
The food was washed down with a delectable Pinot Noir — light and easily drinkable yet full of flavour.
All in all, a fabulous experience!

Updating my review — food still incredible, service has deteriorated. The manager, instead of smoothly solving a problem of his staff’s making, made a big fuss instead in fixing our incorrect bill. Left a bit of a sour taste after an otherwise great experience. The customer may not always be right, but that doesn’t mean that you are either, Monsieur!

A well deserved update to 5 stars, as a lot of the issues I had with this place a year ago seem to have been fixed.
Most importantly, the food seems to have been upped a notch. The ham terrine I had as a starter was lovely, with a cracking jam which really added to the overall flavour. We went for the Chateaubriand as a main, and it’s a great deal: you get a good amount of steak with this, and some really nice chunky chips cooked in duck fat, onion rings, bernaise sauce and a salad. Importantly, the steak is really well cooked; if I had to describe it, it’s cooked the «old-​school» way, which is different from the slightly fancier approaches from Alston, Porter & Rye etc. While it doesn’t top Alston in terms of my favourite, it was definitely up there in terms of the steaks I’ve had in Glasgow, and the gap isn’t that big.
What made it better, and really pushed it up into 5 star territory was the price. The Chateaubriand with all the sides and a glass of house wine each came in at £55, which for what you got was exceptional. Admittedly, this was the weekend lunchtime deal, but even at the £70 full price this is a cracking buy. Matched up against the other places doing this it’s keenly priced. It’s also worth noting that it does offers in the various deals websites, which is worth keeping an eye out for. They also seem to have dropped the automatic service charge (although this might not be the case for the deals), which is a welcome thing in my book.
Service is still friendly, but at times it can feel a little formal, which could be a little off-​putting for some.
All in all, the year seems to have been kind to the Honours, and has given them the opportunity to tweak the wee negatives I had during my first visit.

We’ve made it a bit of a Christmas tradition to visit The Honours over the holidays — last Christmas was our first visit, and we decided to go for Sunday lunch yesterday. I’ve been a few times throughout the year and believe I’ve found my perfect meal — crab cappuccino and scallop & truffle tagliatelle for main. I was super excited for this!
At 12.30 the restaurant was pretty quiet but it got busier while we were there. Sadly the scallops were off the menu meaning the tagliatelle was served without them (sob) but the price was reduced accordingly. Also, they’ve changed some of the menu so my favourite crab cappuccino isn’t on there anymore (please bring this back immediately!).
So I had the tagliatelle sans scallops as a starter, and shared the Chateaubriand for main. On Le Weekend menu the Chateaubriand is £55 per couple with a glass of wine each, plus sides of duck fat roasted chips, onion rings, salad and béarnaise. Amazing value!
We were treated to a complimentary oyster with Champagne granita (I think because it was the holidays!) which was lovely and refreshing. The tagliatelle wasn’t the best presentation of the dish I’ve seen and it looked a little messy but thankfully the amazing flavour was there. It is definitely improved by the scallops but I still enjoyed it — this is one of my all-​time favourite dishes in Glasgow and I think about it way too often. It’s definitely worth trying!
Onto mains. I’ve dined with others having the Chateaubriand but hadn’t tried it myself. This was just lovely — I love how it’s presented, the waiter brought it out to the table sliced and the served it up onto our plates with a coating of sauce in a very professional manner. The portion size is just perfect and the steak is one of the best I’ve had. The sides can’t be faulted and overall, we were both very pleased with this dish.
Our bill came to about £80 which for a fancy two course lunch for two (with one beer on top of the included wine) was very reasonable. The Honours is a really lovely restaurant and while it can be a little too formal, you can have a lovely relaxing meal of top class food. Now, just bring back the crab cappuccino, please!

Posh surf ‘n’ turf at The Honours had to be worth a voucher. I haven’t been in Malmaison for a while but the bar certainly looked very familiar. It’s an upmarket hotel bar. Fun comic book frames cover the walls, but unfortunately typical hotel lounge furniture covers the floor. A few more sofas wouldn’t go amiss. What I did like about the bar though were the friendly, chatty staff, and the craft beer selection, not bad at all. I opted for the Camden Belgian-​style wheat beer and was impressed by the flavour.
The waiting staff as you would expect were also great and very attentive. A half lobster and a steak was our deal, served with a bottle of prosecco. We both ordered our steak medium-​rare, and I chose the garlic butter with my lobster. It came quickly, served with chips and a basic, dressed lettuce salad. On the negative side I would say the steak was just a touch over and a bit small, it was lovely and tender though. Again the lobster was a bit small too, but it tasted good to me — admittedly I’m not a crustacean connoisseur. The skinny fries were as good as skinny fries can be, but I was still a bit hungry so I ordered a pistachio crème brulee to finish too, it was very nutty and unusual.
So a little bit measly on the portions, with a lack of inventive accompaniments, and coupled with the slightly more than medium-​rare steak makes this a four.