With two restaurants to its name, and a staff that’s wonderfully flirty, you’re always guaranteed a great night out at Rollo. But if you’re going pre-theatre then Broughton Street is the obvious pick. The Playhouse is literally a five minute walk, and the cocktail bar means you could just have espresso martinis for dinner.
We’ve all been there, right?
No?
Just us then …
Fortunately, this life-affirming cocktail (which Rollo makes so well) is one of the many delights in store. But let’s start about half-way through the first bottle of wine, for it’s usually at this point we remember dinner is something you’re supposed to chew not drink.
Kicking off with the BITES menu, we insist you order the Crispy haggis bon-bons with a gorgeous whisky marmalade. Next, proceed directly to the Pinenut and parmesan pesto with toasted shards. So good, the dish could be prescribed to cure clinical depression.
Following this indulgence, you have an important decision to make: Do you attempt a three-course meal or a four? No prizes for guessing the path we often take, which brings us to the BOWLS portion of the menu.
Here you can choose from the likes of King prawns in Thai green coconut sauce, Pan-fried calamari with feta & mint salad, and the rather lush-sounding Sausage beef and butterbean tomato chilli. Boom!
Our favourite: the Grilled halloumi, pomegranate, cashew and pumpkin seed salad. Not only does it taste incredible, but the word “salad” makes us feel like we’re almost healthy, and in no way have a serious drinking problem.
Moving swiftly on to our next bottle of Sauvignon and the PLATES menu, here there’s everything from gorgeous Pan seared scallops to Moroccan lamb to choose from. Trouble is, they’re all equally delicious. Truly.
Though assuming push has come to shove, we’re going to say our favourite dish is … drumroll please … the Crispy Belly Pork with celeriac, apple & spring onion slaw. So incredibly lush, and so, so rich. It’s also nearly, almost too much for one person.
Mind you, while hunger is something we haven’t truly experienced since 1997, we usually add a few sides as well. The Dauphinoise potatoes with gruyere cheese are particularly good, well, incredible really. Meanwhile the handcut chips and aioli are very close second.
Given this blueprint of greed, you may think we couldn’t possibly have room for PUDDINGS, but you’d be wrong. Despite being utterly full by this stage, two favourites usually vie for our obesity-tinged attention.
First, there’s the Lemon tart with clotted cream ice cream which can cause involuntary moaning more appropriate to a private place.
But then, oh my god, there’s the Banana toffee bread and butter pudding with peanut butter ice cream. If orgasms were made out of carbs, well, this would be the recipe.
Come to think of it, that sentence may just sum up the entire Rollo experience. We seriously recommend you dine there at once.
In a pre-theatre nutshell:
Nearby: Edinburgh Playhouse (5 minute walk)
Perfect for: Everything.
Price: 4 courses and a side, roughly £35
Contact:
14 Broughton Street
Edinburgh EH1 3RH
0131 556 5333