My first resto review for a while – various medical procedures have meant that we’ve not eaten out much in the past couple of months. However, all is now back to normal.
Exterior view- December evening
Sweet Melindas is a small local restaurant in Marchmont that I last visited in 2007 (review here). As with lots of places where you enjoy the food, you resolve to return but it sometimes takes a while. On a December evening, it was warm and bustling with a great atmosphere.
Crab, leek and parmesan tart
Sweet Melindas specialises in fish (next door is an excellent fish shop) so I stuck to fish – although they were offering their Christmas menu, which was rather less fishy than usual.
Starter was Crab, leek and parmesan tart – this was excellent – very cheesy and light pastry and delicately flavoured filling. I expected a small tart but, as you can see, this was a substantial wedge from a larger tart. The salad was a little unimaginative but was OK.
Prawns, sea bass and sea bream
Main course was sea bass, sea bream and prawns with chinese cabbage. Sauce was ginger, soy and toasted sesame oil. The soy and sesame were well balanced but ginger undetectable – lots of garlic though. Fish was fresh and beautifully cooked. Broccoli, potatoes and a curious dish of mashed carrots with cumin to accompany. I didn’t think that the carrots worked with fish – although with meat they would have been excellent.
With coffees, 2 courses each, a bottle of Muscadet and pre-dinner drinks we were about £35 each. This was not hugely more expensive than in 2007 so I thought it was excellent value for a fish restaurant. We will be back, hopefully in less than 5 years this time.
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