It was a slightly odd welcome - almost like they could have done without us walking in at a relatively busy time. We hadn't booked but this turned out not be a problem, as they found a table for us pretty quickly. We made our drinks orders, a rather easy-to-drink bottle of Sangiovese, and were left to peruse the relatively extensive menu. Now, if you weren't hungry before reading the menu, you certainly were afterwards. The food this restaurant offers is pure comfort food - from deep fried shrimp with chilli sauce to a selection of steaks, as well as burgers, fish & chips and fajitas. They also have a good salad section but I sort of glazed over that - this was Friday night, I had red wine in my hand, it had to be steak for me.
Nevertheless, I had to think of something to start off with - and all of the starters sounded pretty damn good to me. The offerings of grilled goat's cheese, mussels and nachos (not all in one dish, that would be horrible - or would it?!) made choosing a starter a serious dilemma - however I managed to settle for the chicken liver and bacon paté, whilst my girlfriend went for their cauliflower and Dunsyre blue cheese soup. The food arrived pretty quickly despite the place being packed - a service team that clearly know what they're doing (with the occasional surly waitress, however). I must say, the starter portions are quite big (apologies for limited pictures - was too busy stuffing my face to remember to take many.. actually I only managed to take one - see above) but I was relatively hungry so I was certainly not complaining. Often you find when you order paté, you get a thimble full of the thing, and a whole loaf of bread to accompany it - however this was not the case here. A generous amount of perfectly made, smooth paté was served with chargrilled crusty bread which was absolutely delicious. It also came with a generous serving of red onion chutney which, we all know, is the perfect pairing with paté. An overall great starter. The soup, too, was flavourful and well made. The fantastic flavour of blended, well seasoned cauliflower was accompanied by the close to unbeatable Dunsyre blue cheese - the two go together perfectly, and the soup certainly demonstrated this.
Moving on, after our two tasty starters, we were looking forward to our mains. Naturally, coming the The Smoke Stack, I had to go for their rump steak - as great and comforting as the other dishes on the menu sound, steak is clearly their speciality, and over-looking it is often followed by regret. My girlfriend agreed but fancied something lighter - going for the healthy meat option in the peppered steak salad (unlike me, she did not ignore the salad section). You can be healthy, however, with the accompaniments of the steak - but I went for chips and a Dunsyre blue cheese sauce. The steak was excellent - prime Aberdeen Angus cooked exactly to my liking (medium rare) and not in the slightest bit chewy, despite the rump cut. The sauce was also delicious - however texturally odd. The salad was also top quality - leaves with a delicious soy dressing were topped with a generous amount of heavily peppered beef, that, again, had been cooked to absolute perfection. It is quite clear that The Smoke Stack know a good slice of beef when they see one. The quality of the meat they present is top of the range stuff - you'd be hard pressed to find a better steak anywhere in the country. Without having to say, we ate every single bit of our dishes. Oh and by the way, the chips are pretty good too.
Now, onto dessert. I know what you're thinking, how the hell did we manage to eat all of that food and still have dessert?! Well, I have no idea either - but we did, so there. I went for my favourite, sticky toffee pudding, while my girlfriend went for a banana split. The pudding was good, a well made, date cake was slathered in a thick toffee sauce, topped with vanilla ice cream. Pure comfort. Similarly, the banana split was tasty - despite us only eating about a sixth of it (eyes bigger than our stomachs, as usual). They don't offer anything spectacular in this respect, however the desserts were tasty and comforting, and this is clearly the aim of the restaurant.
So, overall, it was a very satisfying meal. What they have to offer is simple, yet delicious. Their food is filling and the steaks are done to clinical perfection - this Edinburgh institution is the place to go for your red meat fix. As great as the new places around the city are, you just can't go wrong with some of the more established restaurants in Edinburgh. So, if you haven't been in a while, head to The Smoke Stack for a very good steak dinner - I guarantee it.
Restaurant information
The Smoke Stack
53-55 Broughton Street, Edinburgh
EH1 3RJ
0131 556 6032
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