Reviews The Honours

Impeccable food and service!! The restaurant has great ambience with classy decor. If you like the taste of fresh oysters, I would highly recommend you to try Fresh Oysters with Lemon & Champagne Granites....sensational! Their house cured smoked salmon is another appetiser to start with also. :)

I had the fortune to interview Paul Tamburrini last year, before The Honours opened. Conceived as a more relaxed, casual dining experience than Martin Wishart’s eponymous restaurant in Leith, The Honours is a high quality brasserie on North Castle Street. Six of us got together a couple of Saturdays ago to celebrate a birthday and The Honours was the restaurant of choice.

The Honours is a hopping place. We had a two-hour slot (which stretched to two hours and forty-five minutes) and arrived at 18:00 on the dot. We perused the menus over cocktails in the bar. The menu was very tempting and had an interesting variety of dishes but I decided to go for classics: half a dozen oysters to start and a beef fillet with Bearnaise sauce and tomato salad for mains. I didn’t really put the bartender to the test either: I started with a kir royale. A very good choice, if I say so myself. And easy to carry to our table.

The oysters were plump and fresh, perfectly clean – thin shards of shell in your oyster is horrible – and complemented by little dabs of frozen Bloody Mary. The subtle heat of the Bloody Mary enhanced the sea flavour of the oysters. C had a spelt risotto with mozzarella while other members of the party had prawns Mary Rose and jamon belotta.

C and I went to Vienna recently and have been drinking Gruner Veitliner at every opportunity since we came back. We were pleased to see one on The Honour’s wine list and it went very well with the oysters. With the main, I drank a Malbec. We had the window seat and got a good look down the long.

I had asked for my steak rare so it was larger than everyone else’s. The Honours serves their fillet steak on the bone. it has been dry-matured for 28 days and is darkly flavoursome and juicy yet bloodless. It’s brushed with a house marinade and finished with a glaze. I’m sure the steak would be just as good without the glaze – I don’t think it needs the added sweetness – but I enjoyed every morsel of my steak. The salad of cherry tomatoes, shallots and basil was fresh, and I tried a bit of creamy Dauphinoise, and a couple of crisp French fries. C had the gnocchi and there was also a sea bream a la plancha on the table. (There were vegetarian options were but they were not the most imaginative. Gnocchi, pasta and risotto. At least there wasn’t cauliflower.)

Since my last visit to Michael Neave’s I’ve started having soufflé. A good soufflé is a lovely, airy thing and it seems they are quite fashionable at the moment. (Or maybe I’ve just had my eyes opened to them: I keep seeing sweet soufflés on menus.) The flavour du jour was pink grapefruit. The dessert that came out was as light and tall as you could wish for and had a very subtle grapefruit flavour.

C shared an apple tart tatin with a friend. It was perfect. Golden, sticky, soft and crisp all at once. If the other dishes hadn’t convinced us, we might still have gone back for the tarte tatin. The cinnamon ice cream that was served with it was rich and delicious.

Absolutely amazing meal. The staff were excellent; friendly and helpful. The food was delicious, and the portion sizes perfect. The interior of the restaurant is cosy and modern, with a lovely atmosphere. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, and would highly recommend it to anyone

Fabulous, couldn't fault it, had a wonderful birthday lunch, we haven't been to a fine dining/Michelin star restaurant since we had a very disappointing experience at Tom Kitchen a couple of years ago but this has most certainly restored our faith in great food and service.

Great lunch at exceptional value. And very good service too!

I didn’t know what to expect as this was reservation was made for me. We were a party of 4 in the evening and had the best meal during my visit to Edinburgh. I started with 12 Oysters, half traditional the other half a variety of creative arrangements (the Champagne Oyster was amazing). Fantastic cocktails too. Then moved on to a Chateaubriand for two. Excellent! The side dishes were equally great. Fantastic service, excellent Bordeaux wine at a reasonable price. I would return here and highly recommend.

Lovely food here. It's definitely somewhere one would go for special occasions. The service is very polite and friendly (but not overly so which is my preference). The food here is undoubtedly expensive. We enjoyed our scallop and pasta dish, although it was a tad salty. Dessert, a sundae with glorious toppings, was delicious.

Amazing experience. We had cocktails to start at the bar and then were led to the dining room for our meal. Oysters were super fresh and our starters and main courses were prepared to perfection. Paul was extremely helpful and guided us through our meal in an effortless fashion. I can not recommend this restaurant enough. A must visit for anyone in Edinburgh.

Great dining experience. A nice welcome upon arrival and shown to our table in a busy and obviously popular restaurant. The menu offers a varied choice and the staff are knowledgeable and always happy to describe each dish. The oysters with pink champagne were a taste sensation and an indication of good things to come. Salade du chef was a nice light starter with perfect poached egg. We shared the Chateaubriand and it was the highlight. Silence at the table while we both enjoyed this meal, but will vocally sing praises about The Honours! Good work!

Good - but not excelent - food. High ceilings. Good service - pleasant staff. Nice ambiance. Circa £60 per head. Cocktails were apparently okay but not absolutely perfect. Meat was apparently very good quality.

The most fantastic, wonderful, delicious, succulent and well served steak i have ever eaten. This place is pure heaven: the staff are lovely, the surroundings are tasteful, the cocktails are fabulous and the food is to die for. My new favourite restaurant!!