Twenty Princes Street

I arranged an early dinner here with my Husband and Grandparents. They were in Edinburgh for the day and wanted somewhere for dinner that was close to the bus station. I had heard good things about Twenty and after looking on their website, found a deal that is £20 for a main course and a glass of wine or a beer for two people, that was very reasonable indeed.
I requested one of their lovely round marble tables in the window as it boasts a beautiful view out over Princess Street and the mound.
The choice from the set menu deal was fine for the rest of my dinning party but not so great as I am a strict vegetarian and after enquiring about the pesto linguine, I was advised that it had parmesan cheese in it which isn’t veggie as it uses calves stomach lining rennet in it. I instead opted for a Thai vegetable & noodle salad with tempura & coriander chilli corn on top, it was delicious. I had been worried about it being to spicy but they kindly put the sauce in a small pot on the side so I could add what I wanted.
The other food ordered at our table was the burger and the Steak Sandwich, all seemed to be well received and all plated were cleared, which is always a good sign.
I was pleased to see the beer option was a Peroni, sometimes with deals you can end up with obscure brands you have never heard of, but not this time.
The ladies bathroom had little glasses of fresh flowers which was a lovely touch.
Very good service and it was a nice dinner. I have rated it 4 stars rather than 5 due to the veggie option not actually being fully veggie and me then being restricted to one option on the menu.
The ajoining cocktail bar Juniper looks inviting and I would like to come back to check it out.

Been 2 times now with ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ food results; half great, half poor standard. The steaks are really peelly wally looking, not the rich dark colour you’d expect from a good grilled meat, and consequently already taste disappointing. The mac and cheese side needed the flour cooking out a bit longer but was still quite tasty. Starters, again, hit and miss.
Service too is inconsistent. Bit over-​friendly whilst also being a bit slack. Both times I’ve had to get the bill amended due to errors and both visits I’ve had to chase up missing ordered items.
On my last visit we tried the cocktails too — a selection of 3 all tasted of nothing, very thin and a distinct lack of detectable alcohol content, so that was disappointing.
The music piping through the bar and restaurant is sooo irritating. Just a drone of lightly electronic noise which reminds of the sort of thing restaurants subjected us to in the early nineties. Decent music, ACTUAL music, would uplift the atmosphere miles…
I think I’d still try again in the future — the room is nice and obviously the views are great. I just really wish these niggles didn’t spoil things.

Had dinner here earlier this week and have to say, the food was absolutely fantastic.
We also dined on a voucher but was never made to feel ‘lesser’ because of it.
Black pudding and pulled pork roll to start. I was envisioning some kind of bun and thinking that wasn’t overly glamorous but what arrived was more akin to a spring roll and having the crunch of the crispy skin on the roll was great to offset the rich texture of the pork and black pudding.
The steak was cooked to perfection and the triple cooked chips were perfectly crunchy on the outside and delightfully fluffy on the inside. The peppercorn sauce was rich without being overpowering and I even ate all the grilled cherry tomatoes even though I don’t usually like cooked tomato.
The jaffa cake dessert was slightly over de-​constructed making it difficult to piece together all the flavours but the chocolate soufflé is quite possibly the best I’ve had in town. Amazing crust at the top and indulgently rich and gooey in the middle. The chocolate shot that accompanies it is devilishly alcoholic and delicious.
The room itself is gorgeous, high ceilings with modern fixtures, a mix of booths and tables, all with a fantastic view out the floor to ceiling windows looking out over Waverley Hotel, Waverley Station and Princes St.
I was disappointed as when I arrived, I stood at the host stand for about 5 minutes and noone was there to greet me. Service was otherwise friendly and attentive if sometimes a bit curt.
A la carte price point looks fair and I would say good for the great quality of food. Overall, would happily return for another meal.

A voucher deal is always a good way to get introduced to new venues and restaurants. Twenty Princes Street is one of the places we never really thought of visiting. — It actually has one of the 2 only Josper Grills in Edinburgh (the Black Room has the other one)
It shares the building of an hotel and Juniper Fondue is on the same floor. The entrance is quite decorative, candles in lanterns placed on the carpeted stairs and a great parquet flooring at the reception.
The restaurant has several booths and mixes 2 – 4 seater tables in the middle of the room. It overlooks the Balmoral and the Mount. Quite a sight at night. Possibly even better during Christmas on Princes Street.
We were shown our table and our coats were taken to be hung. Looking around it suddenly occurred to me that the flooring (short parqueted) is extremely suited for dancing (no I didn’t). This notion made me look at the way the tables were placed and it just looked like a dance/​ballroom floor flanked by private booths and with tables added to be swiftly removed when the band starts playing. Great place for a wedding, not so for a restaurant. It felt like a posh pop-​up restaurant.
The service though efficient, was a little lacklustre. No real attention was given to the presentation on the table .
We were invited to get a drink and we took a glass of Shiraz and Innes & Gunn.
We got our Bread & Butter and I decided on a starter. Pigeon Breast and Pear with a ‘granola’ of hazelnut crumble and pistachios.
This was very nice, well presented and that ‘granola’ worked very well. Very enjoyable.
The deal was for a Josper Oven Grilled Rib-​eye Steak with Triple Cooked Fries and a sauce of our choice.
I chose the Peppercorn and Anita had her Bearnaise. Both steaks were cooked medium rare and came out as expected. However we got potato wedges and not fries (which technically are potatoes too, granted) and my Peppercorn Sauce was a jus with some black peppercorns. Again technically correct.
It just wasn’t exciting, not very tasty. I wasn’t looking for outstanding, I didn’t need to be wowed. I was not very. eh. whelmed with the dish on my plate. Steak was juicy, though lacking the promised chargrilled flavour I was expecting.
The location and view is stunning, service was allright. The starters are delicious their steak mains less so.
A solid 3 stars.

Nice little place. Took a bit to get service, but this could just be my personal perception, coming from another country and all. :) Visited the bar a few times since I was staying in the hotel above it. Drinks were nice and smooth. Dessert wasn’t bad either. Nice ambiance, especially in the room on the end with the big cozy chairs (looked like an over-​large living room with tons of cozy seating). Nice knowledgeable staff as well.

On arriving at the bar with friends we were all served drinks barely fit for consumption. This was a result of the soda in the post mix system being nonexistent.
Vodka & lemonade was literally lemonade syrup with vodka. This was not rectified nor replaced when pointed out. Simple cocktails, in particular an Aperol Spritz, where laughable. I don’t know the particular level of incompetence you have to have to get one wrong, hell, the recipe is on the bottle, but apparently, Twenty Princes Street have the staff to make it doable.
Their «bartender» tried again, using the proverbial «if you have a particular recipe…» excuse. To this day it is the only bar I have ever seen, despite me reading out the recipe, to use apple juice and bitters in an Aperol spritz.
We then went through to the restaurant to find that, despite the group size booked as 15, we were to be on 2 separate booths, despite there being ample tables to have accommodated us together. Despite asking, we ended up having to adjust a table ourselves.
We sat at the table at 20:45. It took over 45 minutes to get wine to the table. It took an hour and a half before stale bread and starters arrived. One could excuse it if the restaurant was busy, but it wasn’t. The last booth had long since finished, their table sat for over an hour before being cleared.
On several occasions, we asked both the waitress and restaurant manager how long food would be. We were constantly just told «soon». It is also worth noting our second set of cutlery arrived whilst starter plates were still on the table.
We started timing orders… a Bramble took an hour to arrive. At no point was any apology or reason given. When main courses did arrive, a large proportion of them were not hot or even warm. This was pointed out but again, no apology was given, but this time, we were told, «well they’ve come out the oven». Dessert, tea, coffee or even a cheeseboard were not even attempted for the aforementioned reasons.
We have tried to address this with the restaurant directly on the night and in further emails but unfortunately the only thing worse than their food and service is the attitude of the General Manager. To quote him verbatim «I do not wish to give it any more consideration.» Go figure.

A Josper grill, some impressively sourced beef, and an exquisite city centre dining space are the keys to success for Twenty Princes Street. It served the best burger and the best steak sandwich we’ve found in the city, and their current lunch deal (two main courses, two glasses of house wine for £20), which runs until the end of November, is excellent value. With a rather smart cocktail bar, Juniper, just across the hallway, for your pre and post-​dinner drinking needs, it’s an altogether impressive place.
Overall, we said: «it’s a resounding thumbs up for the food at Twenty Princes Street. This current lunchtime deal is quite exceptional, so do make every effort to visit, in the next couple of months. I’ll be back again, soon, and look forward to trying other things on the menu, then spending a little time in their cocktail bar, too.»