Tucked away on a cobbled lane in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town, Le Cafe St Honore is a happy marriage between classic French decor and carefully sourced Scottish ingredients. The black and white tiles, wine boxes and burnished mirrors would fit in easily on Paris’ Left Bank while the list of Scottish farmers, fishermen and foragers who supply the restaurant speaks of the Highlands and the teeming waters of the West Coast. It is a combination that has made Cafe St Honore a well loved, if slightly hidden, institution in Edinburgh.
Cafe St Honore may sound as if it is a French restaurant which has decamped to Edinburgh but, despite the elegant Gallic interior, the cooking is mainly although not exclusively modern Scottish. This means an emphasis on the provenance of the ingredients and a kitchen that aims to bring out the best of their natural flavours. Lunch tends to be quick and simple: free range chicken liver tart with Stornoway black pudding or the Innes and Gunn battered Fraserburgh haddock with wedges and mayo. At dinner, more gourmet ingredients like scallops from the Sound of Gigha might make an appearance along with pickled beetroot and Jerusalem artichokes or Borders Fallow deer served with dauphinoise potatoes and oat bonbons. However, Cafe St Honore does look across the Channel for some ideas, notably the classic vanilla creme brulee.