Eatery Hopping: Revolution, Edinburgh
Earlier this week, I popped home for a less-than-24-hour visit to the homeland for the regional semi-finals of the Le Cordon Bleu Scholarship Award (still feeling very !!!!! about that), and obviously managed to squeeze in a meal out while I was there. Priorities, etc.
Now don't get me wrong - I'm not an eatery snob, but I must admit that Revolution surprised me. However, they have recently been bringing out their new 'Massive Tastes' menu in restaurants (is that right? restaurants? or are they more bars?) across the country, so when I was invited to try out the revamped offerings in their Edinburgh branch, I wasn't about to say no.
I've been to the Revs in York a few times, but never eaten there - one of these was the ill-fated visit when I spilled peanut butter martini all over my nice clutch bag. Very sad. Evidently even peanut butter can turn on you sometimes.
I think my less-than-skyscraper-level expectations can be attributed partly to their constant deals on food - 50% off here, something for free there, generally bribery all over the place. It subconsciously made me think that this was the only way they could convince people to eat their food.
Well, whether or not this was the case in the past, it certainly isn't now. The new menu (or what I tried of it anyway) is delicious.
Since I am more than a wee bit food-obsessed, I very much enjoy reading menus, so spent a considerable time perusing the menu before our visit. The first thing that struck me was the very limited choice of vegetarian options. There is one veggie wrap (halloumi), a margherita pizza, some (more) halloumi and chips, courgetti, and a veggie burger. Some of the sides and little nibbly dishes are also veggie-friendly, but it's fair to say that there is not a huge amount of choice. Omnivores, however, have a much wider selection to choose from, so a little more balance would be ideal.
I took Mum along with me, and we were greeted very warmly on our arrival. There were a few people already there, some having food and some just having drinks, and the whole ambience was really relaxed and comfortable. Pretentious and wishy-washy as it may sound, I really think the ambience of an eatery is super important and often makes the decision for me on whether or not I'll return. It's also trickier than it seems to achieve, and I feel is largely down to the service. This was where Revolution excelled.
You may say that we received tip top service because we were there to review, but whether that's true or not, the fact remains that we received tip top service. As long as the service is great, I don't really mind why.
We started off by trying out some of their mocktails, which were preceded by a big jug of fruit-infused water. This is such an easy thing to do but makes such a difference - strawberry/lemon/lime water is enormously underrated. Since my recent purchase of one of those snazzaroo fruit infuser bottles, I'm all about infused water, and this was a very nice combo indeed.
The drinks we opted for were the cucumber and apple cooler (elderflower, lemon, apple, cucumber, soda) and the strawberry and coconut daiquiri (lime, strawberry, cranberry, coconut water). Both were fantastic, and I may now be converted to liking coconut water. I have tried it once before and, quite frankly, it was vile. Mixed with other yums in this concoction, however, it was fresh and summery and generally very enjoyable.
Our food arrived very promptly, and I think also very warm, but after my extensive photoshoot it had cooled slightly.. Sorry, Mum. I've done what I can with editing the photos but the place isn't exactly flooded with natural light, so a word of warning to any instagram foodographers - you may struggle to get that perfect shot.
I went for the bean dreamin' burger - a sweet potato and bean burger served with beetroot, houmous, and vodka salsa. While my overriding experience of vodka is simply that it burns your throat, I'm pleased to report that the salsa did not. I decided to 'go skinny' and swap out the bun and fries for a salad, which was really generous and nicely dressed.
Also on our table was the spicy blackened chicken burger, served with vine tomatoes and fries. I'm not usually a giant fan of chips, but I had some of these (for review purposes, of course) and can confirm that they were crispy and delish. Mum reported that the chicken was very tasty, but we agreed that this was a very beige plate. Although there was some tomato in with the chicken, the whole thing would certainly have benefitted from some greenery - I'm not entirely convinced by having to choose between either chips and bun or salad.
Both of these were also served with caulislaw, which I wholeheartedly support. This is basically self-explanatory, being coleslaw made with cauliflower. This automatically gets a thumbs up from me as I intensely dislike cabbage, so anything that replaces it is a winner. Bonus, the caulislaw actually tasted pretty fab too.
We complemented our meals with the house ketchup, boasting a secret ingredient that we knew was fruity but couldn't quite pinpoint. I won't give the game away, but will simply recommend that you try it if you do go - it's real tasty.
After our lovely (albeit GIGANTIC) meals, we rolled ourselves out of the door and off home, before taking the dog on a bracing evening walk round the park to work off a little of what we had consumed, and reflect on our noshing. Our conclusion was thus: the food really pleasantly surprised us and we would definitely return, but the star of the show was the service (shoutout to George and Vincent, hello). Nothing was too much trouble, we were made to feel totally at ease, and eagle-eyed Mum noted that between our being seated and having our drinks orders taken (not a long time), they had already visited every other table to check everything was okay for them.
TL;DR - go to Edinburgh's Revolution, get a dish with some greenery/general veg, and make sure your tummy is empty before you go. You'll need all the space you can get.
Thank you very much to Revolution Edinburgh for inviting us - we dined complimentary for review purposes, but all opinions, photos, and post-meal 'wish I could eat that again' feelings are my own.
*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
Now don't get me wrong - I'm not an eatery snob, but I must admit that Revolution surprised me. However, they have recently been bringing out their new 'Massive Tastes' menu in restaurants (is that right? restaurants? or are they more bars?) across the country, so when I was invited to try out the revamped offerings in their Edinburgh branch, I wasn't about to say no.
I've been to the Revs in York a few times, but never eaten there - one of these was the ill-fated visit when I spilled peanut butter martini all over my nice clutch bag. Very sad. Evidently even peanut butter can turn on you sometimes.
I think my less-than-skyscraper-level expectations can be attributed partly to their constant deals on food - 50% off here, something for free there, generally bribery all over the place. It subconsciously made me think that this was the only way they could convince people to eat their food.
Well, whether or not this was the case in the past, it certainly isn't now. The new menu (or what I tried of it anyway) is delicious.
Since I am more than a wee bit food-obsessed, I very much enjoy reading menus, so spent a considerable time perusing the menu before our visit. The first thing that struck me was the very limited choice of vegetarian options. There is one veggie wrap (halloumi), a margherita pizza, some (more) halloumi and chips, courgetti, and a veggie burger. Some of the sides and little nibbly dishes are also veggie-friendly, but it's fair to say that there is not a huge amount of choice. Omnivores, however, have a much wider selection to choose from, so a little more balance would be ideal.
I took Mum along with me, and we were greeted very warmly on our arrival. There were a few people already there, some having food and some just having drinks, and the whole ambience was really relaxed and comfortable. Pretentious and wishy-washy as it may sound, I really think the ambience of an eatery is super important and often makes the decision for me on whether or not I'll return. It's also trickier than it seems to achieve, and I feel is largely down to the service. This was where Revolution excelled.
You may say that we received tip top service because we were there to review, but whether that's true or not, the fact remains that we received tip top service. As long as the service is great, I don't really mind why.
We started off by trying out some of their mocktails, which were preceded by a big jug of fruit-infused water. This is such an easy thing to do but makes such a difference - strawberry/lemon/lime water is enormously underrated. Since my recent purchase of one of those snazzaroo fruit infuser bottles, I'm all about infused water, and this was a very nice combo indeed.
The drinks we opted for were the cucumber and apple cooler (elderflower, lemon, apple, cucumber, soda) and the strawberry and coconut daiquiri (lime, strawberry, cranberry, coconut water). Both were fantastic, and I may now be converted to liking coconut water. I have tried it once before and, quite frankly, it was vile. Mixed with other yums in this concoction, however, it was fresh and summery and generally very enjoyable.
Our food arrived very promptly, and I think also very warm, but after my extensive photoshoot it had cooled slightly.. Sorry, Mum. I've done what I can with editing the photos but the place isn't exactly flooded with natural light, so a word of warning to any instagram foodographers - you may struggle to get that perfect shot.
I went for the bean dreamin' burger - a sweet potato and bean burger served with beetroot, houmous, and vodka salsa. While my overriding experience of vodka is simply that it burns your throat, I'm pleased to report that the salsa did not. I decided to 'go skinny' and swap out the bun and fries for a salad, which was really generous and nicely dressed.
Also on our table was the spicy blackened chicken burger, served with vine tomatoes and fries. I'm not usually a giant fan of chips, but I had some of these (for review purposes, of course) and can confirm that they were crispy and delish. Mum reported that the chicken was very tasty, but we agreed that this was a very beige plate. Although there was some tomato in with the chicken, the whole thing would certainly have benefitted from some greenery - I'm not entirely convinced by having to choose between either chips and bun or salad.
Both of these were also served with caulislaw, which I wholeheartedly support. This is basically self-explanatory, being coleslaw made with cauliflower. This automatically gets a thumbs up from me as I intensely dislike cabbage, so anything that replaces it is a winner. Bonus, the caulislaw actually tasted pretty fab too.
We complemented our meals with the house ketchup, boasting a secret ingredient that we knew was fruity but couldn't quite pinpoint. I won't give the game away, but will simply recommend that you try it if you do go - it's real tasty.
After our lovely (albeit GIGANTIC) meals, we rolled ourselves out of the door and off home, before taking the dog on a bracing evening walk round the park to work off a little of what we had consumed, and reflect on our noshing. Our conclusion was thus: the food really pleasantly surprised us and we would definitely return, but the star of the show was the service (shoutout to George and Vincent, hello). Nothing was too much trouble, we were made to feel totally at ease, and eagle-eyed Mum noted that between our being seated and having our drinks orders taken (not a long time), they had already visited every other table to check everything was okay for them.
TL;DR - go to Edinburgh's Revolution, get a dish with some greenery/general veg, and make sure your tummy is empty before you go. You'll need all the space you can get.
Thank you very much to Revolution Edinburgh for inviting us - we dined complimentary for review purposes, but all opinions, photos, and post-meal 'wish I could eat that again' feelings are my own.
*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
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