Charwood connections

Though the rumour that the Tusitala restaurant at Fairemilehead was to become Edinburgh’s latest branch of Sainsbury proved unfounded - it was denied in a printed statement by the owners - the place nevertheless changed hands last month.  It’s now more prosaically  called Charwood, serving fairly similar food to what appear to be its numerous customers,  but placing a heavier emphasis on pizzas, steaks, and burgers.  The loss of the old Samoan name - chosen in tribute to Robert Louis Stevenson’s final  residence in the Pacific - strikes me as a pity, especially as the explanatory Stevenson pictures which used to adorn the entrance to the restaurant have also gone.

But at least the place still looks southwards towards the Pentland village of Swanston and the famous T plantation, with their old Stevenson associations. In fact, at first glance, it would seem that little has changed. The furnishings and colour scheme are just as they were, the big wood-burning stainless steel oven is still in place, and the menu is broadly similar. The differences lie mainly in aspects of the cooking.

The Shetland mussels, formerly a house speciality, tasted what could only be described as tired when I ate them at lunchtime today. It was a word, I fear, that could also be applied to the rest of the meal, including the panna cotta dessert, with its drab strawberries and broken honeycomb biscuit.  Nothing, including the macaroni cheese chosen by one of us, looked very appetising. Moreover the bright Chilean sauvignon, which used to steer the menu in the direction of Stevenson’s Pacific,  has gone, though the replacements by chance  include a Picpoul de Pinet from the French Languedoc, not far from where Stevenson travelled with donkey. The coffee looked too uninviting to sample.

Did we simply choose badly? Were the steaks, priced from £15 to £48 (for a classic chateaubriand), the things to go for?  Presumably yes, but here we come to a small enigma, since Charwood, in restaurant terms, is a fashionable name in other parts of the world. Call it up on your computer and you will find that there is a much-vaunted Cairo Charwood’s specialising in - what else? - steaks and pizzas, the best, it seems, in Egypt.   If there is a connection between the Cairo one and the Edinburgh one - there’s evidently another in Southampton  -  who knows?  But if the Edinburgh one is that good, I’d better order a steak next time I go.
15 July 2014