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Friday, 3 October 2014

Restaurant of the month: Osteria del Tempo Perso, Edinburgh

In Italy an osteria is an inn, or hostelry, selling drink and perhaps also (though not necessarily)  a certain amount of food, with the result that the atmosphere can be  more like that of the sort of austere Edinburgh pub that Hugh MacDiarmid used to  favour than something more convivially Italian.

It’s not a name Italians tend to bestow on the places they  open  in Britain, where trattoria, ristorante, caffe, and - nowadays especially - pizzeria are the words they prefer. But since the beginning of 2014 Edinburgh has had its own osteria, the Osteria del Tempo Perso, on the site of a previous, more routine Italian restaurant at 208 Bruntsfield Place, just opposite Falko’s excellent and justly  popular German cafe, which makes its own pastries, bread, and ice cream as well as good coffee and tea.

The Proustian theme of the Osteria del Tempo Perso  (Inn of Lost Time) speaks for itself. The place is obsessed with clocks, not strictly matched to chronological perfection,  but the decor is simple and smart - a black and white  tiled floor, interesting chairs, deftly subdued lighting, and luminously shelved bottles of wine - contributing to  the slightly dotty air of a production of Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole.

Its opening hours are generous. Lunch extends all afternoon and dinner well into the night, which makes it a good place to pass your Proustian time.

The wines, all Italian, are knowingly chosen. The pastas, using recipes originating in the  parent restaurant (of which this one is the sole experimental offshoot) in Lazio,  are creative. Only the coffee, on this week’s evidence not up to true Italian standards, can be said to disappoint.

The set lunch ranges from a single course for just under £7 to three courses for £14. If you are sampling the single course, ensure that you eat a home-made pasta such as mezze maniche, which looks like short-cut rigatoni or chunky penne served in a gleaming cacio e pepe sauce, cacio being an old Italian word for cheese.

This is really quite special, and sufficiently plentiful to be a meal in itself. The cheese that supplies the main taste is sheep’s pecorino Romano, emulsified with black pepper and olive oil. The result has all the flavour of authenticy. But the pappardelle in meat sauce seem equally enticing and so is  the seafood risotto with ample clams in their shells, fat little prawns and squid.

The service is friendly and informative.  Dinner menu extends the range and the personal touch and the chocolate cake dessert, despite rude comments in The Scotsman, is dry because that is what it is meant to be.

Osteria del Tempo Perso, telepjone 0131 221 1777

5 October 2014

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