Don't know if we have tried this before but here goes:
Howies: Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, Thursday March 6th 2008
The occasion was my youngest's 18th and we were a party of 10, table was booked for 8:30.
This is a long- established, small, Edinburgh based chain, serving what I would call a fusion of Scottish and French food. Between us we had 9 Starters, which included a quite delicious Cullen Skink and a rather dry Black Pudding with Lentils. We all had main courses that included a Sirloin Steak, Deep fried battered Salmon (pretty good) and skin on, Chicken Breast with a mustard mash and veg. Only a few of us had Sweets and I can't remember what they were? Two or 3 had coffee, which was poor.
Things got off to a bad start when i discovered that the bar had gone, its now what I presume is a private dining room? We therefore had to sit, in the hall, awaiting the party to gather, were not offered drinks and eventually had to badger a member of staff to show us to our table. Which she did from a distance of about 10 yards and pointed in the general direction. I was not happy. Particularly as the place was less than half full and they had crammed us onto what was more suited to a table of 8. We then had to badger them into taking the coats. None of the 4 or 5 staff had noticed the difficulty people were having accommodating the coats at the table.
This was a marker for what was to come, the service was totally reactive and not at the first or second time of asking. No smiles were offered (until it came to to Tip time) from what I figure were all eastern european staff. (I have often had excellent service from EES). Howies has a full licence but they do allow BYOB and charge a reasonable £3 corkage. We took full advantage and had 7 bottles, although not one was opened and brought to the table without asking. The general verdict on the food was ok, small portions, some was quite dry and the aforementioned Cullen Skink was the best thing on offer. The room was souless, the staff matched the room and I was probably the least satisfied member of our party. The birthday girl had a really nice time.
The bill came to £258 which included about 6 G&T's (not mine) and I rather reluctantly left a 10% Tip. I would say the whole thing was a 5 out of 10. Too much badgering not enough service. I will not be back any time soon, if ever.