With tickets booked for a show at the Edinburgh Playhouse, a friend and I were looking for a restaurant near the Edinburgh Playhouse for dinner beforehand. Eleanore on Leith Walk seemed the obvious choice.

I’d actually visited the site before when it was home to The Little Chartroom. Since then, The Little Chartroom has moved to larger premises, while chef-owner Roberta Hall-McCarron has opened Eleanore in its place. Having enjoyed my previous meal here, I was interested to see what the new restaurant had to offer.

A Great Value Dinner Menu

Eleanore currently offers a dinner menu priced at £38 for two courses or £43 for three. Given the small difference in price, adding dessert felt like a very easy decision. On Wednesdays and Thursdays there is a specific pre-theatre menu, which is great value at £26 for two courses and £29 for three.

The menu changes regularly and focuses on seasonal ingredients, with enough choice to make narrowing down your order slightly challenging.

Cocktails and Snacks

Before our main courses, we ordered a couple of snacks to enjoy alongside cocktails.

The duck fat hash browns topped with cream cheese and arenkha caviar were a fantastic start to the meal. Crispy on the outside, fluffy in the middle and finished with just the right amount of indulgence from the caviar, they disappeared far too quickly.

Alongside them, we shared an English muffin served with smoked honey butter. It may sound like a simple dish, but sometimes the simplest things are the most memorable. The smoky sweetness of the butter worked beautifully and left us scraping up every last bit.

Main Courses

For our main courses, my friend chose the flat iron steak served with baby gem and smoked Caesar dressing.

Steak is often the default choice when it’s on a menu and this was an excellent example of why. Cooked exactly as requested, it was full of flavour and complemented perfectly by the smoky Caesar dressing.

I went vegetarian for a change and decided to try something a bit different, opting for the mushroom vol-au-vent with Roscoff onion and Spenwood sauce. This was certainly a world away from the frozen vol-au-vents of 1980s buffet tables. Rich, earthy and packed with flavour, it was a beautifully executed vegetarian dish that looked every bit as tempting as my friend’s steak.

Saving Room for Dessert

With such a small supplement to move from two courses to three, dessert was never really in doubt.

The profiterole with yoghurt sorbet and chocolate caramel balanced richness and freshness beautifully. The sharpness of the yoghurt sorbet stopped the chocolate caramel from becoming overly sweet and created a well-balanced dessert.

The rum baba with mascarpone and rhubarb was equally enjoyable. The boozy sponge, creamy mascarpone and tart rhubarb worked together wonderfully and provided a fitting end to the meal.

The Verdict

One of the things I appreciated most about Eleanore was how relaxed the whole experience felt. The service was friendly and efficient, making it ideal for a pre-theatre dinner where you want to enjoy your meal without constantly checking the time.

While Eleanore has its own identity, you can still see the same commitment to quality ingredients and thoughtful cooking that made The Little Chartroom such a success. Whether you choose the regular dinner menu or take advantage of the excellent-value pre-theatre offering, the food is beautifully executed and the location is ideal for anyone heading to the Edinburgh Playhouse

If you’re looking for somewhere special before a show, Eleanore is well worth considering.

Although, I still can’t stop thinking about that smoked honey butter.