Itchycoo Bar & Kitchen

The 2013 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2013) edition.

It would be easy to dismiss Radisson Blu’s Itchycoo as just another hotel-restaurant tourist trap, all sleek, glossy surfaces and anonymity, but that would be to do it a disservice. With tables and booths dotted around a central bar area, the atmosphere and welcome are warmer than your standard hotel dining room, and the food is also a cut above. While the expected lounge-bar meals are all present and correct – lasagne, steak pie, fish and chips – the star of the show is the innovative 'tapas-inspired' menu, available every evening and featuring an eclectic range of dishes. A bowl of mixed seafood is crisp in its crumb coating and cooked with a light touch. Portobello mushrooms are enhanced by a topping of roast peppers and Dunsyre blue cheese, while a portion of butternut squash arancini is big enough to be a main course in its own right. To finish, a dessert of brandy baskets with lemon and pineapple cream and honeycomb crunch is a simply delicious combination. Newspapers and rolling TV news provide distraction for lone diners, and highchairs and a kids' menu are available for the youngest ones, so all bases are covered in this surprising Royal Mile hideaway.

• High point: The interesting tapas menu
• Low point: Too easy to order too much