Michael Neave Kitchen & Whisky Bar

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.

As a young chef you could beaver away in a crowded kitchen being bossed around by someone else, hoping you’ll make it big one day. Or you could just boldly open your own restaurant and strike out alone in the heart of tourist Edinburgh. Which is what charmingly precocious Michael Neave did in 2012 when he opened his eponymous restaurant just off the Royal Mile. He’s a bold cook too: smoked salmon mousse comes with beetroot coulis, served like an elegant toasted club sandwich, and Perthshire roe deer arrives laced with carrot and lavender puree with an Auchentoshan whisky sauce. There is a whisky bar upstairs complete with some rare single malt expressions, and the mixologist also mixes a decent cocktail – Islay’s smooth Botanist gin is the star when infused with lemon and blackberry liqueur. Neave and his restaurant may not be quite as polished as the cocktails yet, but this rough diamond is an increasingly bright light in the Old Town, and he’s doing it on his own terms.

• High point: The chance to savour the cooking of a young chef on the way up.
• Low point: Neave's restaurant is a diamond in need of a little bit more polishing.