Restaurant review: Patatino At The Hoxton, Edinburgh

This new Italian restaurant inside a shiny new contemporary Edinburgh hotel is a curate’s egg, finds Richard Bath.

The Hoxton is a new hotel built across eleven townhouses on a terrace that is just 100 yards from Haymarket station and tram in Edinburgh’s West End. The vibe is very upbeat and fresh, with a small cinema and a guide to the best places to visit while enjoying your short break. It’s aimed at young professionals in the 20-40 age bracket, and as well as a cinema it has an Italian restaurant, Patatino, which is open to non-residents.

We visited on a midweek evening in the middle of the Fringe and it was still quite quiet, although given the sotto voce lighting and profusion of large pot plants it was sometimes difficult to gauge how many other diners were present.

The stylish bar we passed through was busy and seemed to have a nice design coherence, but Patatino was a particularly garish explosion in a colour factory in a misguided attempt to recreate the summer hues of the Amalfi Coast. I’ve been to the Amalfi coast, and I can exclusively reveal it doesn’t look like Patatino. Some of it worked, such as the nice authentically rustic crockery, but there were some genuinely horrible touches such as sweaty plastic seats that were too small for my admittedly ample rear.

This is where things got interesting. We started off with a cocktail each – an elderflower and mint spritz and an O Sole Mio (a potent mix of bitters, rose and cherry sour) – and then set about studying the menu.

The antipasti were standard issue – scallops, carpaccio, smoked salmon and sliced meats – so we opted for the burrata (£12) and Caesar salad (£11). The burrata was underwhelming, primarily because of under-ripe salad tomatoes rather than big juicy heirloom or even cherry tomatoes. The Caesar salad was a curious construction that looked like a lettuce burrito around anchovy, cured yolk and parmesan – its main virtue was novelty, although it would have benefited from croutons and more dressing.

If the starters were underwhelming, the meal picked up considerably thereafter. We decided to give the pizzas (£16-18) and pasta (£16-23) a miss, even though the pasta (in particularly the taglolini, with shellfish bisque, crab and Amalfi lemon was sorely tempting) and instead opted for two big tickets items, the whole seabass with smoked butter (£47) and suckling pig porchetta (£37).

To be fair, these dishes, which have been fired over the coals, were advertised as ‘take them down solo or perfect for sharing’ and they were certainly big enough for the latter. The sea bass came as a whole, massive fish which was perfectly cooked but difficult to finish, while the porchetta was tender and super-tasty, but also a huge portion that came with enough basil pesto and roasted veg to make a meal for two.

We rounded off with two puddings that elicited differing reactions. The roasted panettone (£8) was like an oblong of bread and butter pudding with extra cinnamon, and was served with an underflavoured rum and raisin ice cream, while the excellent dark chocolate mousse (£9) was rich, sweet and pepped up with some salted caramel that further elevated an already lovely dish.

The wine was a decent Cortese del Piemonte from Adelasia, San Silvestro 2024 (£33 for a bottle, £7.50 for a glass), although it could/should have been a few degrees cooler.

This is a mid-level restaurant, but if you choose wisely (I’d forget the antipasti and just share the porchetta or sea bass) it can be a great little bolthole that is big enough to have space during August when all around are turning away custom.

Patatino at The Hoxton, 5-21 Grosvenor St, Edinburgh EH12 5EF; 0131 297 2841.

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