Iglu, Edinburgh, has been around for a couple of years now, and in that time it has changed from a small Newtown bar with function room catering to the city’s young crowd, to a fully-fledged organic, wild, local gastro pub and restaurant (I apologise unreservedly for using the term gastro pub twice...) while still maintaining the intimacy that made it a favourite with the regulars in the first place.
So what can you expect? Well, inside the bar is modern-antique with slate flooring, stone walls and comfy leather couches and chairs throughout, and on the walls, modern cartoony-style illustrations. And behind the bar, a fine range of speciality beers and ciders (including Weston’s Organic Cider amongst others). Before moving on, I feel it is my duty to make you aware that this is one of only a small number of bars which sells bottled Liefmann’s Kriek beer. So with beer in hand, we settled into our leather seats and looked over the lunchtime menu (the evening menu is considerably more expansive than the lunchtime menu, and includes the likes of partridge, pigeon, langoustine, lobster and many other fine Scottish ingredients).

There are a few items on every menu that you know will give you a good overall impression of the eatery, and so we order Soup of the Day, Beer Battered Cod (sustainably farmed) and chips, as well as Risotto with Kale and Peas. Oh, and a side of chips. Well, we have a thing about proper chips...and Lieffmans Kriek bier...

After a few more swigs of Kriek beer, our waitress descended from the kitchen with our dishes. The soup was a good way to start - carrot and coriander rounded out with chervil which gave it a fresh licorice-like finish. Chips are often hit or miss in many pubs and eatieries, but Iglu serves up exactly what we were hoping for; big fat, dark brown chips with the skin still on, and sprinkled with rock salt flakes (it’s beyond me why so many places serve oven chips, either ovened or fried).

And with our expectations set pretty high, we tuck into our mains. The fish, I can assure you was perfectly cooked, moist and flaky, and the batter was light and crispy and a golden brown colour. As for the risotto, it too was perfectly cooked, and unlike so many stodgy risottos, you could taste each and every constituent ingredient which combined to make a wonderfully citrusy, refreshing and above all seemingly light risotto with the kale being the standout ingredient by far.

And so a few minutes after finishing our mains, we think it would be only right and proper tohave a dessert to finish off our meal. And so arrives three perfect scoops of organic ice-cream. Hmmmm. I’m assured that the chocolate scoop was the best, however, I would tip the strawberry for its delicate, sweet flavour.

From start to finish, Iglu offers a high standard of dishes created using fantastic Scottish ingredients. Having sampled the lunchtime menu without breaking the bank, we fully intend to head back when we get a chance, to tryout the evening menu.