Jamie's Italian

Took Mrs B out for a dinner at the brand-spanking new and shiny Jamie Oliver restaurant in Edinburgh, on George Street.

It opens officially next week, but this week was part of a 'soft-open' where the food was all half-price. It was incredibly busy though. The waitress said they had 250 covers that night plus some more walk-ins. I therefore expecting some dodgy service and inconsistent food, what with everyone being new. Surprisingly and thankfully this was not the case, the food was pretty quick, tasty, and staff were attentive.

The place has dim lighting and a nice ambiance (not so great for photos mind). It has the usually Jamie Oliver style quirks - serving platters on top of tins of chopped tomatoes, a kitchen in the middle surrounding in hanging meats and dried chillies.
Mrs B had some of the best squid I've ever tasted, and I had a rather nice wild rabbit ragu.

It's hard to rate it overall when you pay half price, because you tend to order a bit of everything and generally have a carefree experience, rather than fretting over every choice made. It's probably a bit over priced but not ridiculously so. Its like a slightly more upmarket Zizzi I guess.

The only downside is that I cook a lot of Jamie's stuff anyway and I looked at the menu and got the feeling that some of it I could probably just rustle up at home. Still tasty though. Will probably go back and see how I feel when I get a full priced bill....