Valvona and Crolla

Valvona & Crolla is an Edinburgh institution which has been around since 1934, and which has, of late, expanded into 2 further premises; the Vin Caffe on Multrees Walk and Centrotre on George St. Having eating a few times at all three, I think the original Caffé Bar on Elm Row provides the best experience.

To get to the restaurant (Caffe Bar), you walk through Edinburgh’s finest Italian deli, complete with parma hams hanging form the ceiling, and a vast selection of cheese, meats, breads etc. A couple of things about the Deli produce; firstly, their signature olive oil, Fior’ Fiore - £13.95 for 750ml, has been voted one of the top in the world (number 5 on a list on Independent online), and justifiably so, my uncle makes special trips from London to buy it. However, some of the pre-packaged meats the stock are not imported, rather are available from the local cash and carry and suffer from heavy mark-ups. Diced pancetta for example is about double the price, and while not bad quality, does not justify the price; and when their other hams are of such fine quality, one wonders why they source some meat from Italy and others from Costco…

Anyway, that is a minor quibble as generally, most produce is of excellent quality and the restaurant is no exception- its raw ingredients are obviously some of the finest available in Edinburgh; so I would think it recommendable to go for the simple dishes which focus on the ingredients rather than the cooking technique. Bread, vinegar and that famous olive oil reminds you of just how good this simple combination can be. A plate of antipasti shows off the finest meats from the deli counter (no cash and carry here) and olives are as good as you can expect. A simple pasta of fettuccine and pesto alla genovese is a million miles away from the horrible jarred stuff in supermarkets and is superb. (Interestingly, their pesto is available to buy in Deli, although I have never had the guts to splurge a fiver on a small tub) Likewise, ive had fantastic penne pasta with salmon and cream; although this is a harder dish to get wrong. Ive never tried the pizza here, as I find it hard to get all that excited about pizza, but im sure it’s more than adequate. Yes, this place is pricey, but, of course, completely worth it for a taste of real Italian cooking as genuine as your ever likely to find in Scotland. One last point; I have had a bacon roll (£4.95) here for breakfast, and despite being large, and made with excellent quality bacon- they had cruelly removed the fat (the best bit!!) and left the roll unbuttered (!) which made it all dry. At least the coffee was excellent.

Overall, I think this is the best of the 3 restaurants, although I have had a similarly excellent meal at Vin Caffe. Perhaps one could quibble about the simple décor and relative lack of ambience, but as a food-focused establishment, rather than a place to be seen, I think this is excusable. The room also looks fantastic on a sunny day, when the sun is beaming through the windows. If you want trendy; go to the Vin Caffe.
Comment on this reader review

Nick
Saturday, April 26, 2008