I had arranged to meet a friend from St Andrews at Edinburgh’s George Hotel, where we would decide our lunch destination. We plumped for the Tempus Bar and Restaurant at the hotel and were delighted with the food, the service and the ambience.
As we are ladies who lunch lightly, both of us decided, after reading the very comprehensive menus to go for ‘Small Dishes’. Even here it was very hard to choose from plum tomato soup with rosemary and garlic croutons through to Camembert box baked cheese with crusty bread and cranberry sauce. The menu ranges from the Small dishes, through Large dishes, green dishes, sandwiches and Tempus minis right on to what the chef has called ‘Oh go on .. dishes’ including white chocolate crème brulee, homemade sticky date and toffee pudding, through lemon tart, clotted cream and ice cream. Yes, I could fill the whole magazine with descriptions of these wonderful options.
In retrospect I wish I had been hungrier but I decided on Eggs Benedict, which is a great favourite of mine. It was a good choice and truly the best I have ever tasted. If you’ve tried to make a perfect poached egg at home readers will know how difficult this is and indeed is often set as an examination dish for cookery students. I had a glass of sparkling white Prosecco. Carol went for the Tempus pate served with brioche, tomato and apple chutney, which, she said, tasted as good as it looked. This is important, to me, one of the signs of quality and value in a restaurant is the presentation, crockery, glassware and cutlery. Tempus scored very highly on all these. We finished our modest lunches with excellent coffee and lingered talking catch up! My food cost only £3.95 (small portion) and my friend’s pate £5.95.
Every point of the day is covered, including afternoon tea with scones, strawberry preserve and clotted cream for a very modest £3.95. The dinner and weekend menus are equally comprehensive with two courses on Sundays of roast of the day with either a starter or dessert costing £16.95 or three courses for £20.95.
The ambience feels cosmopolitan, there is background music but it doesn’t drown out conversation and the staff are very helpful under the guidance of charming manager, Stephen Begg.
I found out from the chef the all-time favourite which is never off the menu. It is the homemade sticky date and toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. He even gave me the recipe which I am allowed to share. That, too, looked well worth a return visit. Most certainly the Tempus lounge, where we ate, and the Tempus restaurant used in the evening is very high now on my list of good eating places!
The telephone number is 0131 240 7190 and the website www.tempus-edinburgh.co.uk
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Christine Richard OBE FRSA
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Christine has over 25 years' experience in public life in Scotland in the fields of politics, education, public relations and charity work. For 12 years she served on the City of Edinburgh District Council and was her Group's leader for 4 years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1992 she was made an OBE. Christine is a member of the Board of The Friends of the Royal Scottish Academy. She has just completed six years on the Board of The Edinburgh International Festival.
Christine's business experience has covered the fields of theatre, economic development, science, coal mining, education and training. She has held a number of non-executive directorships in these disciplines. She is a trained and experienced personal relationships counsellor and a business and personal mentor. In 2005 Christine established Christine Richard Associates who undertake Event Management and Public Relations as well as company and individual profiling. She coordinated the 'Yes to Edinburgh' campaign on congestion charging in Edinburgh. ten years ago Christine co-founded West Lothian Women in Business, which is a network for women who are self-employed and also for women managers. Christine has now stepped down from the Chair of this thriving organisation.
For 5 years Christine was a magistrate in the District Court. She was also a member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on the appointment of Justices of the Peace. She has been an adviser to Government in various areas of policy, including health, local government and education.
Christine is a trained and experienced radio and television broadcaster and writer as well as an entertaining and accomplished speaker. She has a wealth of topics on which she is invited to speak. These range from witty after lunch and after dinner speaking to the more serious topics of the economy, health, education, enterprise, the Powers of the Mind and Life/work balance. She writes reviews and articles for lifestyle magazine, Lothian Life. She took part as a contestant in an ITV gourmet TV show, Chef V Britain, challenging TV chef Gino D'Acampo to cook her signature dish, Posh Cottage Pie. Currently Christine is a member of the Goodison Group in Scotland and Scotland's Futures. Also she is involved in the group Changing the Chemistry of Scottish Boards. Her first novel, Whitewalls, a modern Scottish family saga has been published by New Generation Publishing and is available on all internet books siets and from libraries. She is writing a sequel Autumn at Whitewalls.
Her leisure interests include her family, literature, music, theatre, food, wine and horse racing. She is a member of a racing syndicate, which has two horses in training.
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