Karl's Birthday, 2012
21212 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh
A new(ish) Michelin-starred Edinburgh eatery - it opened in 2009 under chef Paul Kitching (I'm starting to wonder if people with vaguely culinary names are naturally drawn to cooking?) who takes some interest in his customers judging from the signed birthday card he left on my table.
Thanks Paul!

I was treated to my birthday dinner here on the understanding that I paid for the drink - I'm not quite sure what she was afraid of. Or maybe I am? She needn't have worried though - the staff refused to open their bottle of Chateau D'Yquem just so that I could buy one glass. Spoilsports!

21212 has taken over a comfortable, spacious and quirkily decorated Georgian townhouse, equipped it with funky cutlery, novelty dinnerware and huge wineglasses. The staff are pleasant if not as attentive as they might be, the food is slightly gimmicky (right down to the restricted choice of dishes) but mostly inventive and delicious - they certainly have a hard-on for fruit leather.
The menu format offers a set of limited choices of complete, complex dishes: 2 starters, 1 soup, 2 main courses, 1 cheese, 2 desserts - the clue is in the restaurant name. Each dish consists of a careful assembled stack of complementary components and often a side dish of sauce or purée, and comes with an obligatory shard of dried, puréed fruit. Or is an olive a vegetable? No, definitely a fruit.
Whatever, the menu is littered with slices, shards, wafers, and slivers.

I have to say I was impressed with the production values of these complicated courses, each element being well-prepared and thoroughly tasty, or at least I can say that about the first 2-1-2-1 courses. For reasons too embarrassing for my benefactor to go into, we didn't make it to the 2 dessert choices and had to execute a hurried departure.

I'd definitely go there again to have a stab at getting through a whole meal, perhaps with someone with a sterner constitution.

Red 2
Green 1
Orange 2