Sarah L.
Yelp
Maison Bleue (blue house) on Victoria Street described themselves as French, North African and traditional Scottish restaurant, although most of my meal seemed to be mainly from French origin. We took advantage of their 1998 prices offer, which is a very thrifty lunch menu £7.50 for two courses. Served from 12-5pm until July 2013. Absolute bargain!
The restaurant is a labyrinth of small rooms on three floors in an Old Town building, with striking blue frontage and charming flower boxes. It's full of character. The ground floor is lowly lit and intimate (maybe too intimate, the tables are pretty closely positioned) but up the original spiral staircase you'll find another lighter open dining area and if you're by the window you'll get a lovely view onto on Victoria street. Toilets are on the top floor, next to the kitchen... Walk slowly by you might get a glimpse of the chef making your main. The decor is understated, warm, comfortable, stone arches, mellow tunes played at a low level, rustic aged wood and thistles on the table.
I went for the steamed mussels with saffron potatoes and a hint of lemongrass for starters. The mussels were big, fat and cooked to perfection. No grit, no dodgy unopened shells, just lovely! Could have down with some bread to mop up the sauce but you can order that as an extra. My mains was darne of Scottish salmon with a creamy white wine, lemon and dill sauce, which was nice but a little too salty. Even my partner agreed and he throws salt on everything! A small disappointment but the starters definitely made up for it. Taking Rayan D's advice on the extortionate wine prices, I avoided the wine list and selected a small bottle of Peroni for under £4.
One small minor point though, for a meal at 4.30pm on a Saturday, the staff did appear overly stress for a relatively quite dining period and as a result seemed stressed, unable to break a smile and rushed.