Good Brothers

4-6 Dean Street, Edinburgh

0131 315 3311

Lunch/dinner: £10-£25

Food rating: 8/10

A STRING of middle-class disgruntlement comes my way from people who’ve been eating in top end restaurants. It’s not the cost of the food they’re ruminating about – they walked into those £70 and upwards per head menus with their eyes open – it’s the wine. Who checks the price of booze before making a booking?

One friend, when asked if she’d like a drink while perusing the menu, ordered a glass of house white and ended up paying £15 for a 175 ml glass of a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc that retails from £17.50-£24 a bottle.

Wine is much more profitable for restaurants than food, and always has been. The old metric applied in the catering trade used to be the wholesale cost, multiplied by three, plus VAT. These days margins are frequently even steeper. A small glass of wine in several lauded establishments now starts at £11 and goes up to £17.50. And now that sterling has dropped in value against the euro, prices won’t be going down any time soon.

One acquaintance was still shaking his head in disbelief when he told me that more than half the cost on his bill was in the drinks department. Being a natural diplomat (not), I didn’t ask him to list what exactly his party had got through by way of liquid refreshment. But put it this way, don’t get too relaxed over canapés, or leave yourself in the hands of a helpful sommelier who’s always on hand to top up your glass, unless your heart can take a little post-prandial fright.

At Good Brothers Wine Bar in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge, on the other hand, you can afford to let your guard drop a little. The eponymous brothers have put together a concise, yet expansive, wine list that spans the globe while betraying a distinct fondness for Italy. A small (175 ml) glass of wine here starts at an honest £6 dead, not an egg-you-on £5.95, and soars to the dizzy heights of £8. Rubbish wine then? Far from it. For instance, ruby-red Nerello Macalese, from the distinguished house of Planeta, exhibited the mineral, volcanic composition of its native Sicilian soil. With its whiff of rose, bracing cherry acidity, backbone from tannin, and hint of chocolate, it made a smooth, easy-going drink with heaps of character, and at £6 represented excellent value for money.

These premises have the effortless intimacy of an old pub that scrubs up nicely. The space glimmers with candlelight. Good Brothers is peaceful and relaxing; you won’t have to battle it out with Wolf Of Wall Street types at the bar. One of the brothers served us and struck just the right balance between advising us knowledgeably about wine without being uppity or pretentious. The menu is also affordable, £10-£14.50 for a main course, and sensibly put together on the whole. Rabbit terrine had its potential dryness deflected and rounded out by rillettes-style fat, that richness in turn cut by warm, sweet, pickled red cabbage aromatised with juniper berries. Smoked mackerel and caraway parfait showed a similar thoughtfulness, the full-on fish tempered by a velvety broad bean and pea purée dressed with tiny cubes of pickled vegetables, leaf coriander and cress.

Bavette, unruly in shape as is this cheaper steak cut, was grilled hot and fast, and flanked by a mellow aioli, blindingly good hand-cut chips, and cherry tomato salad spoiled only by too much spring onion. By comparison, pork loin with roasted purple carrots, set on cauliflower purée with creamy brandy sauce, was a more conservative, if nevertheless inoffensive option.

One dessert – how I hate to grumble on this count – was slightly under-sweet. This wouldn’t have mattered had the grilled plums had more inherent taste. Unfortunately, they were of that firm, large US-type that has had a personality bypass. Their rose and raspberry jelly and vanilla mascarpone could not mask the deficit. And why team up creamy cardamom panna cotta with creamy banana ice cream unless you have cream to use up?

Still, there’s plenty at Good Brothers to pull in those whose main focus is edibles. And when Edinburgh’s oenophiles suss out this list, they’ll likely descend en masse.