There's no smoke without ire

Details Smoke Stack  53/55 Broughton Street  Edinburgh  Midlothian  Scotland  EH1 3RJ    0131 556 6032    Get a Map    Get Directions One of the joys of this "job" - apart from the hardening arteries, ever- expanding waist and morbid fear of being asked to review one of those Brewer's Fayre places with the numbered tables - is receiving feedback from regular readers. Particularly when your letters are as funny as the note I received from Mrs Margaret Drummond of sunny Dundee. While dining at a rather run-down restaurant in Tenerife a few weeks back, she found it virtually impossible to cut into her "prime" steak and promptly complained to the waiter. After apologising profusely, he whisked her plate away and disappeared to the kitchen ... only to return to Margaret's table a few minutes later (after a rather noisy exchange of opinions with a clearly hacked-off chef) with the same plate, the same steak and - wait for it - a knife sharpener. No such disaster, thankfully, at this week's port of call - Smoke Stack in Edinburgh. But I'm afraid the end result was still pretty disappointing. Nice name, shame about the grub. Smoke Stack conjures up tantalising images of sizzling charcoal grills and billowing plumes of industrial- strength barbecue smog, doesn't it? However, the food - just like the place Margaret visited in Tenerife - is nothing to write home about. Perhaps the alarm bells should have been ringing when my Edinburgh pal Stuart even turned down the offer of yet another free meal. Not that I'm suggesting he's tight, of course. But the last time he opened his fags in the pub a photo of Stanley Matthews fell out. "No, I'll give it a miss if you don't mind," he winced. "Last time I went there it was rubbish." Now, that's perhaps a little bit harsh, Smoke Stack isn't rubbish, but it could certainly improve its act. Take my starter, for example. Potato wedges with chilli con carne. At least, that's what it claimed on the menu. What I actually received for my £3.95 was chips with con carne. Proper wedges (ie thickly cut with crispy fried skins) and the slightest hint of chilli were both conspicuously absent. Across the table, Rab's garlic bread was pretty good - nice and crusty, toasted on both sides - and a good two hours later his breath was still honking as we drove past the Harthill Services. As you'd probably expect, the beef products get pretty big licks on the Smoke Stack menu. The burgers are made from "100 per cent pure ground Scottish steak mince", while the steaks "come from prime Scottish cattle under 24 months old and are trimmed on the premises under supervision of the proprietors." Sounds great, eh? And so did the individual write-ups alongside the steaks. "Rib Eye - the cut with the most flavour, but it can be a little fatty for some people's taste.

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