Al Dente

This is a cosy Italian restaurant with a lovely waiter who introduced us to some Italian off the beaten track specialities — an incredible red wine from the vicinity of lac Garda.
The food itself is delicious however the mains are rather small. I had the fish which was amazing but the roast vegetables were scarce. Again the flavours were great though (still a bit peckish)
The deserts were average — should just of had more of their lovely wine.
Would have given this 3.5 for the food but definitely a 4.5 for service.

On the food front, Al Dente is a solid 4, maybe 4 and a half. But it’s the service that bumps it up, they really earned that 5^th star!
We arrived on a Saturday night with no reservation, but luckily a table was to be had for the 5 of us. Our friendly waiter David suggested we have a selection of Italian cured meats to start — these were delicious (though perhaps the serving was a little mean for the price). Onto mains, I rather predictable ordered lasagna (which was very good), and the rest of us chose largely from that day’s specials, ranging from sea bass to sformato (a sort of Italian soufflé). All tasty, and I’d happily return.
But like I said, it’s the service that made our evening. David and his colleagues were beyond friendly, putting up with our very poor attempts to speak Italian, and generally just being delightful hosts. And a shot of limoncello sealed the deal! Oh, and did I mention that if you check in you get 10% off? Even better!
Al Dente is a very good local restaurant, and pleasingly authentic. It’s perhaps out of the way, but it’s very near our flat, so I foresee us returning in the not too distant future.

This is a genuine authentic Italian restaurant — I’m half Italian and have been on the search for the ultimate lasagne. And I’ve found it!
Alright I’ll agree it’s not the best situated restaurant in terms of the city centre but any bus goes down past Easter Road that is the 26,1,35,44,34,19 so it’s not bad to get to.
Food is fantastic, service is very friendly — staff were well up for chatting with you and making sure you have a nice experience.
Like I said, it’s authentic. If you want pizza go somewhere else! This restaurant embellishes the traditional Italian taste — which actually contains a lot of sea food. It upsets me when people give it a bad review because there’s too much seafood — that is what Italians eat! The name of the restaurant is reflected in the food — proper al dente pasta, so good, you’ll go home and halve the time you take to cool you’re own pasta.
Love the place, am disappointed that I’ve only just discovered it before I leave Edinburgh :(
Hope this review was helpful, you will enjoy it. I’d definitely recommend the lasagne!
If you’re visiting and not familiar with the area grab a taxi from the centre of town, it’ll only be £6 tops.

Very small, but the food is fantastic. Owner is very involved and takes great care of his customers. The deserts were out of this world — Limoncello raspberry Tiramisu Wow

Al Dente has been on my ‘to do’ list for a while based on a friend’s recommendation but one of the biggest put-​offs for me is where it’s situated — it’s just so far off the beaten track for my liking and unless you live local, it’s a pain to get to. On a Saturday night, I like to go for dinner near where I intend to drink and Easter Rd bars just aren’t my scene — am I being snobby? Yes. Yes I am.
Back to the restaurant — I wasn’t as impressed as I expected bearing in mind the other reviews I read on Unilocal.My pet hate (I have a few!) is when booking a table over the phone and the person you’re speaking to implies they are completely fully booked but they can squeeze you in — at 6.15! After internally ‘harrumphing’ at this antisocial time I hastily accepted the table, just feeling grateful I managed to get a table.
So…you can imagine my annoyance when the restaurant was empty — literally! It was a bit cringe-​worthy having a whispered conversation with my date in an empty restaurant with an overly attentive waiter who had nothing else to do. I apologised to my date more than once with «I promise… they told me they were full!!» I felt slightly conned especially when we were immediately ushered to the table by the window, in what I thought was an attempt to bring in passing custom. The restaurant started to fill up around 8pm, so they clearly did have other bookings for the evening, but not between 6.15 and 8pm.
Food-​wise, it was nice but not entirely memorable — the menu is very small and typical of authentic Italy with Antipasti, Pasta, Secondi and Dolce options. I had the Asparagus and Ricotta filo parcels to start which were quite nice, but as a non fish eater (yes, I know!) there wasn’t a lot else on the menu I could or wanted to eat. I then went for the Lasagna which based on a previous review that stated «the best lasagna I’ve ever tasted» was a bit disappointing. Yeah I enjoyed it, but was it the best? No.
Would I have rated this restaurant a bit higher if the ambiance had been different, my expectations were not set so high from outset and it wasn’t empty? Probably. ‘Meh’ pretty much sums my overall experience.

used a groupon voucher, which i dont know was a factor but the service was unwelcoming also the food was run of the mill italian fair.

I’ve lived on Easter Road for five years and can’t believe I’ve never visited Al Dente before this week.
This is a really wonderful restaurant, with great staff who serve up some of the best Italian food I have tasted outside of Italy. Authentic!
My friends and I enjoyed antipasti, paste & dolci courses and drank the house red wine, everything was beautifully presented & tasted delicious.
I ate baked figs (Fichi al forno), a seafood pasta dish (Paccheri al Branzino) and Profiteroles al cioccolato for dessert. I actually can’t wait to work my way through every single thing on the menu now and bump up my rating to 5* in the process.
Great for food with friends, or a cosy meal for two. Highly recommended!

We went here on the recommendation of the two other reviews on Unilocal,and were pleased. The place is very small, but perfectly decorated. The staff are friendly and communicative.
My friends all loved what they had, but I wasn’t so keen on the baked cod; it was rather flavorless. One friend had the figs for a starter and she loved them. Another had lasagna, and said that it was the best lasagna she’s ever had in her life.
I’d say that this place is worth the trip. Plus, they got very high ratings on another website that it used a lot in the UK.

Small, intimate and friendly, Al Dente offers really good quality Italian dishes. Their cappelletti in brodo was one of the standout dishes from our 2011 restaurant visits.
Overall, we said: «we were well impressed with Al Dente. We thought their food was really good, with a strong emphasis on keeping things simple and letting the flavours sing.»

Had an excellent meal at Al Dente tonight. Went in with a friend and had three courses with bottle of wine. Using the Tastecard offer this came to an impressive £40!
Service was excellent. One waiter for a small number of tables gave a cosy atmosphere and there was no pressure at all to leave, which I hate.
The food was delicious, perhaps slightly smaller portions than I would have liked. I was starving tonight though and not at all hungry now so I may have been just greedy.
Parma ham wrapped figs/​carpaccio of haddock
Lamb ragu/​rabbit medallion
Profiteroles/​ricotta and dark choc tart
All so tasty, beautifully cooked
Ended up staying way longer than expected and had a lovely chat with the owner/​waiter at the end.
Will definitely be coming back! :o)

We know Graziano from the old days and when we found out he had opened his own place we headed right along. It was just before Christmas 2008. The place is small but cosy and the food was fab. Had garlie bread to start from the fixed menu and chicken stuffed with sage for main — it was so delicious and i’ve not got a sage craving! Graziano and Stefan were very hospitable and made us feel very welcome, it was nice to be able to see into the kitchen as our food was being prepared. If you’re looking for a Real Italian and want to be pampered — go to Al Dente — its fab!!!

Went to this tiny eaterie for Saturday lunch. It is on the site of the old Tinnelli restaurant on Easter Road, which I always meant to go to but never did.
It had advertised a set lunch Tuesday to Saturday (£7.95 I think) previously but this is now only available Monday to Friday. Nonetheless, having heard from friends that it was worthy of a visit we decided to try it out.
We were welcomed by the proprietor Graziano Spano who hailes from Bari on Italys Adriatic coast. A limited number of tables are available so if your heart is set I would book ahead.
The style is modern italian. Cooked by the Chef Stefan,
from Rimini & the food did not disappoint.
I started with Smoked Salmon which was a special (£5.50 for a fairly large serving)& came with rocket, parmesan & garlic bread. Graeme had the soup of the day (£2.95), Cream of pea & ham, which also came with a slice of garlic bread. It looked great so I had to have a taste. Wonderful! We both opted for the Lasagne de Pesce for our second course, sheets of lasagne pasta with a scallops king prawn & mushroom sauce. Fantastico! At £7.20 we didn’t expect this to be a huge portion, so took the descision to order a mixed salad to share also. Glad we did as this rounded it off nicely. This was washed down with a bottle of the very respectable house white, and a bottle of still water. The bill came to around £43.00
The service was great, Graziano was assisted by a rather nervous wine waiter from Naples, who settled into his role as the service went on. We think it must have been his first day. The space is small & cosy, the kitchen tiny & the food brilliant. I would urge you to try it out.