Osteria del Tempo Perso

We’re very fond of this place. Stylish, distinctive and friendly with a nice atmosphere and we’ve never had a bad meal. Despite being quite a trendy place, it doesn’t stop them being great with our young kids. Our experience is better than the current average of reviews would suggest. I’d recommend giving osteria a try.

Loved this place, the food is tasty and fresh. The menu has a good range of foods and might be a little complex for those not used to italian food but everything is explained in the menu.
The portions are large and the fried seafood was particularly tasty. The mussles n spaghetti was a little bland but that’s the only complaint with our food! I would say the staff are a little slow but when they do get round to you they are chatty and friendly in true Italian style.
Nice local restaurant, good ambiance, good food :-)

On entering I was so excited straight away to be getting a totally authentic Italian experience — the menus was complicatedly Italian (and no set lunch pricing was involved, which seemed to upset a few locals), and all the staff chit-​chatted away in full Italian behind us…
The food made immediately less of an impression — the amuse bouche of 5 huge balls of fried pizza dough was neither stated nor requested, and as well, totally
unnecessary and devoid of seasoning. The antipasto included a horrible german sausage meat and some random other stuff-​who knows what because it was a drop and run sort of affair for the server — no explanations given! One of the spicy meats was delicious but we cant tell you what it was… we left a lot of it in anticipation of our hand made pasta dishes…35 minutes later we were delivered with the most tasteless pasta we have ever experienced. We salted and peppered till we couldn’t any more and eventually got the attention of one of the servers still working (2 had gone civvy and didn’t see us any more) to bring our bill. We’d ordered a salad that hadn’t turned up on our table and was on the bill. They fixed it without quibble but still didnt apologise for us not getting something we’d ordered. At no point did anyone ask if everything was ok, not once. My lunch was really bad and i was really disappointed. Before the food i was thinking about how to bring a group of pals here… i now won’t come back…
Shame

I had a really lovely lunch here — but I think that, had my company not been so splendid, I wouldn’t have had such a good time. This place seems confused about whether it’s a classy restaurant or a kooky indie eatery. In support of the former: it’s elegant, spacious, and served us each an intimidatingly large glass on arrival with the wide base of its bowl moistened with a finger of white wine — complimentary, apparently, although it was just kind of plonked in front of me and I had no idea whether I’d be charged but was too English to ask. (Also «plonk» might be entirely the wrong word. I don’t know, for obvious reasons!).
In support of the latter: it has a wide range of clocks on the walls, all stopped at somewhere kind of afternoonish time, so don’t trust them if you’re out for lunch. I know, I get it, «tempo perso» and all that, but it just seemed a little like trying too hard. There’s also this weird screen showing some kind of cookery programme, to which, fortunately, I had my back, or I would have been utterly distracted.
That said — the food was pleasant — we simply ordered three dishes from the antipasti part of the menu to share between us as a light bite and they were pretty nice, all around the £6 mark. I’m not sure I’d have necessarily seen fit to charge that much for the mushrooms or the bruschetta trio (£2 for each wee bit of bruschetta? Cheeky). I guess when the mains are hitting into the teens price-​wise it’s to be expected, though. The trio of bruschetta was excellent, however. The roasted vegetable one was my favourite.
For me, it’s not quite settled enough to be a treat meal out, and it’s not quite kooky enough to be characterful; I guess most of the competition in the immediate vicinity seems to be coffee shops and patisseries, though, so it serves a purpose and if you’ve got the budget for a full meal sometime in the evening when there’s more atmosphere then I’m sure you’ll have a fine time.

Recently opened but as yet no website only twitter connections in Edinburgh Osteria del Tempo Perso, made lunchtime a no-​faff deal. Great service, cosy surroundings, soft music, generous portions made our tapas styled meal all the more authentic. Very tasty and lovely presented food, interesting décor and great company all made for a unique lunch experience.
On arrival we were presented with a sample of house white wine and a small portion of Parmesan paste coupled with cheese crunch. A short time later after more catching up our group demolished a selection of veggie goats cheese bruschetta, mushrooms, ham and cheese platter. We had so much fun during lunch that an hour just flew by.
Twinned with their Italian sister opened around a decade ago on the East Coast of Italy, the team are providing authentic simplistic in style but delicious food combos with the exception of a menu without pizza.
Go and try for yourself as there are plenty tables for medium sized groups (table share), or romantic night out. I will have to come back again of course to try their macaroni Italian cheese pasta (made in-​house) or some of their fish dishes.
The restaurant however was quiet when we were in, over the coming weeks I’m sure they will be peppered with pre-​event bookings. But in all another decent Italian establishment to add to the culinary delights in our great city.