---
title: "Tuscany, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh · Rampant Scotland"
description: "Introduction by Vivien Devlin Having visited a couple of dozen Italian restaurants in Edinburgh as a reviewer earlier this year for the 2005/6 List Eating and D"
canonical: "https://rampant-scotland.pages.dev/besteating/best_eating_dev_tuscany.htm"
last-updated: "2026-11-11"
date-basis: "git-content-change"
---

# Tuscany, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh · Rampant Scotland

Great Places to Eat

# Tuscany, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

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**Introduction by Vivien Devlin**
Having visited a couple of dozen Italian restaurants in Edinburgh as a reviewer earlier this year for the 2005/6 List Eating and Drinking Guide, I am well aware of the vast range of style, quality and cuisine available. From cheap and cheerful pizzerias to speciality Sicilian seafood and fine dining classic Italian restaurants you can experience every kind of Italian food.

Now a new kid on the block has arrived and it's different again. Tuscany is a stylish, contemporary bright and buzzing trattoria, with the adage "Pizza and Grill". It offers a diverse menu - pizza, pasta, salads and speciality dishes including tuna, bean stew, chicken and steak. Tuscany is not part of a chain of restaurants but there is one other branch of the same name in York. After its success there, a second restaurant has now opened in Edinburgh.

**The Location**
Greyfriar's Bobby For those who know Edinburgh well, you may recall the former series of Bauermeister Bookshops at 19 George IV Bridge, with separate stores selling Academic books, hardback fiction, paperbacks, stationery and classical music. For those who don't know Edinburgh well - Bauermeister was just along from the statue to Greyfriar's Bobby! Tuscany now resides in the main bookshop where many students would spend hours selecting their university course books. What a dramatic change to the design and layout. Perhaps the kitchen is where the cookery books used to be shelved!

**The Restaurant**
Enter a cool open plan ground floor space, divided with pillars, with wall to wall dark brown banquette seating surrounded by a sea of neat square tables and comfortable upholstered chairs. The colour scheme is in pure plain shades - dark grey, taupe and beige with highly polished cedar wood floors. Walls are brightened up with huge bold colourful paintings in Mediterranean colours of red, yellow and terracotta. Rather like the Tardis, the restaurant appears far bigger inside than you would imagine. Downstairs is another dining area - this basement area is rather cosy with an attractive layout.

**The Food**
Tuscan Cuisine
 For the freshest ingredients from the Italian countryside, there's no place like Tuscany. The simple, pure cuisine relies on what's best from the land - olives, spring fava beans, fresh fruit and vegetables, fragrant sage and rosemary. The finest olive oil comes from Tuscany, as well as proscuitto - ham, which has been seasoned, salt-cured and air-dried. Other specialities include white truffle, polenta, focaccia, thick bean soup and savoury chicken dishes plus a delicious choice of local cheese. Tuscany is best known for excellent Chianti while the regions of Montalcino and Montepulciano are two of Italy's most noted wine regions.

And so the menu at Tuscany is inspired by traditional Tuscan country cooking, complemented by freshly made pasta, pizza, salads and fine wine. For antipasto start perhaps with classic Bruschetta - simple toasted rustic bread with tomatoes, red onions, basil and garlic. This was voted by my partner as excellent and amongst the best he had sampled in Edinburgh. Other options include Bresaola, thinly sliced cured beef with a tomato and rocket salad, Calamari fritti and Antipasto misto, a platter of Tuscan delicacies - salami, proscuitto, artichokes, olives, mozzarella, dough balls - to share with friends. I selected steamed fresh mussels in white wine, shallots garlic and cream sauce. It was a good sized bowl - well measured as a starter - with fat, juicy mussels swimming in a rich - but not too creamy - garlicky stock. You may also select this for a main course.

You will need time to read through the rest of the menu to select your Secundo course. The list of Specialities is worth perusing if you wish to sample something with real Tuscan flavours. A typical traditional dish is Tuscan Bean Stew featuring cannelloni beans, peppers and sage in a tomato sauce or try the Chicken Alfredo, grilled chicken breast with bacon, mushroom and white wine sauce, rosemary potatoes and green beans. The seared Tuna Steak smothered in aubergine caviar and served with a pepper and tomato stew and chunky potatoes was regarded by my partner as extremely tasty - an unusual medley of ingredients which blended well to create a hearty dish. However he was not asked how he would like the tuna cooked and it was slightly overdone. Other specialities include Seabream - baked with Italian vegetables and basil pesto, Veal Milanese with spaghetti and Sirloin and Fillet Steaks.

Pasta For pasta lovers there are all your favourites - spaghetti, lasagne, vegetarian cannelloni, and speciality dishes such as Pappardelle al Salmone, with flakes of smoked salmon and asparagus with a dill, cream and tomato sauce. And for a lighter meal, select a fresh bowl of salad from classic Chicken Caesar to Tuscan House salad, with parma ham, egg, sliced chicken breast on mixed leaves.

 I decided to sample a pizza from an extensive, classic and contemporary selection. There's Tuscan Ham, Chicken Fiorentina, Pescatori (tuna, prawns, anchovies) and Roast Vegetables, which I chose. A very large but extremely thin pizza (crisp crust and soft base) arrived smothered in oven roasted Tuscan vegetables (aubergine, peppers), with mozzarella, tomatoes and crumbled goat's cheese.

Our charming waiter, Pasquale, comes from Naples and was extremely enthusiastic about describing the perfect Italian pizza - the authentic Neapolitan pizza, which is prepared here. It certainly was delicious - 8/10. Just slightly too much to finish, especially after a bowl of mussels!

Glass of red wine Pasquale recommended one of the house wines, a Tuscan Sangiovese, described as tasting of "raspberries, plums and violets with a spicy vanilla finish". Not sure about the violets but the rich fruit flavours were certainly apparent. The wine list has 10 red and 10 white wines with three bottles served by the glass. For those who like bubbles, there's Prosecco Brut and Piper Heidsieck Champagne. I was slightly surprised that the bottle of water was English, Abbey Well. There are some excellent Italian bottled waters including San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, which is bottled in - Tuscany!

I personally did not indulge in a dessert but I if I could have managed a slice, I would have selected Torta di Limone, a perfect end to an Italian meal. Otherwise, Cranberry and white chocolate Cheesecake, Tiramasu and ice creams. Alternatively a platter of Italian cheese. We both finished instead with Espresso Corretto, an espresso coffee with a dash of Grappa liqueur. This certainly hit the spot and the perfect digestif after such a fine Tuscan feast.

**The Bill**
Antipasto: £2.50 - £4.50. Specialities: £9.00. Pizza and Pasta: £7.00. Salads: £ 7.50. Dessert: £4.50. House wine: £11.95.

**Conclusion**
Pizza Tuscany opened at the end of August 2005 and very quickly built up a fine reputation. On the Friday evening in October we came, the restaurant was absolutely packed with a couple of large parties of around 10 or 12 people, as well as small groups and couples, with more people arriving through the evening as others left. There was such a buzz of conversation, I could only just hear the distant hum of background music. In fact it was so busy the kitchen was finding it difficult to cope and there was a slight lull between courses for which our waiter apologised. To be fair, I am sure this was just a temporary glitch as the restaurant adapts and develops service and kitchen staff to cater for the growing number of diners.

It is well located in the Old Town, a short walk from the Royal Mile so perfect for tourists wanting a good lunch or leisurely evening meal after a long walk exploring the city. Ideal too for the local business community and local residents for whatever occasion. I would certainly recommend this very attractive, beautifully designed Trattoria serving freshly made Italian cuisine based on traditional Tuscan dishes served with contemporary style. Make sure you book a table, especially at the weekend.

*Vivien Devlin
October 2005*

Return to the Index of [Great Places to Eat in Scotland](https://web.archive.org/web/20061017132112/http://www.rampantscotland.com/besteating/best_eating_index.htm).

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