Younger readers may be astonished that there was once a time when pub food meant a pack of peanuts. Or a pie and chips, if you were drinking somewhere posh.

How times have changed. After a refurb and a rethink in the kitchen, The Potting Shed on Edinburgh’s Potterrow has relaunched with a menu which would have been considered avant garde in an ambitious restaurant not so long ago.

This is less surprising when you know that the company that runs the Potting Shed also has the much awarded Sun Inn in Dalkeith.

If memory serves, the previous menu at The Potting Shed was fairly straight forward: starters and main courses along the lines of burgers, fish ‘n’ chips and so on.

The new menu is all about small plates divided into sections from the sea, from the land, and something called ground provisions which are mainly, but not exclusively, veggie.

Fresh kitchen team

Courtesy of a fresh kitchen team, the more conventional dishes on the new menu include whitebait with lime and coriander mayo; goat’s cheese with pomegranate and granola and lamb served with flatbread and parsley.

More exotic flavour combinations include ham and smoked haddock terrine; pig cheeks with sweet and sour beetroot and, this is intriguing, king scallops with celeriac which are paired with duck and juniper Savoy cabbage.

The drinks menu, especially the cocktails, is just as off the wall. The Blood Orange and Burnt Rosemary Margarita requires a blowtorch to finish.

This scribbler is having difficulty imagining how some of the flavours fit together but they certainly look fantastic: