text: One of Edinburgh great opiniondividing restaurants The Outsider is a love or hate place as shown by the reviews here The view Edinburgh Castle is impressive so it is a good daylight dining choice The lunch is competitively priced It is very popular so a booking is required But it all felt rather passue to me and both dishes that I had looked rather better than they tastednnOverall we said I did not have a particularly strong reaction for or against the place My abiding impression was of a restaurant that was a wellworn favourite for many of its patrons with all the positive and negative connotations that that brings The owners and staff members know what they are doing and they are very comfortable with delivering it but it felt like a place that had been trapped in aspic for a little too long But if it are not broke do not fix it as they say and based on the crowded restaurant they had today their model still strongly appeals