Ladywood Restaurant Guide

Conor Toomey’s “outstanding food continues to surprise and delight” all who experience his “excellent” three-hour no-choice tasting menus (at £150 per person), while there is “good interactive service” and the “wine pairings are the best ever”. The only criticism is directed at the dining room, which is “a little sparse” – with diners saying that cuisine of this monumental quality “deserves a better setting than a glorified shop”.

2022 Review: “Good all round” – this popular and well-priced Marchmont venue keeps a local crowd happy with the French-accented dishes sent out by its owner-chefs, a Sicilian/Canadian couple who live nearby. A proper two-course lunch costs under £20, which adds to the appeal.

This “marvellous” seafood bistro beside Edinburgh’s Meadows from chef Phil White and FoH Rachel Chisholm pleases guests with “carefully prepared food” – “and if you get a seat at the window you see a mile of green space with a volcano in the distance (inert), in the middle of a capital city”. Top Menu Tips – “lovely hake, and the octopus was cooked to perfection”.

2022 Review: “Really good, cheap Chinese food” is the order of the day at this “fun” two-year-old, featuring whitewashed brick walls and a long, refreshingly unusual menu that incorporates the headline event alongside BBQ dishes, noodles etc.

2021 Review: “From the owners of nearby Locanda De Gusti” – this three-year-old sibling is praised for its “authentic Neapolitan pizza” and at a good price too.

2023 Review: This “buzzing and reliable” home-grown homage to New York-style pizza sells its “great” versions by the slice – “the slices are enormous and one will suffice most people” – in four outlets with a “quirky vibe and music (American rock and hip-hop)”. “Their motto is branded on every cup and menu: ‘Death Before Dominos’!”

Credited with introducing the principles of ‘new Nordic’ cuisine to Scottish ingredients, the Radford family’s converted Victorian warehouse (originally built as a props & costume store) impresses all who visit with its foraged or pickled produce and low-intervention wines. Last year it celebrated its tenth anniversary and opened a spin-off wine bar/restaurant, Montrose House, in the Abbeyhill area. The entry-level option for dining here is a five-course tasting menu for £95 per person.

2021 Review: “Tasty, freshly prepared sushi” and “friendly service” can be found at this “very popular” Japanese: a stylishly minimal operation near the Lyceum Theatre – from the team behind Sushiya.

This “absolutely flawless” two-year-old has been a “wonderful surprise in Edinburgh”, both for Aussie chef Lloyd Morse’s “brilliant” food and ex-Harwood Arms GM James Snowdon’s “warmth and hospitality”. Alex Sage (formerly of East London bakery Jolene) contributes “heavenly bread baked on site”, while the “good-value prix-fixe lunch”, made with offcuts from whole animals butchered on site, is highly recommended.

2021 Review: This “stylish and relaxed” Italian wine bar and restaurant occupies a basement in the Old Town, and provides a “guaranteed night out” with “high-class food” and in particular an “excellent wine list” – “under the masterly direction of maître d’ Silvio Praino”. Part of the Vittoria group owned by a branch of the Italo-Scottish Crolla clan, it celebrates its 10th anniversary last year.

2021 Review: “Get the best seats in the place” (at the back, which offers “beautiful views” of the castle) to make the most of a visit to this city-centre staple, also turning out “enjoyable” cuisine of a modern European bent.

This spin-off from the famous Glasgow original “never fails to hit the spot” with its “terrific” Indian cooking, served in tapas-sized portions to taste and share. It’s “great for lunch after a visit to the Dovecot Studios”, a contemporary tapestry gallery next door in Edinburgh’s Old Town.

2021 Review: “Another venture from the Valvona family, in the premises that used to house Khushi’s (RIP)”. Tony Crolla has transformed this former Old Town church into a “large and buzzy” £3 million fish ’n’ chip restaurant (Scotland’s largest). Early feedback cites “very good fish ’n’ chips and friendly, prompt service”. Top Menu Tip – deep-fried Mars Bar!

With its incredible wood-paneled interior (candle-lit, with antique furnishings and tapestries) and an alternative ‘Secret Garden’ space, James Thomson’s restored old house near the castle (dating from 1595) provides a supremely romantic destination (there are also rooms), and has been one of the city’s landmark destinations for decades. It has long been accused of “resting on its reputation” foodwise and this year those fears were to the fore, with concerns about the “pretty uninspiring food and eye-watering prices for such unexciting choices”. Still, there’s always compensation in the vast wine list. And its most upbeat fans have different concerns: “It’s always nice to eat here, but it can be too dark to read the menu and you have to use the torch on your mobile phone to see it properly!”

The “superb choice and quality” of the fish and seafood at chef Roy Brett’s “lovely” 15-year-old venue in the Old Town make it “an Edinburgh favourite”. “The food (which these days includes some meat dishes) is always cooked to perfection”.