City Of Edinburgh Restaurant Guide

“Consistently fresh, bold, interesting food – forthright but beautifully balanced and absolutely delicious, and a decent wine list too” inspire nothing but high enthusiasm for this emerging star of Edinburgh’s dining scene – a ‘Restaurant & Bakery’ from Lloyd Morse and James Snowdon with traditional looks but a forward-looking menu of “simple seasonal food” delivering “outstanding” flavours. Top Menu Tip – “crispy lamb belly and sausage on mustard lentils”.

A “cosy neighbourhood steak restaurant” in a “great location” under the arches close to Waverley station. The beef is dry-aged in-house with Himalayan salt and then “well cooked” over coals, and they really “take the time to make sure it’s great”. (Its Bruntsfield and Leith siblings are no more, both having closed in the first half of 2024).

This “pretty little fish restaurant tucked away overlooking the expanse of the Meadows in south Edinburgh” has won widespread praise for its “deft and delicious cooking”. Chef-patron Phil White and his FOH partner Rachel Chisholm followed up by opening all-day spot Margot a few doors away in March 2024 – hailed by critic Chitra Ramaswamy of The Times as ‘the hippest café in the city’. Top Menu Tip – “the stand-out octopus”.

It’s one of the Scottish capital’s more famous dining rooms within one of its landmark hotels and run by star chef Dean Banks, yet feedback is perennially thin regarding this 1920s chamber, which has been through a number of incarnations in living memory. Named for King Louis XV of France‘s favourite mistress, its hand-painted walls and opulent decor are Grade A listed, although this somewhat grates with its current format, with bare tables and vividly coloured bucket chairs. The menu is that of a luxurious brasserie rather than something more haute and the tasting menu likewise at a relatively affordable £75 per person. Feedback is ‘all good’, but doesn’t give enough detail for a solid rating.

“Well deserving of its Michelin Star!” – the Radford family’s converted Victorian warehouse (originally built as a props and costume store) has built a strong culinary reputation since it opened 11 years ago and was finally recognised by the Tyre Men in their 2023 awards. A five-course menu for £115 per person is the entry-level option (although there is a more extensive tasting menu available for £145 per head).

“What a joy!” – Tom & Michaela Kitchin’s selfconsciously Scottish gastroboozer (‘Oor menu; Yer starters’) is a “buzzy” and “enjoyable experience” serving “upmarket and well done pub grub” as well as “wine by the useful 500ml carafe”. Top Menu Tips – the S&S fish or steak pies.

“Great Italian food” is served in “beautiful rooms” – a collonaded Georgian banking hall modelled on a Florentine palazzo – at this 20-year-old operation from a Scottish-Italian catering dynasty. It’s “quite noisy, but fun”, and is open for breakfast (when ‘Aberdeen butters’, flat Scottish croissants, are served).

“Just right for a nice tapas lunch with a glass of good vino”, this Spanish specialist with eye-catching décor (wall-hung ceramics, jazzy textiles, foliage) wins praise for a “wide choice” of “very good value” dishes which are “generally tasty if not always authentically Spanish”. As of November 2023, when they added a Stockbridge sibling, there are now three branches in town, with the wider family (the NE-based DRG group) stretching to Glasgow, Newcastle and Aberdeen.

Dine amid the ghosts of Auld Reekie at Scotland’s most romantic hotel and restaurant, set in a collection of dramatic buildings dating back to 1595, and right at the gates of the castle. Lit by candlelight, the wood-panelled dining room is a swoonsome location to enjoy fittingly traditional dishes ranging from the Omelette Arnold Bennett to local haggis. Yes, it’s been some time now that the venue has been “resting on its (ancient) laurels”, with a growing army of critics that “just don’t get the hype” (especially since it’s “as expensive as ever!”), but for a special occasion for which expense be damned it takes some beating – as does the 600-bin-strong cellar, winner of many an accolade.

Virginie Brouard’s smart outfit in a mock-Tudor building in the West End has established itself as one of Edinburgh’s most reliable Gallic restaurants as it noses into its third decade, with “reasonable prices” part of the draw, whether you opt for the à la carte menu or the two-course set lunch for £29. If you’re in the mood for a pre-dinner drink, her adjoining wine bar ‘Le Di-Vin’ occupies a dramatic former church (and has formerly featured as one of the best of its kind in the land in a Sunday Times national survey).

“Old-fashioned French-style” hospitality is “very well done” at this white-linen Gallic fixture down a cobbled New Town alleyway, which has for decades been the epitome of a side-street bistro. “I arrived on my own without a booking and was made very welcome”, with “lovely food and service and a warm atmosphere”.

This “small” Stockbridge basement restaurant has become one of the city’s most beloved fine- diners, with chef-patron Paul Gunning (who learnt his trade alongside MPW, amongst others) offering “wonderful and imaginative dishes” that come in “generous portions” to boot. Best of all, for cooking of this pedigree it’s all “great value”, whether you opt for the two- or three-course set lunch, or the five- or seven-course tasting menu at night. In early 2024, the Purslane team re-opened the former Aurora restaurant on Great Junction Street, in Leith, just months after it closed; now rebaptised Dùthchas, it’s another relaxed fine-dining spot that focuses on tasting menus.

“Tables are close together” (and “the noise is heightened by the tiled floor”) at this popular venue – a stalwart of the New Town for over 20 years now. All reports, though, suggest it’s “worth it for the food”, using Scottish produce to create classic Thai dishes.

A “stylish” warehouse conversation sets the scene for some “good old-fashioned cooking” (based on “wonderfully fresh fish” that’s “good value” too) at this restaurant in the heart of the New Town. “Light years ahead of the restaurant offerings on St Andrew’s Square and in neighbouring hotels, reservations are needed as it’s mega-popular with locals” (if you can’t get in you can always head to the Leith original, or their spin-off Shore Bar and Restaurant, which also sits near Leith shore).

It’s “not often that you go to a restaurant and it’s a pleasure to order the entire menu”, but that’s the case at Stuart Ralston’s minimal-chic New Town venture, where the selection is limited to a baker’s dozen of “spectacular” Asian tapas-style dishes, inviting you to explore (or possibly over-order).

“A six-course themed taster menu, that changes every six weeks!” is the “playful idea” at Nico Simeone’s national chain, whose two London branches (in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf) are “great for special occasions, but also affordable for a regular monthly meal out to experience the different cuisines”. At such keen prices, it’s unreasonable to expect perfection and most diners acknowledge this: it’s “a clever, and obviously very popular, concept, albeit one where the experience can seem a bit manufactured”; “although it doesn’t always live up to expectations, when you get the right menu everything clicks into place”; so while inevitably it’s “hit and miss, it’s also great value”, and “for a fun evening it does the job well”.

Marcelline Levicky’s “friendly” New Town staple is a “small but buzzing French-style bistro” that has been of note for its “good value” cooking for aeons and remains distinctly amicale to the wallet (the set lunch is £18.90 and dinner a far from extortionate £32.50).

What does it say about the culinary tastes of the British middle classes that this spin-off chain, with about 40 locations based on the original Theatreland icon, has been such a rip-roaring success? True, there’s some “great people-watching” at the “always buzzing” Chelsea Garden venue (which has one of SW3’s best gardens). And, without doubt, those branches in Kensington, Tower Bridge and Kingston also particularly stand out amongst the rest for their “super atmosphere”. In general though, the knock-off look of their locations “isn’t a patch on the original on West Street, yet pretends to be exactly the same”. And when it comes to their brasserie dishes: although its many followers tout them as “acceptable, albeit nothing special”, their rating-average identifies them as “underwhelming tick-box fare”; all offered by service that’s very “indifferent”. And yet they are “always busy”! In June 2024, it was announced that billionaire Richard Caring had successfully sold his entire Ivy restaurants stake. Now that he is laughing all the way to the bank, it will be interesting to see if ratings reverse, continue or deepen their southward trend.