Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Edinburgh
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Edinburgh restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 93 restaurants in Edinburgh and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Edinburgh restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Edinburgh Restaurants
1. Rhubarb, Prestonfield Hotel
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Priestfield Rd - EH16
The “extravagant surroundings” of a lavishly decorated country house in 20 acres near Arthur’s Seat help set a spectacular scene at James Thomson’s luxury hotel (he also owns the famous Witchery). Fans say it’s “possibly the nicest upmarket place for dinner in Edinburgh – in particular for special occasions”. The cooking – from a wide range of menus including à la carte – is affordably priced given all the grandeur, and there’s an “exceptional wine list to go with it”.
2. Dumpling Queen X Dai Jou Bu
Chinese, Dim sum restaurant in Edinburgh
52 Blackfriars Street - EH1
Experience the Best Chinese Restaurant in Edinburgh’s Old Town – Dumpling Queen X Dai Jou Bu Located at 52 Blackfriars Street, Dumpling Queen X Dai Jou Bu offers an authentic taste of Hong Kong right in the heart of Edinburgh’s hi...
3. Gardener’s Cottage
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Royal Terrace Gardens, London Road - EH7
2021 Review: “The menu is fixed and you sit at one of three large tables with others” at this quirky venture, which occupies a stone cottage in Royal Terrace Gardens. You get what you’re given from a mystery tasting menu on which sustainability is to the fore, with many of the ingredients grown by Charlie the gardener. On practically all reports the food is well-rated, and they must be doing something right having last year now opened The Lookout (see also).
4. Number One, Balmoral Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Princes Street - EH2
“The carpet… the soft furnishings… the acoustics… all create a calm, quiet ambience” at the premier dining room of the Scottish capital’s landmark hotel, which is extremely stylish and opulent for somewhere that’s entirely underground. Fans say that – under chef Matthew Sperry, who arrived in 2021 – “it’s a must-visit when in Edinburgh, everything is perfection from the minute you enter the dining room”, although some advise you “skip the seven-course tasting menu and go for the three-course option, which is better value and with plenty enough to eat”. Other features include an excellent wine selection (over 350 bins) and the newly introduced private dining room (a 10-seater, to which The Scotsman’s Gaby Soutar awarded 17/20 in her September 2023 review).
5. Aizle
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
The Garden Room in The Kimpton Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square - EH2
Stuart Ralston is celebrating the tenth year of his Aizle project, although it’s only inhabited the glass-roofed ‘Garden Room’ of the Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel since 2020. Under chef Ashley Salmon, it wins solid ratings as a “good all-rounder”. It’s a tasting menu only format: the five-course version is £75 per person, and there’s also a seven-course menu for £105 per person.
6. Restaurant Martin Wishart
French restaurant in Edinburgh
54 The Shore - EH6
There’s nothing fancy, pretentious or self-aggrandising about Martin Wishart’s long- established HQ at the foot of a converted warehouse, which has been a feature of the area around the Leith waterfront for over a quarter of a century now. With rivals opening left, right and centre nowadays – often featuring tedious multicourse epic menus – it perhaps doesn’t feature in the headlines as much as it once did, but there’s no good reason for this other than the fickleness of media fashions. “Service is superb without being stuffy” and is “married with top-quality food” – thoughtful, accomplished cuisine that avoids pyrotechnics yet displays excellent technique and delivers “exceptional” flavours. The ‘Market Menu’ is a three-course à la carte for £125 per person, or there’s a (slightly) longer tasting menu for £145 per person. “A delight”… “sublime”.
7. Macau Kitchen
restaurant in Edinburgh
93 Saint Leonards Street - EH8
Macau Kitchen is a multi-award winning restaurant in the heart of Edinburgh offering guests a unique dining experience of Progressive Macanese Cuisine. An independent business, run by chef patron Kei and Hoeyyn (Front of House). This restaurant is a representation of the int...
8. Palm Court, The Balmoral Hotel
Afternoon tea restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Princes St - EH2
“A real treat. A top experience” – “it’s afternoon tea in a posh hotel... but they know what they’re doing and do it very, very well” in the elegant glass-domed lounge of this Edinburgh landmark: “savoury food and patisserie both excel, in a space that is so beautiful they‘d be full even if the food was dross!” all served by “brilliant staff who provide great theatre: the tea pouring is something else!”. This year’s biggest complaint? “A huge array of delicious food… but way too much for me!”
9. The Café Royal Bar
Fish & seafood restaurant in Edinburgh
19 West Register Street - EH2
With its imposing facade, stained glass, corniced ceilings, polished wood and brass, we maintain a listing for this busy Victorian institution (est. 1863 and nowadays run by the Metropolitan Pub Company) as much as a cultural experience as it is a culinary one. Seafood dishes and platters are the best choices here.
10. Hawksmoor
Steaks & grills restaurant in Edinburgh
23 West Register Street - EH2
“The same quality of steaks that you always get with Hawksmoor, in a fabulous space in a great building” – feedback that suggests no dip in quality for this outpost of the well-known steakhouse chain (which most recently opened in Chicago). As with its London siblings, though, its middling ratings are a result of high prices and a slight sense of “hype”. Also “it’s a very big and striking room, but can easily feel a bit empty”.
11. Bonnie & Wild’s Scottish Marketplace
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
St James Quarter, 415-417 St James Crescent - EH1
2022 Review: Launched in July 2021, Scotland’s largest food hall (and Edinburgh’s first) features a range of chef-led food stalls and restaurants. These include The Gannet East, Creel Caught, Erpingham House, El Perro Negro, east PIZZAS, Broken Clock, Joelato, Salt & Chilli Oriental and CHIX. Also houses Inverarity Morton’s boutique bottleshop.
12. Dishoom Edinburgh
Indian restaurant in Edinburgh
3a St Andrew Square - EH2
“Great fun if you don’t mind queuing on the pavement… and the food is great” – this northern outpost of London’s famous Indian chain on St Andrew’s Square was the first outside the capital (it opened in 2016). Similarly based on the Parsi cafés of Mumbai, it has seemed a fraction less all-conquering, though, as south of the border: feedback is nearly all positive, but not in as huge a volume as one might expect. Top Tip – “I despise their evening no-bookings policy. I will never eat there for dinner. But I love their bacon naans so much, and you can book for breakfast. So I go for breakfast and have a fantastic time!”
13. Wahaca
Mexican restaurant in Edinburgh
16 South St Andrew Street - EH2
“For a large chain, they still do pretty much unbeatable Mexican fusion fare”, say fans of these “busy and atmospheric” street-food cafés, now with 11 London branches and three others around the UK. That said, there are also some niggles in feedback; and the sentiment is widespread that – though “still enjoyable” – the food can seem “a little mass-produced”. Even so, practically all diners still consider them “dependable for a quick, cheap ’n’ cheerful bite”. Top Tip – the new, 150-cover Paddington branch is their first opening in six years and puts a focus on sustainability and a menu including some larger sharing plates (e.g. grilled Achiote Seabass, Lamb Barbacoa and Chimichurri Cauliflower).
14. The Ivy on the Square
British, Traditional restaurant in Edinburgh
6 St Andrew Square - EH2
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.
15. Sushisamba
Fusion restaurant in Edinburgh
W Hotel Edinburgh, St James's Quarter - EH1
With two cousins in London – not to mention others in Vegas, Singapore and throughout the Gulf states – this long-trailed newcomer finally debuted on the 10th floor of the W Hotel after years of waiting. It offers a similarly glossy combination of striking metropolitan decor (bars, oudoor terraces, indoor trees) and luxurious Latino/Japanese bites (tacos, tempura, sushi), and although it has yet to inspire any feedback in our annual diners’ poll it inspired a thumbs-up from The Scotsman’s Rosalind Erskine in her December 2023 review: “undoubtedly a stylish place to be seen but unlike some venues like this, the food actually stands up to scrutiny”.
16. The Spence at Gleneagles Townhouse
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
39 St Andrew Square - EH2
“You’d have to travel a long way to find another dining room as grand” as this sumptuous cupola-topped venue – the eye-catching old Bank of Scotland above Waverley station – which is now part of the first city hotel spin-off from the storied Perthshire hotel (replete with “beautiful” bedrooms, rooftop bar and members’ club). Some 98 years younger than that grand icon, which celebrated its centenary in 2024, the all-day restaurant, which turns out upscale brasserie fare from sharing dishes to a decadent dessert trolley, failed this year to elicit huge amounts of feedback: brunch, previously a highlight, is now once-monthly only, while the other victuals can seem “good but not exciting”, thus “not up to the elevated surroundings”.
17. Creel Caught
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Bonnie & Wild Marketplace, St James Quarter, 415-417 St James Crescent - EH1
2022 Review: MasterChef: The Professionals winner Gary Maclean opened his first restaurant in summer 2021 on the fourth floor of the Bonnie & Wild Marketplace: Edinburgh's first food hall in St James Quarter. The menu champions sustainable Scottish seafood, with the ‘award-winning Arbroath Smokies’ a signature dish.
18. Howies
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
29 Waterloo Place - EH1
2021 Review: David Howie Scott’s flagship venue at the foot of Calton Hill celebrates its 30th anniversary last year as a purveyor of inexpensive Scottish classics. The odd reporter feels that it’s “nice enough, but not the stand-out it could be”, but that’s within the context of pretty solid ratings overall. There are two spinoffs in Edinburgh and one in Aberdeen.
19. La Garrigue
French restaurant in Edinburgh
31 Jeffrey St - EH1
Jean-Michel Gauffre is the mastermind behind this “pleasing, modest French establishment”, in the Old Town; a firm fixture since its launch in 2001, it turns out hearty Gallic cooking with a particular focus on the Languedoc, alongside an excellent value lunchtime ‘Menu du Jour’.
20. Angels With Bagpipes
British, Traditional restaurant in Edinburgh
343 High St, Royal Mile - EH1
2021 Review: Owned by the Crolla family (who started Valvona & Crolla, Scotland’s oldest deli and Italian wine merchant – see also), this sixteenth century fine dining spot is a beacon on the otherwise touristy Royal Mile owing to its “well-cooked and well-seasoned” Scottish fare and “good value Sunday lunch”; for a truly intimate dining experience, try ‘Halo’, upstairs, which seats just four.
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