Scottish Restaurants in Edinburgh
1. Wedgwood
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
267 Canongate - EH8
Bang on (and partly under) the Royal Mile – Paul & Lisa Wedgwood’s contemporary Scottish establishment (est. 2007) is “consistently of very high quality”. The menu (à la carte or tasting) makes the very best of local, seasonal produce – an approach which Paul explores in popular guided foraging tours.
2. Aizle
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
The Garden Room in The Kimpton Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square - EH2
This former Newington fixture decamped to the Garden Room at the Kimpton Hotel in July 2020, with early reports suggesting that “the new premises are smarter and suit the food well”. “You might have seen their head chef, Stuart Ralston, on 'Great British Chef' this year, but it's the most welcoming and comfortable place – feel free to wear shorts – whilst the food is superb”. Showcased in a six-course tasting menu entirely baked, fermented etc. in-house, dishes are “quite involved” (one reporter’s meal ran as follows: “Daikon and trout in a wonderful clear tomato consomme; wild halibut with peas, sea vegetables and a cream jus; scallops with pickled lettuce and a poached onion or lamb three ways; a strawberry and sheep’s milk pre-pudding; sorrel, chocolate and fudge and then petits fours”).
3. Rhubarb, Prestonfield Hotel
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Priestfield Rd - EH16
“You are greeted by peacocks and a Highland cow” at this former private estate, where you “dine in a historic room” that’s been done up to the nines. “Staff are very relaxed for such a sublime interior” and the food’s pretty good too. The owner is James Thomson, who owns Edinburgh’s Witchery, and his lavish-verging-on-kitsch design DNA is evident in both venues.
4. The Stockbridge
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
54 St Stephen's St - EH3
“Attentive service and perfectly cooked dishes” win praise for this traditionally decorated, picture-lined basement serving Scottish cuisine.
5. Bonnie & Wild’s Scottish Marketplace
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
St James Quarter, 415-417 St James Crescent - EH1
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.
6. Gleneagles Townhouse
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
39 St Andrew Square - EH2
The iconic sporting estate is launching its first ever city spinoff in Autumn 2021, taking over the old Bank of Scotland headquarters in New Town, and offering 33 bedrooms, a private members’ club and an all-day restaurant. This last is located in the former banking hall – from the visuals shared the look will be one of august, traditional beauty but, in a sign of modernism. the food offering is focused more on brunch than it is on afternoon tea, apparently.
7. Creel Caught
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Bonnie & Wild Marketplace, St James Quarter, 415-417 St James Crescent - EH1
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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Taisteal
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Forth St - EH1
In 2021, Gordon Craig and wife Lucy moved their well-rated operation of five years’ standing from Raeburn Place to this new address in the New Town, on the site of Le Roi Fou (RIP). Our feedback remains enthusiastic for its innovative use of British ingredients. “There’s a market menu, which is a steal, and full tasting options if you’re feeling hungrier. Highly recommended”.
11. Mono
Italian restaurant in Edinburgh
85 South Bridge - EH1
2021 Review: “Making other fine dining establishments in town look somewhat staid, out of touch and overpriced” – this April 2018 newcomer is “superb”, and some would say “the best restaurant to have opened in Edinburgh in recent times”. “A charismatic space” with “splendid service” – “the reference on its website to ‘progressive Italian dining’ is accurate” and the modern cuisine is “outstanding” – “go downstairs to see the kitchen in action”. To match the fine cooking there’s “an exceptional, mostly Italian, wine list”.
12. Fhior
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
36 Broughton Street - EH1
This ambitious and ultra-seasonal take on modern Scottish cuisine produces “really enjoyable” meals, served in the form of multiple-course tasting menus in a minimalist city-centre venue. Launched three years ago by chef Scott Smith and his wife Laura as the follow-up to their highly regarded Norn in Leith, it has put its early unevenness behind it and these days puts in a consistently strong performance. Scott grew up in rural Aberdeenshire and now has a kitchen garden outside Edinburgh to grow specialist ingredients. The name derives from the Gaelic for ‘true’.
13. Grain Store
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
30 Victoria St - EH1
2018 Review: A reliable and “quirky”, many-chambered fixture occupying a former storeroom on a touristy street in the Old Town, whose essentially classic Scottish cuisine is consistently well rated.
14. The Witchery by the Castle
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Castlehill, The Royal Mile - EH1
James Thomson’s more than 40-year restoration of a sixteenth-century merchant’s house near Edinburgh Castle has yielded one of the most “atmospheric” dining venues in the country – a gorgeous Gothic extravaganza where even lunch and afternoon tea are candle-lit. The cuisine is appropriately old-school – very “tasty”, too – and is backed up by an “amazing wine list” and whisky selection. You can eat amid the leather, wood panelling and tapestries of the dining room or in the ‘Secret Garden’, and if you want the illusion to last a few hours longer you can stay in one of the individually decorated bedrooms.
15. Rico's
Italian restaurant in Edinburgh
58a Castle Street - EH2
In July 2021 (after our survey concluded) this new venture took over the New Town site of Martin Wishart's The Honour (RIP). The new operator is local restaurateur Stefano Pieraccini of The Rocca Group, which also includes The Broughton and – a perennial favourite with Harden's reporters – The Seafood Ristorante in St Andrews. Italian dishes are made with locally sourced Scottish ingredients.
16. New Chapter
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
18 Eyre Pl. - EH3
This “lovely neighbourhood joint, with good fish and seasonal ingredients” and “friendly staff”, is “just the kind of place you want around the corner from your house”. Chef Maciej Szymik gives good-quality Scottish ingredients a modern European treatment, and now offers a similar standard at Otro, a spinoff brasserie in the West End. Top tip: “there’s a marginally dingy basement, so avoid that when you book”.
17. Timberyard
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
10 Lady Lawson St - EH3
The Radford family’s Scandi-influenced converted Victorian warehouse is “a delight for anyone looking to stray away from the beaten track” – not just for the cooking, but for its “interesting, natural and small-batch wines”. Regulars should expect significant changes, though, following the appointment late last year of head chef James Murray (ex-Lyles, Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and Nur in Hong Kong) and head pastry chef Richard Phillips (ex-L’Enclume and Waterside Inn). Chef Ben Radford, who runs the show with his brother Jo and sister Abi, is moving to a different role in the business.
18. The Palmerston
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Palmerston Place - EH12
Fourteen-foot ceilings add to the ambience of this summer 2021 newcomer near Haymarket, from ex-Harwood Arms GM James Snowdon and ex-Spring chef Lloyd Morse, who aim to ‘champion provenance and sustainability’ with their St-John-style ‘whole animal cooking’. The corner site houses a 60-cover restaurant, bar, bakery, coffee shop and butchery.
19. Scran & Scallie
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Comely Bank Rd - EH4
“This exemplary gastropub” from top Edinburgh chef Tom Kitchin “hits all the right notes” with its “Scottish-themed quality food and busy atmosphere”. It “seems to have upped its game recently – the place is buzzing, food good, service great”.
20. Restaurant Martin Wishart
French restaurant in Edinburgh
54 The Shore - EH6
Martin Wishart's Scottish establishment, down by the water in Leith, offers “a true fine-dining experience” that’s one of the best in Scotland, founded on “classic” cuisine and “excellent, formal but friendly service”. Paradoxically, in some reporters’ eyes, “despite having a Michelin star for 20 years it is something of a hidden gem, albeit one deserving even higher accolades”. It’s also been markedly consistent over the years (“first went in 2007 and it’s still as good as ever”).
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