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 85 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. Number One, Balmoral Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Princes Street - EH2
“A must visit when in town” – chef Matthew Sherry delivers a “high-class tasting menu with ingredients to match” (seven courses for £115 per person) at this famous dining room – a “beautiful” and “club-like” space in the basement of one of Scotland’s most famous hotels. It’s an all-round experience too that’s “very comfortable” (and business-friendly) with “professional and friendly service”. “The wine list is not cheap but some good bins are to be found”.
2. 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).
3. Restaurant Martin Wishart
French restaurant in Edinburgh
54 The Shore - EH6
“In the historic port of Leith, overlooking the Water of Leith from its converted warehouse setting” Martin Wishart’s well established HQ has proved one of our annual diners’ poll’s most consistent over-achievers for the last two decades. It’s not a place for ego and gimmicks: just “exceptional food” (“the unusual combinations of flavours, especially of the amuse-bouches, are a delight”) that’s “well deserving of its accolades”. Service is notably “charming” too (“although we don’t visit frequently, as we live in London, we are always recognised and warmly welcomed”).
4. Aizle
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
The Garden Room in The Kimpton Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square - EH2
Stuart Ralston relocated this ambitious venue from a previous location in 2020, and it continues to go from strength to strength in this modern, glass-roofed ‘Garden Room’ of a hotel. The “excellent tasting menu is very creative and not too expensive by the yardstick of comparable ventures”, with “skillful” preparation of an “impressively eclectic array of ingredients”.
5. Rhubarb, Prestonfield Hotel
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Priestfield Rd - EH16
Set in 20 acres near Arthur’s Seat, this opulent boutique hotel is part of James Thomson’s portfolio (he also owns the Witchery) and “continues to deliver excellent ambience”. The food is dependable too – it’s not especially foodie, but did in September 2023, for example, win Boutique Hotelier’s Restaurant of the Year awards. The venue also wins nominations for a fine afternoon tea.
6. 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...
7. 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.
8. Hawksmoor
Steaks & grills restaurant in Edinburgh
23 West Register Street - EH2
The grand hall of the former Bank of Scotland HQ provides a dramatic setting for this northern outpost of the famous London-based steakhouse chain. As with last year, feedback on its menu of native-bred beef and Scottish seafood remains surprisingly limited, hence we’ve removed a rating for the time being.
9. 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.
10. Dishoom Edinburgh
Indian restaurant in Edinburgh
3a St Andrew Square - EH2
“The fun and lively Indian street food is always reliable” according to all reports on this northern outpost of the phenomenal chain – inspired by the Parsi cafés of Mumbai – which occupies a large three-floor site dating from the 1920s. But while popular, it hasn’t perhaps been the sell-out sensation it’s proved in London, although there is one constant… “that bacon naan, with unlimited chai latte = breakfast heaven!”
11. Wahaca
Mexican restaurant in Edinburgh
16 South St Andrew Street - EH2
These “lively, colourful” Mexican street-food joints are, say fans, “great for a quick bite” – “the food remains pretty good (if not where it was several years ago)” and “you can’t complain at the prices”. That’s the majority view anyway, although there is a small minority who feel it’s “very average” now (and its ratings risk heading that way). Founded by MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers in 2007, the group hit the buffers during the pandemic and halved in size to 10 sites in London, with Dick Enthoven of Nando’s taking a controlling stake.
12. The Ivy on the Square
British, Traditional restaurant in Edinburgh
6 St Andrew Square - EH2
As per its siblings, this offshoot of Richard Caring’s brasserie format woos diners with its “lovely surroundings” and location in a “handy spot” overlooking St Andrew’s Square; also as per its siblings, there are critics of the “disappointing food, service and ambience”, for whom this endlessly expanding empire is “a chain taken too far”.
13. Sushisamba
Fusion restaurant in Edinburgh
W Hotel Edinburgh, St James's Quarter - EH1
Promising ‘dynamic interiors’ plus an ‘outdoor terrace with sweeping views of Edinburgh’s skyline’ from the 10th floor of W Edinburgh in the St James Quarter – this heavily trailed third branch of the super-glossy US chain at long last is set to open in November 2023. The London Sushisambas blazed a trail on opening, and the heady blend of Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine has the potential to be a major addition to the Scottish capital (if, likely, not an especially affordable one).
14. The Spence at Gleneagles Townhouse
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
39 St Andrew Square - EH2
“A stunning setting in a former banking hall” – the former HQ of the Bank of Scotland, complete with eye-catching cupola – provides a hard-to-beat setting for this year-old spin-off from the world-famous sporting estate: the first-ever extension of the brand (a property with 33 bedrooms). The focus of the (less reviewed) à la carte is on posh brasserie fare – the dedicated brunch menu is the most commented-on feature here (“amazing crab omelette”). Prices could be much worse given the level of grandeur. It’s also tipped for a “good business venue”.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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’.
18. 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.
19. The Lookout by Gardener's Cottage
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
Calton Hill - EH7
“Really enjoyable experience (apart from the walk in the dark on icy paths to reach the place from the Royal Terrace!”) – few restaurants can match the location of this dramatically cantilevered structure, whose floor-to-ceiling windows ensure superb views over the city from Calton Hill. On limited feedback this year, some “outstanding” results were reported from a no-choice, four-course menu for £85 (shorter and cheaper at lunch). On the downside, in March 2023, Chitra Ramaswamy in The Times had an up-and-down trip: it “ha[d] everything going for it: fabulous taste, music, service and ingredients in a world-class setting” but was “simply too expensive for what you get”.
20. Wedgwood
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
267 Canongate - EH8
Paul and Lisa Wedgwood’s basement on the Royal Mile again wins consistent praise this year for its “very good” cuisine, which provides a good trade off between its level of ambition and its relative affordability. There’s a seasonally changing à la carte menu, or you can opt for the ‘Wee Tour of Scotland’ tasting menu at £80 per person.
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