Edinburgh Restaurant Guide

“Still-fantastic food, service and a very special location” again win powerful support for this landmark hotel’s cosseting and sophisticated basement – long one of the city’s heaviest culinary hitters. And the arrival of new head chef Mark Donald – still under the hotel’s executive chef, Jeff Bland – has caused n’er a ripple in reports. Even a rare reporter who isn’t wowed by its luxurious below-ground setting feels “the excellent standards make it a worthwhile destination nonetheless”.

“Glad we found them before they became so popular and Paul becoming a personality!” – Paul & Lisa Wedgwood’s “gem of a restaurant” on the Royal Mile (much of it below ground) wins consistent praise for its “fabulous” modern Scottish cuisine: “very well executed dishes from locally sourced ingredients”.

“Stunningly good food” – “consistently ambitious, intriguing and successful in its execution of superb ingredients” – is on the daily, no-choice, six-course menu at this dynamic Newington fixture, where everything is baked, fermented and otherwise created in-house. “All the food is good but the fish is really outstanding”. (The name rhymes with hazel, and is Scots for a glowing hot ember).

With its “rich and opulent” setting, this Georgian former private estate provides a “unique environment” for “high-end” meals that are a feast for the eyes as much as the tastebuds. James Thomson pioneered his borderline kitsch approach to hospitality at his gothic-themed Witchery.

“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).

2019 Review: Consistently good feedback once again on this stylish and “cosy” picture-lined basement in Stockbridge, which produces quality Scottish-accented cuisine.