Stockbridge Restaurant Guide

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.

“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.

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”.

“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).

“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.

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).

“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.

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).

“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”.

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.

“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”.

“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!”

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.

“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).