The best restaurants in Edinburgh have put Scotland’s capital city at the top of any foodie’s destination list. Along the cobbled streets that date back hundreds of years, many of which have retained their heritage, especially in the city centre, are some of the best restaurants in the world. With Scottish produce taking pride of place, traditional foods are brought up to date with innovative cooking.
The food you’ll find in Edinburgh is cutting-edge and uses some of the best products that Scotland has to offer. Restaurants are aware of the modern diner that is more environmentally conscious, so there are plenty of options for the green eater.
Best restaurants in Edinburgh
Edinburgh is perhaps best known for its culture; it is, after all, home to one of the world’s biggest street art festivals. However, amongst its streets, you will find an incredible food scene. Many of the best restaurants in Edinburgh are a celebration of Scottish produce, but Scotland’s capital city also features cuisine from across the globe.
From neighbourhood bistros to street food markets to Michelin-star restaurants (of which there are three), the food in Edinburgh also caters for any type of budget and tops the Scotland guide.
The Kitchin
At the very top of the dining scene in Edinburgh is The Kitchin, by one of Edinburgh’s most celebrated chefs. Set in a converted former whiskey warehouse in the very upmarket port area of Leith, Edinburgh-born Tom Kitchin applies classic French cooking methods to local Scottish produce to deliver mouth-watering dishes that have earned him a Michelin star. Amongst walls lined with tree bark and rooms divided by dry stone walls, you’ll be forgiven to think you’re out in the highlands, further enhanced by the kilt-clad waiting staff.
Pick from an a-la-carte menu featuring seasonal dishes. There’s even a map showing where all the produce comes from, prepared by the chefs behind the kitchen visible from the dining room. There’s an alternative chef’s menu to pick from should you not know what you want.
Address: 78 Commercial Quay, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6LX
Restaurant Martin Wishart
Joining The Kitchin on the Michelin list, also located at the waterfront in Leith, one of the best places to visit in Scotland, is Restaurant Martin Wishart. Using his French classical training, chef Martin uses local produce to serve innovative European dishes.
Despite its Michelin star, the restaurant is cosy and welcoming and offers set menu deals at lunchtime, so it’s also one of the best lunches in Edinburgh. You could easily dine on confit cod with brown shrimp served with Vivaldi potatoes, followed by roast skate, and finished with a lemon tart topped with a Swiss meringue with passionfruit sorbet on the deal.
Address: 54 The Shore, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6RA
Alby’s
If, however, you’re in Leith and want to grab a quick sandwich, the only place to go is Alby’s. It may sound strange that you need to book ahead for a cafe that offers sandwiches, but these are special sandwiches. The menu changes several times a week and offers three different types of fillings in fluffy focaccia, which sometimes comes grilled and oozing with melty cheese. A side of chips is on offer to make it a substantial meal. Anyone for roasted beef, arrive early, as certain items are bound to run out.
Address: 8 Portland Place, Leith, EH6 6LA
Condita
You then have Condita just outside the city centre, which has attained its Michelin star due to its innovative style of cooking. In a nondescript shop conversion with only six large wooden tables, there’s no menu. You are at the chef’s mercy; the only hint of what’s to come is on a hand-drawn bookmark. Fear not, though – centred on quality British produce, the chef picks ingredients that work together with explosive results. This is an experience not to be missed by any foodie.
Address: 15 Salisbury Place, Newington, Edinburgh EH9 1SL
Kanpai
To top the international cuisine on offer is Kanpai. Set at the foot of Edinburgh Castle, it is easily one of the best places to eat in Edinburgh’s city centre. Within the walls of this traditional Japanese restaurant, with private booths and cushioned wooden benches, are hand-painted cherry-blossomed walls and a sushi bar.
That’s not the only authentic feature of the place. A wide-ranging menu offers classics such as California rolls and tempura choices, with the lightest of crispy batter covering hand-dived scallops amongst others. As if that wasn’t enough, there is a teppanyaki choice with the most tender Scottish beef, teriyaki salmon or miso aubergine.
Address: 8-10 Grindlay Street, Edinburgh EH3 9AS
Forage and Chatter
For ardent foodies and those in the know, Forage and Chatter is the only place to eat in Edinburgh’s West End. As implied in the name, the food is cooked using mostly foraged, local ingredients. Within the exposed brickwork of a restaurant with wooden chairs covered in Balmoral tweed, tables are adorned with different types of plants to set the mood.
The menu only has four starters and mains and three items for dessert to pick from, with a cheese course that centres on Scottish cheeses. If you can’t choose whether to start with the beef tartare or lamb shoulder glazed with a tamarind sauce, go with friends so that you can have everything on the menu. Main courses include a pumpkin tagliatelle with chestnut and corral inn (Scotland’s answer to Manchego).
Address: 1A Alva Street, Edinburgh EH2 4PH
Locanda de Gusti
Those in search of Italian fare whilst in the West End of Edinburgh will find it at Locanda de Gusti. In a restaurant reminiscent of trattorias in southern Italy, the menu consists of dishes found in Naples.
The chef is so fanatical about his home cooking that he imports many of his ingredients from Naples, for that authentic taste, and combines them with local ones for some of the best home-cooked pasta in Edinburgh. A delicious lamb shoulder ragu accompanies an orecchiette, all the better to scoop up the rich sauce flavoured with basil. The staff are knowledgeable and incredibly accommodating with things taken off dishes to provide alternatives for vegetarians.
Address: 102 Dalry Road, Edinburgh EH11 2DW
The Bon Vivant
In New Town, the place to hang out is The Bon Vivant; it’s modern and stylish serving traditional dishes with a modern flare. It presents a European style of dining where small sharing dishes are served in an informal and casual environment, with food cooked to the highest of standards. One of the national UK dishes haggis, comes in bonbon style with a whisky-infused mayo, and the broccoli receives a tempura treatment and comes with a harissa yoghurt.
For the main courses, you could have a haunch of venison with roasted parsnips, a parsnip puree and chocolate and port sauce. Finish off your dinner with a carrot cake that comes with candied carrots, a carrot tuille, praline cream and cream cheese sorbet. Oh, and you’ll be mad to miss out on the cocktails expertly mixed at the bar whilst waiting for a table.
Address: 55 Thistle Street, Edinburgh EH2 1D7
Six by Nico
Also in New Town is Six by Nico, an entirely different dining concept. The food here comes with a side order of showmanship and invention, perfect for your Instagram updates if you are the type who likes to keep the public informed of your eating exploits.
With a menu that changes every six weeks and is themed on destinations, one week you could be dining on crunchy chicken tacos from Mexico whilst the next it could be food from Hanoi, with Vietnamese shellfish foam with avocado, grapefruit and crispy noodles with wild rice – yum.
Address: 97 Hanover Street, Edinburgh EH2 1DJ
Noto
Still in the New Town area, Noto is a diner serving snacks and small plates with Asian influences. Inspired by a concept common in New York, where the chef spent many years, the restaurant has achieved a Michelin Bib Gourmand for its ‘simple yet skilful cooking’.
It’s the perfect place to meet up with friends for cocktails whilst nibbling on chicken yakitori skewers, whose slight sweetness is offset with pickled Japanese plums or prawn toast sprinkled with crunchy bonito flakes.
Address: 47a Thistle Street, Edinburgh EH2 1DY
Timberyard
Close to Old Town Edinburgh, where there once was a bustling marketplace with taverns and inns, is Timberyard. Set in a converted warehouse with a Scandi-style interior with exposed bricks is a restaurant that uses fresh and seasonal ingredients sourced from local suppliers, to offer Nordic-type flavours.
Expect lots of deliciously sour flavours; they do their own pickling and curing using foraged ingredients. The berry kombucha is a fine example of the results. Try a lovage broth served with crispy and fluffy spenwood gougere, whilst the mussels come in cider butter. Timberyard is one of the best restaurants in Edinburgh city centre.
Address: 10 Lady Lawson Street, Edinburgh EH3 9DS
The Gardner’s Cottage
Occupying a stone cottage in Royal Terrace Gardens is a quirky restaurant with only three, albeit large, tables where you leave your fate to the chef. The Gardner’s Cottage is a one-off experience where you eat from a tasting menu set by a chef who champions sustainability and uses many ingredients from his own garden.
If beef shin with a potato terrine and black pudding sounds enticing, wait until you’ve tried their sticky toffee pudding enhanced with porcini and thyme. Though set, the menu is varied and a true journey of seasonal produce. It’s also great if you are vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian, just let them know in advance when you book your table.
Address: 1 Royal Terrace Gardens, London Road, Edinburgh EH7 5DX
The Lookout
Meanwhile, a schlep up the hill brings you to its sister restaurant, The Lookout, cantilevered in an observatory on the north-western side of Calton Hill. With floor-to-ceiling glass walls, it offers some of the best views of the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh.
The interiors of the restaurant are sleek and clean with concrete floors and an open kitchen area where you can see the dishes on the tasting menu being prepared. Food is simple with earthy flavours cooked to the highest standards. Shetland hake accompanies mussels on a bed of black garlic with a sprinkling of sunflower seeds and a drizzle of lemon for added zing. It’s one of the best places for dinner in Edinburgh, with a good-value set menu on offer and views that compete with the food.
Address: 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA
Fhior
Another restaurant whose decor veers on Nordic style is Fhior. As with many restaurants at the top of their game in Edinburgh, the chef uses seasonal ingredients when it’s believed they are at their best, to produce simple but utterly tasty food.
Lunch offers a four-course set menu, where cod is served with chicken butter, with sea aster lending succulent nutty flavours to the dish. Meanwhile, dinner is a full celebration of some of Scotland’s finest, with up to ten dishes on a set menu.
Address: 36 Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SB
Saboteur
If you miss the Vietnamese week at Fhior, then make Saboteur a pit stop, where you can feast to your heart’s content. Be sure to turn up early, as they don’t have a booking policy. Perch on a wooden stool with small tables and join the many young people who throng this rather eccentric joint with loud music serving delicious Vietnamese street food.
Address: 19-20 Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH1 2QZ
The Nile Valley Cafe
Africa does get a look in on the dining scene in Edinburgh, at The Nile Valley Cafe. Following the queues behind the university buildings on Chapel Street will bring you to an unassuming cafe with a big reputation.
It’s one of the best places to grab a quick lunch in Edinburgh, with wraps containing fillings with flavours of Sudan and the Middle East. An African wrap comes bursting with chips and falafel with a sprinkling of feta, and a hummus dressing. You can’t find better sustenance to go treading the cobbled streets of the Old Town, one of the best free things to do in Edinburgh.
Address: 6 Chapel Street, Newington, Edinburgh EH8 9AY
LeftField
Amongst the charming cafes and vintage and designer shops in the cool neighbourhood of Bruntsfield Links is LeftField, right on the green.
This neighbourhood bistro specialises in seafood dishes and is just the perfect place to grab a bite after your excursions. The crispiest squid rings come served with a mayonnaise spiced with gochujang, whilst the chips are dowsed in parmesan and truffle; who could resist?
Address: 12 Barclay Terrace, Edinburgh EH10 4HP
Hendersons
Meanwhile, quite close by at Tollcross, Hendersons serves the most innovative vegetarian and vegan dishes. In an upmarket and stylish restaurant with a botanical theme, food is cooked with locally sourced organic ingredients where possible but has influences from across the globe. Feast on a banana blossom pakora or vegetarian haggis that comes served with a whisky tarragon cream and caramelised onions. The dessert choice is quite remarkable too.
Address: 7-13 Barclay Place, Edinburgh EH10 4HW
Aizle
Dining at Aizle is not just about eating good food, it is an experience. Continuing with the theme of tasting menus, here too you will have no idea what to expect. The only hint you receive is an ingredients list, which helps you better understand the food you are eating.
It provides for a truly interesting experience, especially if you love your food and try to pit your knowledge against your ingredients card. The menu changes almost daily depending on what’s on offer, and with prior notice, they can cater for vegetarians.
Address: 38 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4HQ
BABA
A charcoal grill with a cocktail bar on George Street is where you go if you want to be seen or see all the trendy types whilst in Edinburgh, BABA. With flavours of the levant, mezzes include your classic baba ghanoush with pomegranate and mint, hummus dips and lamb shawarma.
There are some surprising additions, such as cauliflower shawarma with ras el hanout or hand-dived scallops with Urfa burnt butter. You can be as discreet as you want by booking a booth, but this isn’t a place to be shy, so plonk yourself at the bar and take it all in. It’s a great atmosphere to hang in if you’re travelling in a group and want a classy night out.
Address: 130 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4JZ
The Table
Near the end of our run of some of the best restaurants Edinburgh has to offer is The Table. With a name like that, you expect a lot, and it’s what you get, starting with a welcome by the chef himself on arrival. In a fully open-plan restaurant where you get fully immersed in the preparation of your food, there’s only one breakfast bar-style table that sits up to ten.
The chef prepares innovative modern European dishes, sometimes right in front of you, that are served over seven courses at dinner. The experience is like being at a very well-off friend’s house who has extremely good taste in furnishings and has organised the best private chef to prepare your food. If you have a weekend in Edinburgh planned, book way in advance.
Address: 3A Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6QG
Fortitude
Finally, there’s only one place to grab your coffee from in the city centre of Edinburgh, and it’s at York Place. Fortitude is an independent, speciality coffee roaster, of which there are a few, but this is by far one of the best.
Using filtered water to brew its coffee, as it’s thought to enhance its flavours, it’s not surprising you’ll find queues going around the block for a sip of their dark, warming nectar, especially at weekends. Slurp and enjoy your coffee with a bun from their bakery, on tables made with sustainable wood and a floor reclaimed from an old church.
Address: 3c York Place, Edinburgh EH1 3EB
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