Guide to Edinburgh's Restaurants
(and other essentials for food lovers)

This guide was originally written for groups of conference participants visiting Edinburgh. It was intended as a short list of places that could be relied upon to provide something decent, so that the visitors could avoid the appalling consequences of incautious exploration of British restaurants.

Now we are not involved with conferences, it is just our personal restaurant guide reflecting our recent experiences. There are probably many excellent places not mentioned, owing probably to ignorance on our part.

Comments are very welcome by E-mail to the editors, but we only include places we have been to ourselves.

blue (Cambridge Street, EH1. Tel: 0131 221 1222) Blue lacks the fizz that it had when it opened and the modern, stylish interior is no longer so unusual in Edinburgh. But the food remains pretty good and the location is excellent for the Usher Hall and Lyceum Theatre. It's one of those useful places where you can go and have a quick bite or a full meal.

Cafe Hub (The Hub, Castle Hill EH1. Tel: 0131 473 2067) The Cafe in the headquarters of the Edinburgh International Festival is serving Italian-rather-than-French modern British food, rather in the style of "blue" above but less ambitious and quite a lot cheaper. Good-value food in pleasant surroundings.

Ye Olde Peacock Inn (Newhaven Village, EH6. Tel: 0131 552 8707) On the seafront, almost opposite Edinburgh's now defunct outlet of the "Harry Ramsden" chain is this pub where discerning locals go for Fish and Chips. The chips are a bit soggy, one gets a horrible mixture of peas and sweetcorn as an accompaniment, but the fish itself is top-quality. The regulars seem to have a cup of tea with their food, but we prefer a pint of bitter!

First Coast (99-101, Dalry Road, EH1. Tel: 0131 313 4404) Decent food on Dalry Road! Hard to believe but just opposite the excellent La Partenope (see below) is this little cafe serving modern "blue-style" food at very reasonable prices. Not at all bad.

Petit Paris (38-40 Grassmarket, Edinburgh, EH1. Tel: 0131 226 2442 and 17 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh, EH2 Tel: 0131 226 1890 http://www.petitparis-restaurant.co.uk) A couple of nice little French bistro-style places, simply furnished but pleasant with decent food. When I've been, they have allowed BYOB but there's no mention of that currently on their web site.

The Gallery Restaurant and Bar (The National Gallery, Edinburgh, EH2. Tel: 0131 624 6580) You can now eat a reasonable meal at the gallery - nothing special, but standard modern fare reasonably well done.

Urban Angel (121, Hanover Street, EH2. Tel: 0131 225 6215) Just south of Queen Street, a small basement entrance conceals a substantial seating capacity in this cafe-cum-restaurant. They make a lot of their fair-trade and organic sourcing but it's not just lentils: there's Buccleuch beef and other top-class meat too. We really enjoyed a recent lunch of Tapas - it's one of those "anything from a snack to a full meal" outfits. The food is generally good although the service can be rather lax.

La Concha (24, Deanhaugh Street, Stockbridge EH4. Tel: 0131 332 0414) Tiny, friendly basement restaurant serving Italianate food. There's a real chef cooking fresh ingrediants and most of it is reasonably well done - not bad for the area, but not inspiring either. This was a good option when they were BYOB but now they have a license.

Rafael's (2 Deanhaugh Street, Stockbridge EH4. Tel: 0131 332 1469) Very close to La Concha, another small basement operated by a single chef/proprietor. Rafael cooks pretty decent Spanish dishes from a small menu.

If you are looking for a light lunch in the New Town, don't forget Glass and Thompson under Cafes below. Also, don't forget Valvona and Crolla under Italian Restaurants

Several pubs on the shore at Leith serve more or less reasonable food, particularly fish. Most are open on Sundays.

The Atrium (10 Cambridge Street, EH1. Tel: 0131 228 8882) Like many places, this has been up and down a little over the years, but on average it has been one of the better serious eating options in town over the last decade or so. Conveniently central too.

Restaurant Martin Wishart (54 The Shore, Leith. Tel: 0131 553 3557) Still the best food in town (provided "town" includes Leith) by some way. The food, service and prices all suggest Martin has his sights set on a second Michelin star and it would not be greatly surprising if he got it. Fantastic modern British cooking with quite a lot of shellfish, foie gras and other luxury ingredients. The gourmet tasting menu is an absolute treat, consisting of a succession of tiny but beautifully prepared courses that leave you feeling full rather than bloated. Wine mark-ups are hefty but the growers are well-chosen and one can drink quite well without absolutely breaking the bank.

Vintner's Rooms (The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, EH6. Tel: 0131 554 6767) In a gorgeous old building in the port of Leith, this has been in new hands for a year or two now and the food is good, French cooking.

La Garrigue (31 Jeffrey Street, EH1. Tel: 0131 557 3032) Jean Michel Gauffre has decided to return to the stove having been executive chef at a top city hotel. His restaurant specialising in the food of the Languedoc fills a gap in the city: it is not trying to serve smart, intricate dishes, but rather traditional French country food made from high-quality ingredients.

Cafe St. Honore (34 Thistle St Lane North, EH2. Tel: 0131 226 2211) Just makes it into the serious eater section - a bit cheaper than some, but a decent dinner usually. This made an appearance in one of Ian Rankin's Rebus thrillers.

Number One (Balmoral Hotel, Princes St. EH1. Tel: 0131 557 8740) We hear that Jeff Bland is still cooking very well here although the location in the basement can be a bit soulless. This is still one of the top couple of places in the city.

Harvey Nichols Fourth Floor (30-34 St Andrews Square, EH2. Tel: 0131 524 8350) Quite an ambitious restaurant with stunning views in an area of town where decent meals are not so easy to find. The standard here is pretty decent, if not quite among the best of the city. The wine list is extensive and expensive, but at the time of writing all wine above 13.50 is available for retail price on Tuesday evenings. There is also a "bistro area" with a cheaper, less ambitious menu (good for lunch) and less of a view!

The Kitchin (78 Commercial Quay, Leith, EH6. Tel: 0131 555 1755 www.thekitchin.com) Another restaurant with serious ambition in Leith. Lots of game and pretty generous portions. Prices are fairly high but the cooking is assured if a bit more rustic than at Wishart down the road.

Warning: A word of advice for those of you considering Scottish "theme" restaurants in the town centre - DON'T!

Glass and Thompson (Dundas Street, EH3. Tel: 0131 557 0909/9888) Reliable Italianate snack menu, with olive oil on the table. Smartly designed place, with newspapers to read, and it serves one of the few really decent coffees. Good place for Sunday lunch.

Festival Theatre Cafe (Nicholson Street, EH8. Tel: 0131 662 1112) Striking building (at least from the front) and useful after browsing in Blackwells bookshop. Coffee not too bad if you don't think about it.

The Elephant House (21 George IV Bridge, EH1. Tel: 0131 220 5355) Lots of elephants, and (more or less) reasonable coffee. Worth it, just about, for the view of the castle, but they are a bit inclined towards playing continual loud Muzak.

Cafe Nero (Rose Lane, Stockbridge, North Bridge, etc) The best of the chains by a way for coffee - and indeed rather better coffee than everything else in town except a few of the best Italian cafes.

Old Town Coffee Roasters (Victoria Street EH1) Iain Mellis (of the splendid cheese shop next door) is now taking up coffee roasting. A good place to stop for a quick espresso.

Pret a Manger (Castle Street, Hanover Street and Shandwick Place) We don't like chains, but so long as most outlets sell only poorly filled factory-meat sandwiches on nasty bread we will be getting most of our sandwiches here. Eat in or take away.

Museum Cafes: National Gallery of Modern Art and the Portrait Gallery Don't forget these if you are looking for a decent light lunch. The first is a little out of the centre (but there is a pleasant walk to it along the Water of Leith) and the second very central, on Queen Street just by St Andrews Square.

Simple Feast (32, Howe Street, EH3. Tel: 0131 226 3903) Pleasant little cafe in Howe Street - generous sandwiches made with excellent bread, good coffee made with real care.

Sprio (37 St Stephen's Street, EH3. Tel: 0131 226 7533) This little cafe cum deli is tucked away in Stockbridge - an area with an abundance of lunching places, but almost none we feel more than luke-warm about. Spiro is great: there's a fixed selection of Panini (well worth trading up to the foccacia I feel since the standard bread is a little weak) and a couple of soups and salads of the day. Everything is simple, made from fresh ingredients and is completely honest. You can just tell that the owners know and care about food.

Valvona & Crolla (18 Elm Row, EH7. Tel: 0131 556 6066) Valvona & Crolla is the place to go for Italian food. Sadly, the cafe is only open for breakfast and lunch, Monday to Saturday and occasional dinners. It is a complete zoo on Saturdays, and you need to be there by noon to be sure of getting a seat without queuing. Prices seem to have risen here, but standards remain high if slightly less consistent than they once were. The surrounding shop is wonderful. See its listing under Favourite Food Shops.

Valvona and Crolla Vincaffe (11 Multrees Walk, Edinburgh EH1. Tel: 0131 557 0088) Just by Harvey Nichols, V&C's town centre restaurant and cafe is a new addition to the Edinburgh scene. The food in the restaurant is not necessarily complicated, but well-executed Italian dishes made simply from really good ingredients. Not cheap, but very good. The wine list is excellent, with relatively reasonable mark-ups so one can drink pretty well too. There is a good range by the glass too, with open bottles preserved by a high-tech inert gas system. The cafe on the ground floor is good for a quick snack and a glass of wine or just a coffee.

Centotre (103 George Street EH2, Tel: 0131 225 1550) Italian Cafe serving a range of mainly simple dishes (pizzas, etc) and a few hot dishes of the day. We have heard the occasional moan from friends but whenever we have gone we have had a good meal. A dish of grilled butterflied Langoustines on our last visit was delicious.

Santini (8, Conference Square, EH3. Tel: 0131 221 7789) Very serious, rather expensive, but very high-quality Italian food. There is a cafe area too with less ambitious food at more reasonable prices.

La Partenope (96 Dalry Road, EH11. Tel: 0131 347 8880) Here is what Edinburgh really needed: a lively, unpretentious restaurant serving genuine Italian food to a high standard at pretty reasonable prices. The menu is heavy on fish and shellfish, and what we have had has been of an excellent standard. We suspect it is better to stick to the menu of the day rather than delving in to the extensive fixed menu.

Zan Zero (14 North West Circus Place, EH3. Tel: 0131 220 0333, www.zanzero.com) Victor and Carina of Centotre now have a Cafe in Stockbridge, decked out in a cheery bright yellow. There's a fairly simple menu of a few pasta dishes, a few pizzas, and a couple of other hot dishes with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and fresh flavours. We've been twice since it opened last week and will be going again - and not just becase it's only round the corner.

Beware of Italian restaurants in Edinburgh; it is mostly overcooked, supermarket pasta with regulation Brit-Ital sauces. One that stood out a bit from the crowd was Librizzis but we haven't been there for a good while. Beyond this, Hanover Street has a mass of pizza and pasta joints serving the usual cliches to about the usual, poor standard.

Most Asian (and particularly Indian) restaurants in Britain serve identical dull food of no culinary interest. People believe they are cheap, but is is amazingly easy to spend sums of money that would buy you a proper meal on very average food made from substandard ingredients. When will one of them cook a proper, short menu of dishes cooked to order from fresh, high-quality ingredients rather than the huge mix-and-match collection, presumably mostly preprepared?

Dusit Thai Restaurant (49a Thistle Street EH2, Tel: 0131 220 6846, http://www.dusit.co.uk) This is just the best Thai food we have eaten in Edinburgh, and we haven't had much better anywhere else. Fresh, clear flavours are evident in every dish and we get the sense that high-quality ingredients are being used. This perhaps has elements of Thai-fusion rather than plain traditional Thai and it is none the worse for it.

Songkran Thai Restaurant (24a Stafford Street, EH3. Tel: 0131 225 7889 and Gloucester Street, Stockbridge, EH4. Tel 0131 225 4804) These two restaurants provide a pretty good Thai meal in about the usual British way. Certainly they are good and perhaps just a bit better that we have had recently from the very decent "Siam Erewan".

Siam Erewan (48 Howe Street, EH3. Tel: 0131 226 3675) The menu seems to stay much the same but style changes a bit, presumably as chefs come and go. Generally pretty decent Thai food. The cheap and cheerful "Erewan Express" in Rose Lane does a decent lunch too. We hear reasonable reports of their new venture just off St Andrews Square, too.

We've not been eating Indian out for a while but we've heard Khushi's in Victoria Street recommended. The Indian places in the vegetarian section just below are OK too.

Annpurna (45 St. Patricks Square, EH8. Tel: 0131 662 1807) An alternative to Kalpna just across the road. Similar quality, different style (and no buffet lunch).

Hendersons (9 Hanover Street, EH2. Tel: 0131 225 2131) Ancient Edinburgh Institution that is perhaps not what it once was. We once overheard someone ask: "Could you tell me what is in the courgette and butter bean bake", which sums it up quite well. Large array of healthy looking vegetarian dishes, that don't always look appetising to the carnivore.

Kalpna (2/3 St Patricks Square, EH8. Tel: 0131 667 9890) Another Edinburgh favourite that periodically appears in the national press, and seems to maintain its high standards year after year. Buffet lunch for five pounds is a bargain too. (Better by far than most of the non-veggy Indians.)

David Bann (56-58 St Mary's St, EH1. Tel: 0131 556 5888 www.davidbann.com) More or less serious restaurant prices for a pretty good vegetarian version of fine food. A lot of dishes tend towards oriental or at least fusion cooking. The style is quite individual with some odd mixtures, some of which work well, others a bit less so. Overall, worth a try, particularly if your tastes tend towards the vegetarian. The wine list is not inspiring.

I.J. Mellis (30a Victoria Street EH1, 205 Bruntsfield Place EH10, Kerr Street EH4) Iain Mellis is one of Britains foremost Cheesemongers and all the shops have a fantastic selection of British and Irish cheeses in peak condition. The Bruntsfield and Stockbridge (Kerr Street) stores also have continental cheeses and a good range bacon, hams and salamis, and other groceries.

Ian Proudfoot (6 Learmonth Avenue, EH4. Tel: 0131 315 2056) Not everybody even has a local butcher now, and we are very lucky to have this shop. The lamb and beef are excellent, at least partly because they are properly hung. Pheasant and venison are also first class.

Valvona & Crolla (19 Elm Row, EH7. Tel: 0131 556 6066 www.valvonacrolla.com) Great Italian delicatessen, not cheap for everything, but a shining collection of all that's good to eat. Good coffee and a huge selection of top Italian wines. Also great for lunch - see above.

The Farmers Market (Saturday mornings, Castle Terrace) There are some good stalls here that we visit most weeks. Craig's Tomatos (in season) and Ballencrief Pork are excellent. We are huge fans of Carrols Heritage Potatoes http://www.heritage-potatoes.co.uk, particularly the Red Duke of Yorks and the Shetland Blacks. If you visit, don't fail to try some freshly cooked potato crisps from the Crisp Hut (http://www.crisphut.com) - these are special dieters crisps: once you have tried them you can no longer eat any others.

Herbies (66 Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Tel. 0131 332 9888) Really pleasant little neighbourhood deli. Excellent very rare roast beef and the best bread in town.

The Store ( 13 Comley Bank Road EH4. Tel: 0131 315 0030 www.thestorecompany.co.uk) A "farm shop" in Stockbridge with a lot of good products including good beef (although it is prepackaged), a small range of well-sourced produce and a range of properly prepared and cooked "real food" ready meals. Open quite late too.

The first of these especially is worth a visit just for a look:

Cafe Royal (17 West Register Street, EH2 Tel: 0131 557 4792) By the way, "West register street" is one of those things that doctors used to ask you to say to see if you are confused. So don't try and get a taxi to here after a heavy evening.

Tiles (1 St Andrew's Square, EH2 Tel: 0131 558 1507)