Vittoria's is the perfect restaurant to sample a real taste of Italy. Renowned for its high level of service and fresh Italian food, book online with Vittoria's on Leith Walk and experience over 40 years of history. You can now also book online at Vittoria's on the bridge and at La Favorita too.

The Elephant House

The Elephant House
21 George IV Bridge
Edinburgh, EH1 1EN
Phone: 0131 220 5355
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  • Food served: Mon–Fri 8am–10pm; Sat/Sun 9am–10pm
  • Number of wines sold by the glass: 2
  • Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least ¼ main courses), Children's portions, Children's high chairs, Wheelchair access, Takeaway
  • Music on stereo: Various relaxing tracks
  • Capacity: 75
  • Largest group: 75
  • Open since: 1995
View larger map of EH1 1EN
  • Average price 2 courses:
     £7.50 (lunch)
     £11 (evening meal)
  • House wine: £9.75 per bottle
Nominate this restaurant for
The List Reader Award 2010
Eating & Drinking Guide 2009

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2009 – in the shops now or buy online.

When there are cafés elsewhere in town putting up notices saying ‘JK Rowling didn’t write anything here’, you know that the place of the Elephant House in Edinburgh’s literary hall of fame is assured. A few laminated newspaper cuttings and a cabinet of elephant-branded merchandise aside, this long-established Old Town café doesn’t overdo its claim to fame as one of the birthplaces of Harry Potter. In many ways it’s just too used to being a relaxed, popular, well-run café that has a place for students, lecturers, families and tourists. Daytime sees queues at the main counter for soups, baked potatoes, pizza portions and lots of cakes to go with coffee and tea: there’s nothing glamorous about the food but it’s respectable and satisfying. By evening, with the sun streaming into the large and often packed back room overlooking Greyfriars’ churchyard, table service kicks in with a fuller evening menu of shared nachos, burgers, fajitas and pizzas. Mostly the ingredients are decent, the cooking careful and the experience reliable; it’s the kind of place where you can eat alone or with a knot of friends quite happily – scribbling bestsellers is entirely optional but will never be original.

  • High point: Elephants don't forget how to run a reliable café
  • Low point: There’s rarely quite enough free space

Comments for The Elephant House (21 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh)

1. raw1981, Edinburgh – 7 April 2009, 6:07pm(1)Report

Mediocre food ruined by abysmal service.

This review relates to evening service.

I was sitting on a broken chair at a table that acted like a see saw. It took the waiter 15 minutes to produce a menu and I had to stop him rushing off to try and get a drink out of him.

A plate of nachos took 40 minutes to produce.

I hasten to point out this place was not busy. Judging by the poor levels of service, I'm not surprised. I did raise my complaint and to be fair they did grudgingly offer a %20 discount, after calling me a liar and accusing me of being childish and having spent most of the night ignoring me.

If the prices were lower, I could live with the rickety furniture. the place is supposed to have atmosphere after all. But if I'm paying for food, I expect a decent level of service, regardless of cost.

2. The Boss, Edinburgh – 3 May 2009, 4:02pmReport

Decided that we should try this place as every time we passed it was fit to burst. So on a quiet evening went for a cup of coffee.
What we were served however was the most vile cup of dark matter it has ever been my displeasure to drink, and would curl Dumbledoor's beard... Needless to say I have never and will never go back as I feel this place trades on the "harry potter" connection and is aimed at gullible tourists and festival goers.

3. ArrrJay, Edinburgh – 11 November 2009, 11:27pm(2s)Report

My boyfriend and I have been to The Elephant House on several occassions but the last couple of times have been extremely disappointing, especially when it comes to service.

Upon entering one is met with sullen stares from staff, and I have on more than one occassion been kept waiting several minutes before someone showed me to a seat (when they do, after all, have signs saying "Table Service, Please Wait To Be Seated"). The last time we went, in June, we arrived at about 6.15pm and were shown to a seat. We were not given a menu for several minutes (I had to ask for one when eventually the waitress came back to us) and ordered at around 6.25pm. Our coffees came 10 minutes later but our food did not arrive til 6.55 - half an hour after it was ordered, a wait which is unacceptable (by which time we'd finished our coffees, we'd only ordered a CCB and nachos, hardly anything complicated). I did in fact ask the waitress how long our food was going to be a few minutes before it arrived, but was given no apology when we at last got our food. We both noticed that service to all tables was poor, not just to ours.

This is not the first occassion we have encountered bad service at The Elephant House. On the previous visit we were similarly kept waiting for an unacceptable amount of time. Eventually, a long time after we'd finished our mains the waitress came to ask if we would like anything else and we enquired about desserts only to be told the kitchen had closed. This is not acceptable. We had been there for a long time already and should have been told the kitchen was about to close before it did, rather than being asked if we wished to order anything after it had closed.

Not only that, but our food was very disappointing, with the CCB pizza being sparse of cranberry sauce and very dry, and the nachos just being very unimpressive.

After our last visit I did in fact email a complaint to The Elephant House, but never had any response. Needless to say we have not been back.

4. John2604, Edinburgh – 15 December 2009, 10:56amReport

As a regular customer to the Elephant House with my kids I find the other comments on this page quite hard to believe. We eat weekly in this establishment and have never encounterered any of the problems mentioned. I think sometimes people have extremely high expectations of what is essentially a coffee shop. My kids love the pizzas and I find that the quality of food and the friendliness of the staff to be the main reason for us continuing to frequent this busy place. It is really good value for money. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not eat out very often. Keep up the great work Elephant House.

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