Experience rustic, family style cooking at award-winning French restaurant La Garrigue. Sample the tastes of Languedoc at one of the most authentic restaurants in Edinburgh (Hitlisted in The List Eating & Drinking Guide 2012) or visit our fantastic little bistro in Leith.
Restaurants, Round the world and "Edinburgh"
- Joseph Pearce
A traditional Edinburgh pub transformed into Swedish beer house - Hanam's
This is the home of truly authentic Kurdish & Middle Eastern Cuisine, set right in the heart of Edinburgh - El Quijote
A wide range of genuine and lovingly prepared Spanish food - Maison Bleue
Visit Maison Bleue, Edinburgh and enjoy French & Mediterranean cuisine in intimate surroundings.
El Quijote
13a Brougham Street,
Edinburgh,
EH3 9JS
This modest little Brougham street restaurant is the sort of place you’d be happy to find in the narrow streets of Seville. Just as well, as that’s precisely what Andalusian owners Oscar Mateos and Maria Giminez set out to do. It’s not exactly smart…
Empires
24 St Mary's Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1SU
There’s a dark, exotic, Aladdin’s Cave feel to Empires – a one-off kind of place that has walls covered with Middle Eastern fabrics and tiles, multi-coloured globe lamps dangling from the ceiling, and an upstairs seating area full of scatter cushions…
Hanam's
3 Johnston Terrace,
Edinburgh,
EH1 2PW
Hanam’s is rightly revered for its Kurdish cooking. The restaurant is spread over two floors of a characterful period building, including a terrace that’s – unsurprisingly – in demand on summer days and a separate dining room that's ideal for private…
Joseph Pearce’s
23 Elm Row,
Edinburgh,
EH7 4AA
Pearce's huge popularity is testament to the warm and genuine welcome it extends to a diverse clientele. During the day a raised area to the back is a family-friendly haven, stocked with all the toys, highchairs and feeding paraphernalia that junior…
Beirut
24 Nicolson Square,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9BX
In the mini Middle Eastern pocket growing around Edinburgh's Mosque, which began with Kebab Mahal and Jordan Valley and continues with the newly added Mosque Kitchen and Nawroz, Beirut adds Lebanese food to the mix. Owner Ahmed Saadi opened in 2010, and…
Frankfurter Eck
62 Elm Row,
Edinburgh,
EH7 4AQ
German food can suffer from people's unfair preconceptions. Seek out Edinburgh’s first German restaurant, Frankfurter Eck to have these prejudices overturned. Behind a blink-and-you’ll miss it frontage on an unlikely block is a basic interior with…
Maison Bleue
36–38 Victoria Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 2JW
Maison Bleue is defiantly not a typical French restaurant. Or certainly not one from the mainland, as the influence here comes from further south than Marseilles. The culinary net soars across France’s once mighty empire, from spicy North African…
Papoli
244a Morrison Street,
Edinburgh,
EH3 8DT
Papoli really is a little gem. Outside, the Haymarket traffic rumbles by, while inside its dinky dining room is a retreat of warm orange and yellow pendant lighting hanging low. Prints of Provence (perhaps?) and Greece hint at the culinary offering but…
Café Truva
251–253 Canongate,
Edinburgh,
EH8 8BQ
You can now pop in for the same Café Truva Mediterranean menu at three branches across Edinburgh. Leith, Lady Lawson Street and Canongate are all serving Turkish plates, a wide range of cakes and your usual café panini list against a varyingly elaborate…
Efes
42 Leven Street, Tollcross,
Edinburgh,
EH3 9LJ
This kebab shop is such a Tollcross institution it seems as if it has been around since the beginning of time. The staff are always polite and helpful, although this doesn't matter in the slightest to the shop's many loyal customers, who come for the…
Sabor Criollo
36 Deanhaugh Street,
Edinburgh,
EH4 1LY
Totally tropical Sabor Criollo serves up South American classics from its fantastically-foliaged basement in Stockbridge. A proliferation of parrots look at as you gaze out across turquoise seas in trompe l’oeil scenes beneath a climber creeping across…
Circus
8 St Mary's Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1SU
The stone-walled courtyard in the back of this Old Town café/ restaurant is a mini sun-trap in the summer, and a good spot for enjoying some calm while the High Street might be getting unpleasantly hectic with crowds. Circus is run by the same folks who…
Gurkha Café
25–27 Cockburn Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1BP
Gurkha Café proudly showcases the cuisine of Nepal in a venue where remnants of previous tenants remain: the incongruous mock-rustic Italian terracotta tile-roofed bar now shares space with stupas and Annapurna posters. Aside from a couple of tables…
Hanedan
41 West Preston Street,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9PY
Ebullient head chef and owner Gursel Bahar orchestrates operations in busy, bustling Hanedan, whirling between tending meat on the grill and whipping away meze plates from delighted diners. Bahar has been turning out Turkish favourites to a loyal…
International Starters
82 Commercial Quay,
Edinburgh,
EH6 6LX
Scottish? American? Asian? Mediterranean? If you can’t decide what to eat, then International Starters could be the solution. The idea is to pick ‘starters’ from anywhere on a sprawling global menu covering many bases, ideal for trying different dishes…
Nile Valley
6 Chapel Street,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9AY
Nile Valley has remained almost completely unchanged for years. The posters wallpapering the stairs down to the dingy basement dining area rotate, advertising new club nights and student drama productions. It’s a Sudanese restaurant, with popular Middle…
The Voodoo Rooms
19a West Register Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 2AA
While the food may not claim as much focus as the music, events and super-smashing cocktail list in the sexy, sultry and edgy Voodoo Rooms, it's more than just an afterthought. Tucked beside the main bar, a small, black linen and leather restaurant…
Falko (Konditormeister)
185 Bruntsfield Place,
Edinburgh,
EH10 4DG
A firm fixture on Edinburgh’s foodie scene Falko continues to deliver goods be it rye breads, pastries or some of the finest, traditional cakes outside of central Europe. Produced to strict standards, no raising agents are used in the cakes, only beaten…
Nawroz
26–30 Potterow,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9BT
Nawroz is the new kid on the exotic block of mainly Middle Eastern eateries surrounding Edinburgh Central Mosque. Run by four close friends who pride themselves on offering authentic Kurdish and Middle Eastern cuisine, it is still finding its feet, but…
Spoilt for Choice
19 Marionville Road,
Edinburgh,
EH7 5TY
Billing itself as Edinburgh's new home of 'soul food' this Afro-Caribbean take away in Meadowbank has big plans: lunchtime opening starts in May 2012 and they are scouting sites for a dedicated restaurant. These are bold moves for a tiny site with just…
Word of Mouth
3a Albert Street,
Edinburgh,
EH7 5HL
It’s only five years old, but already Word of Mouth is one of Edinburgh’s definitive neighbourhood cafés, a recommended stop not just for the food but for the range of activities they manage to cram into the small dining space. An open mic poetry and…
Bigos
277 Leith Walk,
Edinburgh,
EH6 8PD
There is a home-spun image created by the rough hewn wooden word 'Bigos' nailed on to the front of this tiny restaurant. And despite the dangerous looking agricultural implements and animal skins hanging on the walls, Bigos does without doubt have a…
The Khukuri Nepalese Restaurant
8 West Maitland Street,
Edinburgh,
EH12 5DS
It would be easy to walk past The Khukuri on a daily basis and not notice it's there. Which is a shame, because this Nepalese restaurant has much to offer. From outside, there's no sign of the seating within, but once you enter, a warm welcome is…
My Big Fat Greek Kitchen
6 Brougham Street,
Edinburgh,
EH3 9JH
The back room of this Tollcross restaurant is decorated with a giant floor to ceiling photo of Santorini – where whitewashed villas zigzag the hillside down to turquoise seas below. The whole experience of My Big Fat Greek Kitchen aims to magic up…
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
137 George Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 4JY
The wide-ranging burger menu – from conventional beef to lamb and even buffalo – suggests that Gourmet Burger Kitchen is all ready to deliver on its name’s promise. And indeed, their textbook cheeseburger, a well-constructed panko-crumbed chicken burger…
Los Argentinos
28-30 West Preston Street,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9PZ
If the yuccas and canyon-coloured walls only hint at the theme, the photographs of bulls and huge cowhide stretched over one wall leave you in no doubt what Los Argentinos is all about. This Argentinian-themed steakhouse – an offshoot of its original…
Tupiniquim
The Green Police Box, Middle Meadow Walk, Lauriston Place,
Edinburgh,
EH1 9AU
Inside a tiny police box at the top of Middle Meadow Walk, Brazilians Gardenia or Fernando (there’s only room for one at a time) are busy multi-tasking, frying crêpes, blending smoothies, pouring coffee and spooning out açai and guarana sorbets. The…
Brazilian Sensation
117–119 Buccleuch Street,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9NG
Open since 1998, this Brazilian restaurant in the Southside has been helping the people of Edinburgh delude themselves – despite any cold temperatures or grey skies – that they are in fact somewhere tropical, where the sun shines and the dancing never…
The Bridge at the Barceló Edinburgh Carlton
Barceló Edinburgh Carlton Hotel, 19 North Bridge,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1SD
In a stylish location on Edinburgh's famous Royal Mile, The Bridge is a well-established restaurant and bar in the cosmopolitan Carlton Hotel. A host of brasserie dishes fill the menu, from old favourites such as beer-battered haddock and chunky chips…
Garfunkel's - Edinburgh
130 High Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1QS
With its sterling reputation, Garfunkel's serves a wonderfully eclectic mix of British and international cuisine. A simple yet on-trend eatery, Garfunkel's serves an array of diverse menus, from breakfast through to dinner. The afternoon tea selection…
Khublai Khan Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant
43 Assembly Street, Leith,
Edinburgh,
EH6 7BQ
Mongolia may be best known for its goat broth, yak butter and fermented mare’s milk, but it’s the sheer incongruity of Khublai Khan’s that draws most people in. Although there is an element of gimmickry – not least the chance (by prior arrangement) to…
Nargile
73 Hanover Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 1EE
With its glass frontage and neutral colour scheme, Nargile eschews the mock bazaar trappings of many a UK Turkish restaurant for a sleek, contemporary look that matches the philosophy of its cuisine. Its self-styled ‘East-meets-West fusion’ still hails…
Russian Passion
5 Canonmills,
Edinburgh,
EH3 5HA
It’s rare to find a restaurant in Scotland that opens up unexplored gastronomic worlds and where pretty much everything on the menu is a new experience. Russian Passion in Canonmills, a café and restaurant run by Maria Belyaeva and her chef Luba, is one…
