There are some great places to eat in Edinburgh. And some less great ones. Here are capsule reviews of some of the places we ate at on our recent trip to the city.
Rendezvous
We usually arrive in Edinburgh on Friday evening and this is a good default choice close to the place where we stay. It’s a pretty cheap and cheerful Chinese. And the food is usually good quality too.
Kings Wark
One of the things I look forward to most in Edinburgh is a walk along the Water of Leith. The walk itself is very nice, but what I’m really looking forward to is lunch at the Kings Wark. Very high quality pub food. Everything I’ve ever eaten here has been lovely. One slight thing to beware of. Once we got there too early and bizarre Scottish licensing laws meant that we couldn’t order alcohol until (I think) 12:30pm.
Stac Polly
A neat demonstration that advertising can work. Stac Polly had an advert in the in-flight magazine on our flight to Edinburgh. It looked good, so we investigated the web site and decided to give it a try. We’re glad we did. The good was great. Only slight issue was that the service was a little faster that we would have liked. There just wasn’t enough of a pause between the courses.
Number Seven
This is the restaurant attached to the Edinburgh Residence – which is the place we stay in Edinburgh. We’ve eaten there a few times as it’s an easy option. I don’t think we’ll bother again. It’s not as classy as it likes to think and the quality of the food can be rather variable. The service can be strange too. The first time we ate there the table was laid impeccably – except for the fact that the knifes and forks were the wrong way round.
Holyrood 9A
We discovered this place by randomly walking past it last year and went back again on this visit. Like the Kings Wark, this has high quality pub food. But this place has more of a modern vibe and the menu tends toward burgers and chips – but really good burgers and chips.
Wedgwood
This is a place we discovered a few years ago (I think it was an advert on a leaflet in the hotel room) and now we go back every year. Imaginative modern British food cooked incredibly well. And the waiting staff are all so friendly and efficient. One tiny niggle this year. They seem to have squeezed one more table into the downstairs dining area – so it’s starting to get a little cramped down there.
The Bailie
This was new for this year. We were meeting friends and one of them suggested it. It’s a traditional pub in a basement in Stockbridge. The atmosphere was good and the food was far better than we expected.
Blue Goose
Another random find this year. We walked six or so miles west along the Water of Leith in order to find Craiglockhart Hospital. We had no plans for lunch and just hoped we’d find somewhere passable. This was the only place we passed between the river and the hospital so we gave it a try. And we’re really glad we did as it was great. On a Thursday lunchtime it was really quiet, the staff were really friendly and the food was really good.
Indian Cavalry Club
This was somewhere that we’d been meaning to try for a few years and we finally got round to it. At home we’re lucky enough to live really close to Tooting, so we’re used to really high quality Indian food. This place looks like it’s going to be really high quality, but it’s really not quite up to it. It’s more expensive than I’d expect for curry of that quality. We probably won’t be going back.