Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Loanhead
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Loanhead restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 82 restaurants in Loanhead and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Loanhead restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Loanhead Restaurants
1. Dumpling Queen X Dai Jou Bu
Chinese, Dim sum restaurant in Edinburgh
52 Blackfriars Street - EH1
Experience the Best Chinese Restaurant in Edinburgh’s Old Town – Dumpling Queen X Dai Jou Bu Located at 52 Blackfriars Street, Dumpling Queen X Dai Jou Bu offers an authentic taste of Hong Kong right in the heart of Edinburgh’s hi...
2. Aizle
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
The Garden Room in The Kimpton Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square - EH2
Stuart Ralston relocated this ambitious venue from a previous location in 2020, and it continues to go from strength to strength in this modern, glass-roofed ‘Garden Room’ of a hotel. The “excellent tasting menu is very creative and not too expensive by the yardstick of comparable ventures”, with “skillful” preparation of an “impressively eclectic array of ingredients”.
3. Rhubarb, Prestonfield Hotel
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
Priestfield Rd - EH16
Set in 20 acres near Arthur’s Seat, this opulent boutique hotel is part of James Thomson’s portfolio (he also owns the Witchery) and “continues to deliver excellent ambience”. The food is dependable too – it’s not especially foodie, but did in September 2023, for example, win Boutique Hotelier’s Restaurant of the Year awards. The venue also wins nominations for a fine afternoon tea.
4. Number One, Balmoral Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Princes Street - EH2
“A must visit when in town” – chef Matthew Sherry delivers a “high-class tasting menu with ingredients to match” (seven courses for £115 per person) at this famous dining room – a “beautiful” and “club-like” space in the basement of one of Scotland’s most famous hotels. It’s an all-round experience too that’s “very comfortable” (and business-friendly) with “professional and friendly service”. “The wine list is not cheap but some good bins are to be found”.
5. Gardener’s Cottage
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Royal Terrace Gardens, London Road - EH7
2021 Review: “The menu is fixed and you sit at one of three large tables with others” at this quirky venture, which occupies a stone cottage in Royal Terrace Gardens. You get what you’re given from a mystery tasting menu on which sustainability is to the fore, with many of the ingredients grown by Charlie the gardener. On practically all reports the food is well-rated, and they must be doing something right having last year now opened The Lookout (see also).
6. Restaurant Martin Wishart
French restaurant in Edinburgh
54 The Shore - EH6
“In the historic port of Leith, overlooking the Water of Leith from its converted warehouse setting” Martin Wishart’s well established HQ has proved one of our annual diners’ poll’s most consistent over-achievers for the last two decades. It’s not a place for ego and gimmicks: just “exceptional food” (“the unusual combinations of flavours, especially of the amuse-bouches, are a delight”) that’s “well deserving of its accolades”. Service is notably “charming” too (“although we don’t visit frequently, as we live in London, we are always recognised and warmly welcomed”).
7. Macau Kitchen
restaurant in Edinburgh
93 Saint Leonards Street - EH8
Macau Kitchen is a multi-award winning restaurant in the heart of Edinburgh offering guests a unique dining experience of Progressive Macanese Cuisine. An independent business, run by chef patron Kei and Hoeyyn (Front of House). This restaurant is a representation of the int...
8. Condita
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
15 Salisbury Place - EH9
Conor Toomey’s “outstanding food continues to surprise and delight” all who experience his “excellent” three-hour no-choice tasting menus (at £150 per person), while there is “good interactive service” and the “wine pairings are the best ever”. The only criticism is directed at the dining room, which is “a little sparse” – with diners saying that cuisine of this monumental quality “deserves a better setting than a glorified shop”.
9. The Rabbit Hole
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
11 Roseneath Street - EH9
2022 Review: “Good all round” – this popular and well-priced Marchmont venue keeps a local crowd happy with the French-accented dishes sent out by its owner-chefs, a Sicilian/Canadian couple who live nearby. A proper two-course lunch costs under £20, which adds to the appeal.
10. LeftField
Fish & seafood restaurant in Edinburgh
12 Barclay Terrace - EH10
This “marvellous” seafood bistro beside Edinburgh’s Meadows from chef Phil White and FoH Rachel Chisholm pleases guests with “carefully prepared food” – “and if you get a seat at the window you see a mile of green space with a volcano in the distance (inert), in the middle of a capital city”. Top Menu Tips – “lovely hake, and the octopus was cooked to perfection”.
11. Dumplings of China
Chinese, Dim sum restaurant in Edinburgh
60 Home Street - EH3
2022 Review: “Really good, cheap Chinese food” is the order of the day at this “fun” two-year-old, featuring whitewashed brick walls and a long, refreshingly unusual menu that incorporates the headline event alongside BBQ dishes, noodles etc.
12. Civerino's Slice
Pizza restaurant in Edinburgh
49 Forrest Road - EH1
2023 Review: This “buzzing and reliable” home-grown homage to New York-style pizza sells its “great” versions by the slice – “the slices are enormous and one will suffice most people” – in four outlets with a “quirky vibe and music (American rock and hip-hop)”. “Their motto is branded on every cup and menu: ‘Death Before Dominos’!”
13. Mother India’s Cafe
Indian restaurant in Edinburgh
3-5 Infirmary St - EH1
This spin-off from the famous Glasgow original “never fails to hit the spot” with its “terrific” Indian cooking, served in tapas-sized portions to taste and share. It’s “great for lunch after a visit to the Dovecot Studios”, a contemporary tapestry gallery next door in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
14. Divino Enoteca
Italian restaurant in Edinburgh
5 Merchant St - EH1
2021 Review: This “stylish and relaxed” Italian wine bar and restaurant occupies a basement in the Old Town, and provides a “guaranteed night out” with “high-class food” and in particular an “excellent wine list” – “under the masterly direction of maître d’ Silvio Praino”. Part of the Vittoria group owned by a branch of the Italo-Scottish Crolla clan, it celebrates its 10th anniversary last year.
15. The Outsider
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
15 - 16 George IV Bridge - EH1
2021 Review: “Get the best seats in the place” (at the back, which offers “beautiful views” of the castle) to make the most of a visit to this city-centre staple, also turning out “enjoyable” cuisine of a modern European bent.
16. Mono
Italian restaurant in Edinburgh
85 South Bridge - EH1
2021 Review: “Making other fine dining establishments in town look somewhat staid, out of touch and overpriced” – this April 2018 newcomer is “superb”, and some would say “the best restaurant to have opened in Edinburgh in recent times”. “A charismatic space” with “splendid service” – “the reference on its website to ‘progressive Italian dining’ is accurate” and the modern cuisine is “outstanding” – “go downstairs to see the kitchen in action”. To match the fine cooking there’s “an exceptional, mostly Italian, wine list”.
17. David Bann
Vegetarian restaurant in Edinburgh
56-58 St Marys St - EH1
Just off the Royal Mile, this aubergine-hued stalwart café (est. 2002) is one of Scotland’s best known veggie/vegan haunts, owing to its “imaginative dishes” that deftly incorporate influences from the Mediterranean to the Pacific and subcontinent; “pleasant service” adds to its appeal.
18. Timberyard
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
10 Lady Lawson St - EH3
Credited with introducing the principles of ‘new Nordic’ cuisine to Scottish ingredients, the Radford family’s converted Victorian warehouse (originally built as a props & costume store) impresses all who visit with its foraged or pickled produce and low-intervention wines. Last year it celebrated its tenth anniversary and opened a spin-off wine bar/restaurant, Montrose House, in the Abbeyhill area. The entry-level option for dining here is a five-course tasting menu for £95 per person.
19. Café Marlayne
French restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Thistle Street - EH2
Run by Marcelline Levicky, this lovely “small bistro” in the New Town is a real longtime favourite owing to its “well-presented” Gallic dishes that don’t make too much of a dent in the wallet (its two-course lunches and dinners ringing in at £17/£27 per person respectively).
20. Kanpai
Japanese restaurant in Edinburgh
8 - 10 Grindlay Street - EH3
2021 Review: “Tasty, freshly prepared sushi” and “friendly service” can be found at this “very popular” Japanese: a stylishly minimal operation near the Lyceum Theatre – from the team behind Sushiya.
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