Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Stockbridge
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Stockbridge restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 86 restaurants in Stockbridge and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Stockbridge restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Stockbridge Restaurants
1. 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”).
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. 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).
4. 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.
5. 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...
6. 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”.
7. Purslane
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
33A St Stephen Street - EH3
Paul Gunning’s casual Stockbridge fine-diner, set in a “small” but classy basement, combines “friendly staff” and “wonderful food”: either a five- or seven-course tasting menu by night, or the “excellent value” two- or three-course set lunch. (We’ve continued its ratings this year, albeit on relatively limited feedback).
8. Nok's Kitchen
Thai restaurant in Edinburgh
8 Gloucester Street - EH3
“If you’ve ever been in Thailand, you’ll know how authentic the food is” at this “very popular Stockbridge restaurant” (which also has an offshoot near the castle). It’s “small, intimate and always busy, but the efficient staff try their best to provide you with a good dining experience”. Top Tip – “the chili crab signature dish”.
9. Scran & Scallie
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
1 Comely Bank Rd - EH4
Now in its 11th year, Tom & Michaela Kitchin’s “friendly” and “sometimes hectic” Scottish gastropub wins consistently high ratings for its “clever (if rich)” and “yummy” food. “Of course we had the famous steak pie, but the rest was pretty good as well”.
10. New Chapter
Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh
18 Eyre Pl. - EH3
“The food is of the highest standard” at chef Maciej Szymik’s modern European spot, tucked away in the New Town – “we were lucky to stumble on it”. There’s “only a handful of tables in each room, which gives the feel of quasi-private dining”. “My only real criticism is the portion sizes are too large – it just wasn’t possible to leave room for dessert”.
11. Rico's
Italian restaurant in Edinburgh
58a Castle Street - EH2
2023 Review: “Amazing Italian cooking using Scottish produce – impeccable – and with outstanding service” inspires excellent feedback on this stylish and moodily decorated New Town site. It was opened in mid 2021 by Stefano Pieraccini of the Rocca Group in premises vacated by Martin Wishart’s The Honour (RIP).
12. La P’tite Folie
French restaurant in Edinburgh
61 Frederick St - EH2
A “quirky French restaurant with great food and service”, set in a Tudor house in the West End, that has been wooing diners since 2003 (and also has an adjoining wine bar, ‘Le Di-Vin’).
13. Café St-Honoré
French restaurant in Edinburgh
34 NW Thistle Street Ln - EH2
“Step back in time to an old-school Parisian bistro in the heart of Edinburgh New Town” at this “cosy and unpretentious establishment down a side street off Princes Street” that “serves food as Elizabeth David might have ordered and admired” – “long may it continue”.
14. Contini George Street
Italian restaurant in Edinburgh
103 George Street - EH2
2023 Review: This “busy and atmospheric” restaurant with “reliably excellent pasta dishes” (plus, unusually, ‘full Scottish breakfasts’) was opened almost 20 years ago in a former banking hall by Victor Contini, whose family has brought their Italian heritage to bear on the Scottish food scene for more than a century. The venue’s success has led to further openings, at the Scottish National Gallery and in Cannonball House, next door to Edinburgh Castle.
15. Bell’s Diner
Burgers, etc restaurant in Edinburgh
7 St Stephen St - EH3
2022 Review: “Still knocking out great burgers with a retro feel – the relish selection harks back to the 1970s”. This “great local burger joint” in Stockbridge which celebrates its half-centenary this year is “always reliable and never changes”. “The staff are rushed off their feet, but they’re always really professional and smiley”.
16. Dusit
Thai restaurant in Edinburgh
49a Thistle St - EH2
“This very stylish and well-run restaurant” in the New Town serves “excellent appetising food” that is “not your standard Thai” – and all the better for it. In operation for 22 years, it has built a considerable following – which means it “can be noisy at times”.
17. Noto
British, Modern restaurant in Edinburgh
47a Thistle Street - EH2
Stuart Ralston’s New Town follow-up to Aizle combines a “cool, NY-style vibe with Asian-inspired plates” (and is named after a former NY roomate of his); by all accounts it’s a “fun place to be” (if “a little dark as a space”), particularly for those who “love small plates” that are “absolutely delicious” too (“you could feel the care and passion from the kitchen”).
18. Chaophraya
Thai restaurant in Edinburgh
33 Castle St - EH2
2021 Review: “Excellent views from the conservatory” – including possibly “the best view of the castle, if you get the right table” – are incentive enough to visit this branch of an eight-strong Thai chain. It also delivers “surprisingly good and inexpensive food”.
19. Fishers in the City
Fish & seafood restaurant in Edinburgh
58 Thistle St - EH2
In a converted city-centre warehouse, this “popular and well-run fish venue” is a “dependable” and “excellent value” spot that has been going strong for a decade (and earned a special shout-out this year for its “delicious lobster”). You’ll find the original Fishers near the Leith shore, right by their Shore Bar and Restaurant, offering classic British food with a Euro spin.
20. Six by Nico
International restaurant in Edinburgh
97 Hanover Street - EH2
Glasgow chef Nico Simeone’s distinctive concept has grown into a national chain with 11 restaurants (including Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf) in just six years, offering a quick-changing succession of themed six-course menus for under £50 a head. It’s widely seen as “fantastic value” and has a sizeable fanbase amongst reporters (“every six weeks, the menu renews and for me, it is something to look forward to…”; “we simply love it and we’ve yet to miss a menu!” – “the Tokyo menu was so good we went back a second time”). Only a tiny few say, “you can feel you’re on a conveyor belt with lots of upsells”; or that the whole thing is “a dystopia of where restaurants will evolve”.
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