Edinburgh eats along a tight axis. The New Town grid between St Andrew Square and George Street, and the Old Town spine down North Bridge, hold most of the rooms a visitor should bother with, and the walk from one end of this list to the other takes about twenty minutes. What follows is twelve restaurants that reward the trip: a sushi counter with real fish, three arguments about what an Indian menu can be, a pizza room that lets the dough do the talking, a French bar-bistro that keeps late hours, a beef counter, a vegetarian kitchen that treats vegetables as the plot, and an Italian family room on Elm Row that has fed the neighbourhood for years. Skip the tartan-wrapped ceilidh-and-haggis rooms on the Royal Mile; the locals eat in the streets on either side of it. Every address, every phone, every posted service hour below is cited to a mapped source, so you can walk in the door confident the door is where we say it is.
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1 Minami
9 West Register Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AAA small sushi counter tucked behind Register Street doing the real thing
From 12:00 the counter at Minami, 9 West Register Street in the EH2 2AA postcode, opens for the day and closes again at 20:00. Skip the conveyor-belt sushi rooms trading on the same postcode; this is a small kitchen doing sushi as its one job, and the discipline shows in the rice. The room is closed Monday and Tuesday, which tells you the chef is buying and prepping when the fish is worth buying, not opening seven days because the rent demands it. Book by phone on 07397 671398 or through the site at minami-sushi.co.uk; walk-ins are possible at the shoulders of service but the counter is not large. Come for lunch on a Wednesday and you will see the point of the place.
- sushi
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2 Franco Manca
19-23 South St Andrew Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AUSourdough Neapolitan pizza served fast, cheap and honest at the top of the New Town
The oven at 19-23 South St Andrew Street fires from 11:30, which makes this one of the few sit-down rooms in the EH2 grid where a proper lunch can happen before noon and still be paid for. The kitchen does one thing, pizza, and the sourdough base is the argument for coming to a chain branch rather than avoiding one; the address transcends the brand because it sits three minutes from Waverley and rescues arriving travellers from the sad sandwich. Better than the tourist-priced Italian rooms two streets over, the bill lands closer to a decent lunch than a night out. Doors stay open to 22:00 most nights and 23:00 Thursday to Saturday. Book on 0131 560 1329 or at francomanca.co.uk.
- pizza
Hours: Mo-Su 11:30-22:00; Th-Sa 11:30-23:00
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3 Wahaca
16 South St Andrew Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AUMarket-style Mexican small plates a few doors down from the pizza room
At 16 South St Andrew Street in the EH2 2AU postcode, the kitchen opens at 12:00 seven days a week and runs a Mexican menu that treats small plates as the whole point rather than a starter format. Don't bother trying to order like it is a steakhouse; the locals order four or five things for two people and share them across the table, which is how the room is built. Service runs to 23:00 Monday through Saturday and to 22:00 on Sunday, so it works as either an early dinner before a show at the Playhouse or a late one after. The reservation line is 0131 202 6850; the site at wahaca.co.uk lists this exact branch. Come hungry, order the tacos twice.
- mexican
Hours: Mo-Th 12:00-23:00; Fr-Sa 12:00-23:00; Su 12:00-22:00
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4 Dishoom
3A St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, EH2 2BDAll-day Bombay-café cooking in a room the queue justifies
By 08:00 the doors at 3A St Andrew Square, EH2 2BD, are already open for breakfast and stay that way until 23:00, or midnight on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. No other branch of the name in Scotland keeps those hours; the kitchen is one of very few in central Edinburgh serving a proper Indian breakfast before most rooms have turned the coffee machine on. Skip the queue at the peak of dinner; the locals go at 08:30 for the bacon naan or at 15:00 for the quiet middle of the afternoon, when the room reads as a café rather than a scrum. Reservations for larger tables are worth the phone call to 0131 202 6406; walk-ins between meals still work. Full menu and joining instructions at dishoom.com/edinburgh.
- indian
Hours: Mo-We 08:00-23:00; Th-Fr 08:00-00:00; Sa 09:00-00:00; Su 09:00-23:00
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5 PizzaExpress
23 North Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1SBA dependable pizza room sitting mid-way along the North Bridge crossing
The room at 23 North Bridge, EH1 1SB, opens at 11:30 and runs to 21:30 most days, an hour later on Friday and Saturday. The address transcends the brand because North Bridge is the pivot between the New Town and the Old, and there are few sit-down rooms on the crossing itself that will feed you a plate of pizza in twenty minutes at 18:00 before the theatre curtain. Skip the fast-food strip on the bridge's south end; the kitchen here is quicker than it looks and the room is quieter than the queue outside would suggest. The line for a table is 0131 557 6411, and the branch page at pizzaexpress.com/edinburgh-northbridge takes bookings online. Order the dough thin, the drink small, and be out inside the hour.
- pizza
Hours: Mo-Th,Su 11:30-21:30; Fr-Sa 11:30-22:00
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6 Holy Cow
34 Elder Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3DXA vegan kitchen turning out burgers, sandwiches, soups and bowls that eat like the real thing
The counter at 34 Elder Street, EH1 3DX, opens at 12:00 midweek and pulls the shutters up at 10:00 Friday through Sunday for a proper weekend service through to 22:00. The menu covers burgers, sandwiches, soups and bowls, all of it vegan, and the reason to come is that the kitchen writes recipes for its own ingredients rather than swapping tofu into someone else's dish. The locals prefer this to the meat-substitute chains stacking up nearer the shopping centre; the cooking here does not apologise for itself. The dining room is small, the queue moves, and takeaway on Elder Street will be eaten in St James Quarter about six minutes later. Phone the counter on 0131 629 7057 or check the day's menu at holycow.cafe.
- burger
- sandwich
- soup
- bowl
Hours: Mo-Th 12:00-22:00; Fr-Su 10:00-22:00
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7 Frenchie
14 Broughton Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3RHA tight French bar and dining room at the top of Broughton
The kitchen at 14 Broughton Street, EH1 3RH, runs split service midweek, 12:00 to 15:00 and 17:00 to 21:00, then holds the line straight through 12:00 to 22:00 Thursday to Saturday. It is a French room that treats lunch as a real meal and takes bookings for both sittings; skip the pan-European tourist menus a few streets away in favour of a plate that reads like someone in the kitchen was trained to cook it. The locals head here early on a Thursday, when the all-day service starts and the counter is quiet. Sunday runs 12:00 to 21:00, which is unusual on this stretch and reason enough. Reservations on 0131 556 5333 or at barfrenchie.com; the room seats a small number so a call matters.
- french
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8 Passage to India
20 Union Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3NQA late-service Indian kitchen at the top of Leith Walk
The doors at 20 Union Place, EH1 3NQ, open at 16:00 and hold service until 23:30 Sunday through Thursday, pushing to 00:30 on Friday and Saturday. That is the point of the address: an Indian menu served this far into the night is rare in central Edinburgh, and the locals swear by the late seating for a proper dinner after a show or a late shift. Skip the queues at the New Town Indian rooms if you are eating past 22:00; the kitchen here is still cooking. Book on 0131 556 4547, or hold a table through the site at passage2india.co.uk. Union Place is a two-minute walk from the Playhouse, which is how many of the diners arrive.
- indian
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9 Le Petit Beefbar Edinburgh
21-25 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PBA George Street beef counter that treats the cut as the whole conversation
The kitchen at 21-25 George Street, EH2 2PB, opens for dinner from 17:30 Monday through Thursday, adds a Friday lunch from 12:30 to 15:30 and then runs weekends 12:30 to 22:00. Beef and meat are the menu, which is the honest version of a beef-forward room that too many George Street tables promise and few deliver. The locals prefer this to the steakhouse chains along Princes Street; the cooking here argues for the cut rather than the side dish. It reads as a bar as much as a dining room, which suits the long weekend service. The reservation line is 0131 240 7177, and the site at beefbar.com/le-petit-beefbar-edinburgh confirms the George Street address. Come hungry, order the plate the server keeps naming.
- beef
- meat
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10 Mowgli
20 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2QWIndian street food written for a shared table on Hanover Street
By 11:30 the room at 20 Hanover Street, EH2 2QW, is open for the day and stays that way until 22:00 midweek, 23:00 Friday and Saturday. The menu is Indian but written as small plates and street snacks rather than the curry-house format the city already has plenty of; skip the buffet-style rooms up the hill in favour of a table that is meant to be shared. The locals head here for lunch on a shopping day, when the crush on George Street becomes too much and a bench inside is quieter than the pavement outside. Reservations on 0131 560 2510; the branch page at mowglistreetfood.com/restaurants/edinburgh takes bookings online. Order the yogurt chat bombs and the fenugreek kissed fries and pass the plates.
- indian
Hours: Su-Th 11:30-22:00; Fr-Sa 11:30-23:00
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11 Mother India's Cafe
3-5 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LTIndian tapas plates on the south side of the Old Town spine
The kitchen at 3-5 Infirmary Street, EH1 1LT, keeps a proper midday-to-late split, 12:00 to 14:00 and then 17:00 to 22:30 early in the week, opening through the afternoon by Thursday and running to 23:00 on Friday and Saturday. It is an Indian menu built as small plates rather than a single main, which means two people can eat six things instead of arguing about one. Not worth the walk to the tourist-priced curry houses on the Royal Mile when the cooking here is a five-minute stroll south of North Bridge and better priced. Book on 0131 524 9801; the branch page at motherindia.co.uk/restaurant/mother-india-edinburgh confirms the Infirmary Street address. Order the lamb karahi and one paneer plate and stop there.
- indian
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12 Jolly
9 Elm Row, Edinburgh, EH7 4AAA neighbourhood Italian on Elm Row with a proper lunch service
The dining room at 9 Elm Row, EH7 4AA, keeps the older Italian rhythm: 12:00 to 14:30, close, and back at 17:00 to 21:30 Monday through Friday, with Saturday open straight through and Sunday running 12:30 to 21:00. It is an Italian kitchen on the Leith Walk side of Broughton, the sort of neighbourhood room the locals prefer to the pizza chains at the west end because the pasta is made to order and the wine list reads like someone drinks it. Skip the tourist trattorias on the Royal Mile in favour of the walk up to Elm Row; the reward is a real lunch at a table that is not being turned twice. Book on 0131 556 1588 or through jollyrestaurant.co.uk.
- italian
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