Eating in Edinburgh

alison74

Lakelady wrote: »

Hello - we are staying in the Edinburgh Central Travelodge - St Mary`s St. for three nights from the 25th of Jan. Can anyone reccommned any places to eat. I don`t want to book and be tied to a time but we`ll eat between 5 -7 every evening. We will try any menu and appreciate nice food but can`t afford a hefty bill. We are comfortable with paying about £35 for two - one or two courses with a drink each.
Husbands mobility isn`t too good so we don`t want to go too far away from the Travelodge.
Many thanks - I`ve enjoyed reading the posts here and the food blog - but my head is spinning trying to place restaurants on a map.

If you're going to eat at that time, you will qualify for early dining offers and get 2-3 courses for under £15.

Use www.5pm.co.uk and click on 'central' and nowhere will be that far away from your travelodge.

There is a wonderful Indian a few minutes walk away from your travelodge up the hill of the Pleasance.

Also, http://www.fullerthomson.com/eating-and-drinking/holyrood/ The Holyrood is literally 30 metres away that does 2 beers and a burger for £15 with voucher.

Lovely restaurant called Howie's in Victoria Street, a short walk away does early dining offers.

Edinburgh has such a vast choice of places to choose from it can sometimes be hard, but the other thing to do is find somewhere during the day you like the look of as you wander around the town.

http://www.kismot.co.uk/ < Indian near St Mary's Street

Lakelady_2

Many thanks for the reply and your blog Alison - a great read.

Lakelady_2

Just thought I`d report back on our dining experiences in Edinburgh.
We went to Kismot, the Indian restaurant and had the best Indian meal ever. We took our own drinks which wasn`t a problem. We were the only people in the retaurant early on a Monday evening. Its all credit to the great atmosphere there that we just had a really good time.
We also went to Howies on the road down to the Grassmarket. We really liked this, we had the two couses with a glass of (very nice) Chilean Merlot for £15. Hubby had the Cullen Skink which he said was fantastic. Again we had great service.

We had all our coffee`s in places other than the chains and we liked Always Sunday on the Royal Mile.
Surprisingly we had an excellent light lunch in Edinburgh Castle, I think it was called Queen Anne`s. I say surprisingly because generally in busy tourist places you get a crappy sandwich and surly service! Also the cafe at Holyrood House was great - fantastic looking cakes!

The only disappointment of the trip was Jenners - whatever happened to the lovely cafe on the top floor?

Anyways we had a great time, with just great warmth and hospitality.

alison74

Glad you had a good time, always nice to hear good feedback. Edinburgh Castle food is nice, albeit a bit pricey. Howies and Kismot eh? Now I'm hungry! Two of my fave restaurants in town.

Always Sunday is also good, but only really at off peak tourist times as the service suffers when it's packed out - so you timed it well.

alison74

A cake trail of Edinburgh - can you resist?

FIK

Glad you had a nice time. I have never eaten in francanstine. Suprised you would eat their to be honest especially as that street has lots of nice places to eat. Just opposite is the simplest most authentic italian with great prices. Maybe to everyday for a birthday.

Some of the coments here are really not well informed. Edinburgh has alot of vegies so a most resturants that are local have good vegie choice. Also the biggest vegie resturant is not even mentioned. Hendersons anyone?? There is Hendersons Bistro and also a seprate but conected cantean thing doing diffrent food on the corner of Thistle street lane and hanover street. Also Hendesons under the church at the corner of lothian road and princes street.

Also agree the cafe in the castle is better than you normally get in these kind of places. The zoo is shocking

Jenners used to be the best shop in Edinburgh. Its still worth a visit to see the building but everything else is way way down hill. It used to be independant and family run. A up market are you being served type of place, really fantastic at xmas. It was bought by the Frasers chain so its now just another chain shop. Its a really shame to lose this quality. I think the family felt the pressure of Harvey Nic's. Edinburgh is just not big enough for two really upmarket shops. Harvey Nics was not a patch on Jenners and when it opened it was dead. Problem is it still took a small percentage of Jenners sales. Enough to cause Jenners to hurt. Even when the competion is rubish small buisness can't compete with large chains. Harvey Nic's is now busy and Jenners is dead and Edinburgh is one step closer to being like every other town in the UK/Europe and the World. Thanks to our wonderfull planning department UNESCO have threatend to remove our status.




I know the Italian on Cockburn Street you mention. The bacon rolls are great and the owner works there. He's a funny man good humoured and grumpy at the same time. He parks opposite and rushes out mid service when the traffic wardens go past.

Rowan9

Had a really good pub meal in Doctors today (up near university...not sure of the name of street). Vegetable lasagne with a slice of garlic bread and small salad £3.99. Really good lasagne - spinach, kidney beans and butter beans in it. Yum. DS had steak and ale pie, chips and peas - think it was £4.99 and he couldn't manage it all. They have some meals 2 for £5. I've been before but not for a while and this menu and prices were great. Hope this helps someone who's hungry. The prices will go up for the Festival though, or they'll have a 'new' menu.
W

Vaila

I always go to The Baked Potato Shop,great choice of fillings,generous portions and so cheap!
great value for money

alison74

Ignore - mod please delete. I replied instead of edited another post.

Purplebutterfly_2

Can I just say thanks to everybody who has taken the time to pot here.:)

I was looking for somewhere for lunch and dinner before and after my sons Graduation.

I had a good look through this thread before deciding to book a table at Vittroria On the Bridge for dinner and we ended up in Frankensteins for a quick light lunch.

Lunch was good, kids burger ws overdone but apart from that, I would recommend.

Dinner at Vittoria on the Bridge, I could not fault, location, food, price and staff, all excellent.:)