Scotland 2025: Edinburgh - Dining

We dined at some interesting pubs during our 7-day stay in Edinburgh, including The Last Drop, which is decorated with nooses in reference to its proximity to public executions in the 17th century, and Sheep’s Heid Inn, which is thought to be the oldest licensed establishment in Edinburgh dating back to 1360.  At these traditional pubs, we ate the typical Scottish pub fare including haggis in many forms, Balmoral Chicken and sticky toffee pudding.  I was initially concerned that we would be eating the same pub food for our entire trip, but happily, we also frequented eclectic and fun eateries that offered different meal choices.

One of our more unique meals was at Makar’s Gourmet Mash Bar which was also one of the hardest places to get into, since it was always packed with huge lineups and long waitlists.  As its name alludes to, Makar’s offers nine different flavours of mashed potato including classic butter, mature cheddar cheese, smoked applewood cheese, mustard, smoked bacon/spring onion, black pudding, chili, horseradish or vegan with olive oil.  After picking your mashed potato base, you then select from a variety of toppings featuring choices of meats (lamb shank, beef shoulder, haggis, wild boar, or chicken), plant-based (carrot/chestnut, lentil/herbs) or mushrooms with home-grown mushrooms from an in-house mushroom farm. Rich and I both decided that we wanted the smoked bacon/spring onion mashed potato as our base. Since mushrooms are my favourite food, I selected the Summerhill Specialty Mushroom consisting of sauteed wild enoki, king trumpets and lion’s mane mushrooms, topped with fresh tarragon, served on a tower of mashed neep, all sitting on top of a tarragon cream sauce.  I was torn between this and the breaded lion’s mane bites in a whiskey cream sauce, but I was happy with my selection.  Rich picked the beef-lamb haggis on a mound of heather honey and turnip puree served with a whiskey cream sauce.  Humorously, a ceiling hatch found above a neighbouring table was labeled “Haggis Escape Hatch”, playing on the myth of the “Wild Haggis”.  A cheeky poster on the wall displays the iconic image of Robbie Burns but wearing dark shades with the caption “I’m Sexy and a Poet”, playing on the song “I’m Sexy And I Know It”.  All this made for a very fun vibe.

Bertie’s Proper Fish & Chips is a popular seafood restaurant on Victoria St that specializes in sustainably sourced haddock coated with a classic, light and crispy batter (or breading if desired), twice-cooked fries and tartare sauce, following traditional British chippy standards.  The many side choices include coleslaw, mushy or garden peas, onion rings, mashed potato, gravy or a variety of sauces.   Interesting sounding appetizers included fish pakora in a sweet chili and sour cream/mint dip or haggis spring rolls.  We opted to supplement our fish and chips order by sharing Bertie’s Fritto consisting of cod bites, haddock goujons, sampi and squid rings along with a mixed salad.  Bertie’s had a stylish décor including a neon sign that read “Fry Me To the Moon”, aquatic-themed décor and cartoons by Frank Boyle, formerly of the Edinburgh Evening News.

Oink is a fast-food chain that serves roasted hog (pulled pork) and lamb sandwiches with a variety of sauces and toppings.  You can order a Piglet, Oink or Grunter (Small/Medium/Large) sandwich on a white or wheat roll with sage/onion or haggis stuffing and a choice of apple sauce, mustard mayo, BBQ sauce or various chilli sauces. The location closest to us was also on Victoria Street just a few buildings away from Bertie’s Proper Fish and Chips, but it was always busy with long lineups.  We stopped by several times to watch as the server scooped up pulled pork from an entire roasted hog displayed prominently in the window.  We finally got into the eatery just before closing time one evening and snagged two sandwiches, but unfortunately, by then all the crackling was gone.

Another popular chain that has a store on Victoria Street is Knoops, a chocolate drinks café known for its crafted hot and cold chocolate beverages as well as milk shakes and mochas.  The term “Knoopology” highlights the concept of choosing from a curated chocolate menu ranging from 28% (white) to 100% (extra dark) cocoa content, along with a variety of milks (whole/semi-skimmed/skimmed, lactose-free, oat, almond, soy, coconut, hazelnut), spices (sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, peppers, chilli, cardamon, anise, turmeric), herbs (orange, lemon, lime, ginger, mint, lavender, rosemary, matcha, vanilla) and extra toppings (marshmallow, whipped cream, pistachio whipped cream).  We tried a hot chocolate with with 43% Venezuela cacao bean which is described as “smooth with notes of hazelnuts and butterscotch” and added orange flavour to it.  For our second cup, we created a mocha using 49% Venezuela cocao bean with notes of molasses, pecan & coffee and added pistachio flavouring.  Both were tasty but the hot chocolate was a bit too sweet.  I wish we had something like this in Toronto since it would have been fun to continue trying different combinations.

Located just off the Royal Mile, the Chocolatarium is a high-end chocolate shop that offers a wide variety of local and international, organic and fair-trade chocolate bars and truffles, as well as hot chocolate and specialty chocolate shapes.  There were so many flavours to choose from that it was hard to decide but we bought a nice selection both to eat while in Edinburgh as well as a few bars to take home to Toronto.  In addition to selling chocolate, the Chocolatarium also holds 90-minute guided tours on the chocolate-making process from bean to bar, allowing tourists to create their own chocolate bars and taste from over 40 varieties of chocolate.  The tour was quite expensive and we didn’t have the time for it anyway, so we settled for selecting three chocolate bars including black forest/cherry, carrot cake and orange flavours as well as a box of truffles. From outside the shop, we had a great view of some of the structures atop Carlton Hill including a circular tower that was once the Governor’s House and part of the old Carlton Jail complex from 1817-1927, and a 90-foot-tall obelisk called The Political Martyr’s Monument, erected in 1844 as a tribute to five political reformers who were transported to a British penal colony in Australia in 1794.

The Scotsman Steps is a historic landmark which connects Market Street (across from Waverley Train Station) to North Bridge.  Built between 1899-1902, it consists of a set of 104 spiral steps enclosed in an octagonal tower that was once part of the building that housed the Scotsman Newspaper.  Today it acts as a pedestrian link between Edinburgh’s Old Town and New Town.  The steps were originally made from sandstone but through an artistic project in 2011 by artist Martin Creed, they have been reclad with different types and colours of marble sourced from Belgium, Brazil, India, Italy, Norway, Pakistan and more.  Passing by late one evening after a Fringe show, we came across these steps on Market Street and wondered where they led.  We climbed them to the top where we saw a stunning view of a lit-up Balmoral Hotel.

Exiting the Scotsman Steps onto North Bridge, we also found the Scotsman Hotel which has taken over the old Edwardian newspaper building.  The Scotsman Hotel is a luxury 4-star boutique hotel that retains many of the architectural features of the original building including stained glass windows, wood paneling, ornate plasterwork, marble pillars and a grand marble staircase.  We ducked into the hotel to admire the interior architecture and came across the Grand Café, which is the hotel’s main restaurant set in the former advertising hall of the newspaper offices.  Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to grab a table in the beautiful restaurant where we could have a late-night snack while enjoying the luxurious décor and being serenaded by the piano player performing on a balcony up above.

The Grand Café serves classic brasserie-styled cuisine throughout the day, as well as a luxurious full Scottish breakfast and afternoon tea.  For our after-show snacks, we ordered three appetizers including a truffled macaroni and cheese, a confit chicken and leek terrine with carrot, hazelnut and endive salad topped with crème fraiche, and Scottish crab meat on a crumpet topped with brown crab butter, apple and radish.  These were all delicious and hit the spot for our late-night munchies.  The piano music was also delightful but I just wish that we could see the pianist better.  This was an unplanned and wonderfully unexpected experience that we stumbled upon accidentally but ended up being a nice way to end our evening.

After spending 5 days rushing between museums and the Fringe Festival, we finally had time for a leisurely lunch on our last day in Edinburgh before leaving for Glasgow.  We decided to visit the Caledonian Hotel on Princes Street which was constructed between 1899-1903 as part of the Caledonian Railway’s Princes Street Station.  It has an impressive red sandstone façade designed in Neo-Renaissance style with Flemish influences in its grand arches, steep pitched roof and detailed gables.  Corinthian columns support a decorative pediment while the façade is adorned with allegorical figures representing Art, Commerce, Science and Agriculture.  Many of the interior features remain including the station clock, stained glass windows depicting railway stops and ornate marble finishes.  Lunch was being served in “The Court”, a large, spacious space with high ceilings that felt like an open-air courtyard flanked by walls that imitated the red sandstone of the building’s exterior.  The archways of doors leading in and out of The Court are decorated with wooden carvings of the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom.  A beautiful Art Deco inspired bar and a piano lounge can be found at the back while the front of the dining area offers plush seating, modern chandeliers and a large skylight from which we watched the rain fall during our lunch.

This was by far our priciest meal befitting the setting of the swanky hotel.  We considered it our one splurge meal after eating relatively frugally during our previous days in Edinburgh, mostly due to time constraints.  Rich started with a Rob Roy cocktail which was invented in the Waldorf Astoria in New York City in 1894 (and was named after an operetta).  Given that the Caledonian had been rebranded as the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh between 2011-2024 before reverting to its original name, this seemed like an apt selection.  My bottle of water cost £5 ($10 CDN!) but I guess it was not socially acceptable to ask for tap water in a place like this.  We started with a potato leek soup and a Scottish smoked salmon with shallots, crème fraiche and croutons.  For mains, we both selected the lobster roll with clarified garlic butter and fries and shared a side of green beans with roasted cashews.

The Court offers a wide range of desserts including a set of pastries and sweets that can be ordered as part of the “Sweets of the World Afternoon Tea”.  Since we already had lunch, we opted for desserts offered a la carte and the restaurant literally had a dessert cart where an eclectic selection of desserts was on display for our inspection.  I chose a chocolate brownie that tasted more like a giant Ferrero Rocher chocolate while Rich’s dessert was an “Invisible Toffee”, which was a playful version of the traditional sticky toffee pudding.  The bowl arrived with a rich, moist pudding hidden by a cloud of cotton candy floss.  Once the sweet, sticky toffee sauce is poured on top, the candy floss dissolves to reveal the pudding topped with creamy whisky ice cream.  The ceremonial pouring of the sauce was part of the event for this dessert. The walls outside of the restrooms were decorated with colourful vintage-styled tiles depicting street vendors and tradespeople from historic British cities from the 19th and 20th centuries.  The tiles were accompanied by playful labels reflecting market cries of the time including “Chairs to Mend” and “Scissors to Grind”.