West End
10 rooms on the Edinburgh list
This side of town is where the Japanese cooking is and where the quietest star hides. TIMBERYARD sits behind a big red door on Lady Lawson Street and works from whatever Scottish produce arrived that week. Yamato on Lochrin Terrace is the room Time Out calls probably the best Japanese food in the city, and its owners opened Nishiki on Morrison Street with a Japanese breakfast service almost nothing else in Edinburgh offers. Kanpai Sushi is the third, under the Castle in the theater block. Morrison Street doubles as the curry street, with Ignite four times an Asian Catering Federation title-holder for Edinburgh, and Vietnam House Restaurant on Grove Street runs a menu kept short because the kitchen is too small to carry a long one. The Palmerston anchors the Queensferry Street end with a bakery inside the restaurant. For drinking, Hey Palu is far enough up the West Port that the Old Town crowd does not follow, and Wee Vault Edinburgh pours a brewery's own range near Haymarket.
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Known for, here
Shellfish, and the boats that land it2 here
- The Palmerston — Gigha oysters come battered in Guinness with chilli mayo, off the nose to tail card the Good Food Guide describes.
- Nishiki — Langoustines go on the grill under kombu and shiitake butter, and Gaby Soutar called it another 10 out of 10 dish.
Restaurants6
The PalmerstonMichelin
Destination · Restaurant · West End · $$$
book ahead
The Good Food Guide: "Lloyd Morse's kitchen takes a resolutely nose-to-tail approach, showcasing his deep love of Italian and French cuisine."
Ignite?
Listed · Bangladeshi and North Indian · West End · $$
book ahead
Twenty-two years on Morrison Street, and the Asian Catering Federation has given it the Edinburgh title four times.
The PompadourMichelin
Listed · Restaurant · West End · $$$$
booking essential
The name over this dining room has moved twice in two guide cycles, and both the 2026 MICHELIN directory and the July 2026 health inspection now file it as 1925 at The Pompadour.
Taco Libre!
Listed · Mexican · West End · $
walk-in
The Skinny has run the same line on this kitchen two years running: the tacos are some of the very best around.
Wee Vault Edinburgh
Listed · Bar · West End · $$
walk-in
Vault City pours two dozen beers on tap at any one time, in a room The Skinny describes as small.
Vietnam House Restaurant?
Listed · Vietnamese · West End · $
book ahead
The card ran two starters, ten mains and no desserts when The Scotsman ate here in 2012 , and The List named the reason: the kitchen is too small to carry anything longer.
Pubs & cask1
Mathers West End?
Listed · Cask ale pub · West End · $
walk-in
The water engine that pushed beer up these lines on air pressure is still in the cellar, and CAMRA says staff will show it to you when the bar is quiet.
Cocktails1
Old Pal Bar and Kitchen!
Listed · Cocktail bar · West End · $$
book ahead
Named for a cocktail, and it has taken the city's Best Restaurant Bar title in both years it has been open.
Sake1
Nishikijust added
Solid · Sake bar · West End · $$
book ahead
A Japanese breakfast service, 9am to 11.30am, in a city that has almost none.
Coffee1
Cairngorm Coffee Melville Place!
Listed · Specialty coffee · West End · $
walk-in
Four espressos on the bar every day and a batch brew that rotates, off beans roasted a short walk from Portobello beach.
Elsewhere in Edinburgh