Badger & Co
The bar and dining room occupy the former home of Kenneth Grahame, who wrote The Wind in the Willows.1
Why go
The kitchen rebuilt its menu in 2026 around what the house calls a regional Scottish larder of native ingredients and time-honoured techniques, and that phrasing is the house's own rather than anyone else's.1 Scott Campbell is head chef, and the business belongs to the Signature group that also runs Cold Town House and The Queen's Arms, which he named himself in a Scotsman feature on where bar people drink.2 No critic has written about the food here, which is the honest limit of what this entry can tell you.
Good to know
- Address: 32 Castle Street, in the New Town a block off Princes Street. Castle views from the room, and a walled Sunken Garden behind it.1
- Booking: the house runs a book-a-table flow on its own site. Treat it as recommended.
- Groups: Toad Hall takes private gatherings.1
- Awards: Stuart Robertson of Badger & Co was a finalist at the Scottish Bar & Pub Awards 2025. That is a nomination for a person, and it is not a venue win.3
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 7 March 2024, FHRSID 875536. Twenty-nine months old, which is past the eighteen-month bound and says nothing current either way.4
- Name trap: The Bonnie Badger in Gullane is a separate East Lothian business with its own Michelin history. Nothing on that record belongs to this address.
Verdict
could-visit — The bar and dining room sit inside Kenneth Grahame's former house on Castle Street, which is a genuine piece of provenance and the reason most people walk in. The kitchen rewrote its menu in 2026 around what the house calls a regional Scottish larder, Scott Campbell runs it, and the business belongs to the Signature group that also holds Cold Town House and The Queen's Arms. That is a real operation with a real address and no published verdict on the plate. Stuart Robertson from here was a finalist at the 2025 Scottish Bar & Pub Awards, which is a nomination for a person rather than a win for the venue. Go if you want the castle view, the Sunken Garden or a private room in the Old Town's orbit, and go knowing that nobody with a byline has told you whether the food is good.