I have one splurge dinner in Edinburgh and five starred rooms to pick from. What is the actual difference between Kitchin, Wishart, Timberyard, Heron and LYLA?
Timberyard and LYLA decide your dinner for you, and The Kitchin and Heron still hand you a carte. Timberyard writes one set menu a week around the Scottish produce that arrived for it. LYLA is the smallest and strictest of the five: ten courses, ten tables, 28 covers, and it will not seat a party bigger than four. Kitchin's £69 lunch buys the same kitchen as its £130 dinner, Restaurant Martin Wishart's £95 Market Menu sits against a £145 tasting, and Timberyard and Heron publish no price at all. Kitchin shuts Monday, Timberyard and Heron and LYLA shut Monday and Tuesday, and Wishart publishes no closed day, so the night you have free may pick the room for you. Prices below are Harden's 2026 figures except LYLA's, which come off a March 2024 visit.
You order for yourself here, and the Good Food Guide went from calling the cooking predictable to finding renewed energy in it on one lunch.
Martin Wishart has cooked modern French on the Shore since 2001, and this is the only one of the five with no published closed day.
It runs one set menu a week, took a Green Star in 2026, and publishes no price.
- HeronLeith
It has held a MICHELIN star since 2023, Sam Yorke has led the kitchen since he and Tomas Gormley parted ways, and nobody publishes a price.
Ten courses go to 28 seats, and a party of four is the ceiling.
What you eat
- The Kitchin.
- You order three courses off a carte, and a surprise tasting menu runs alongside it.
- Restaurant Martin Wishart.
- At dinner you choose between the Market Menu and the six-course tasting, and lunch is a shorter carte.
- TIMBERYARD.
- The kitchen writes one set menu a week around the Scottish produce that turned up for it, so you eat what arrived. Anna Sebelova's drinks list won the Good Food Guide's Drinks List of the Year in 2025, jointly with Montrose.
- Heron.
- It runs a carte alongside two tasting menus that change with the season, per Time Out's February 2026 update.
- LYLA.
- Dinner is ten courses. Lunch is five, and it runs on Fridays and Saturdays only. Dinner opens upstairs with a champagne trolley and the snacks, then moves down to the dining room.
What it costs
- The Kitchin.
- Harden's 2026 figures put three courses at £69 at lunch against £130 at dinner, and the tasting menu at £165.
- Restaurant Martin Wishart.
- Harden's 2026 figures put the Market Menu at £95 against £145 for the six-course tasting.
- TIMBERYARD.
- Nobody publishes a figure, so ask what the week's menu costs when you book.
- Heron.
- Heron publishes no prices, so ask what dinner runs when you book.
- LYLA.
- In March 2024 the ten courses ran £165 and the five-course lunch £65, with a £45 wine pairing and a £25 soft pairing. Those are 2024 figures, so confirm them.
The room
- The Kitchin.
- Tom and Michaela Kitchin have run a converted whisky warehouse on Commercial Street since 2006, with a glazed wall onto the kitchen and Lachlan Archibald cooking behind it.
- Restaurant Martin Wishart.
- The room is quiet and panelled, a few doors along the Shore from The Kitchin, and the Good Food Guide's one complaint is service its readers say lacks the usual panache. Harden's diners say the opposite.
- TIMBERYARD.
- The room is a warehouse behind a big red door on Lady Lawson Street, with a stove to sit by in winter and a walled courtyard in summer.
- Heron.
- It is a high-ceilinged room on the Water of Leith looking at the cranes of the old port, and the Good Food Guide singles out service that drops the formality without dropping the knowledge.
- LYLA.
- Ten tables and 28 covers fill the ground floor of Paul Kitching's 21212 on Royal Terrace, the party cap is four, and there is no carte to fall back on.
When it trades
- The Kitchin.
- It shuts on Monday, and the £69 three-course lunch is the cheap way in on the days it opens.
- Restaurant Martin Wishart.
- I have no closed day for this room, so call before you plan a Monday round it. The Kitchin shuts Monday, and Timberyard, Heron and LYLA shut Monday and Tuesday.
- TIMBERYARD.
- It shuts Monday and Tuesday, serves dinner Wednesday to Saturday, and runs lunch on Friday and Saturday only.
- Heron.
- Time Out had it Wednesday to Friday for dinner only and both weekend days for lunch and dinner, closed Monday and Tuesday, as at February 2026.
- LYLA.
- It shuts Monday and Tuesday, and the five-course lunch runs Fridays and Saturdays only.
Getting a table
- The Kitchin.
- Book ahead, because Harden's diners describe a fully booked room as the normal state.
- Restaurant Martin Wishart.
- Book ahead. Try this one for a Monday, because The Kitchin, Timberyard, Heron and LYLA all shut at the top of the week.
- TIMBERYARD.
- Book weeks out for an August table.
- Heron.
- Book ahead. Turning up without a booking is how people miss this one.
- LYLA.
- Book ahead, and go direct through the restaurant's site, because Stuart Ralston's team keeps its own book.
My three, and this is my palate rather than anybody's printed review: Timberyard, The Kitchin and LYLA. Timberyard has held its star since 2023 and took a Green Star in 2026, and a menu rewritten every week around what the growers sent is what I want at this price. Book The Kitchin at lunch: £69 buys the same kitchen that charges £130 after dark. Save LYLA for the night that has to be an occasion, at ten courses and 28 covers with a party of four as the ceiling. Restaurant Martin Wishart and Heron are the next two I would book. The only reservation any critic has printed about these five is the Good Food Guide's on The Kitchin: it had begun to find the cooking somewhat predictable (if not complacent)
, and then a recent lunch showed a renewed sense of energy and vitality
.
Jeff's call · Aug 2026
Where the figures come from
Read as of Aug 2026 — every price moves, so confirm before you book