eòrna restaurant.

eòrna restaurant

Two people are the entire payroll, Brian Grigor cooking every course and Glen Montgomery pouring every glass and hosting the room.6

Why go

Grigor's father was a gamekeeper, and game is the corner of the larder he specializes in.1 He trained at the Balmoral Hotel and was in that kitchen when Number One first took a Michelin star under Jeff Bland, then cooked at Greywalls and through the early years of The Kitchin with Tom Kitchin. He went back to the Balmoral and ran Number One himself, holding the star for four years and taking four AA Rosettes for the first time in the restaurant's history.1 Montgomery found wine working at The Witchery by the Castle, finished the WSET Diploma in 2019, and helped open Heron in Leith.1 He spent close to three years as head sommelier at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, which holds two Michelin stars.6 eòrna is the Scots Gaelic for barley, and the grain came back at the end of the opening menu as toasted barley ice cream under a Valrhona dark chocolate tart.5

Order this / avoid

• Order: the game course, whatever it is that night. The gamekeeper's son cooks it, and at the 2022 pop-up Gaby Soutar had roe deer loin as two tender ovals of pink meat, along with wilted chard, salt baked celeriac, discs of shaved truffle and a splash of mahogany jus.5 Roe deer with salt-baked celeriac and sauce grand veneur was on the opening menu here too.6
• Order: the matched wine flight. The restaurant's own advice is that the flight is how you get the full evening, and Stuart Ralston says of the list that the wines are always full of surprises.4
• Avoid: booking this as a late dinner on top of something else. Doors open at 6:45pm, canapes are out by seven, and the last course lands around eleven.1

What locals & experts say

• Chitra Ramaswamy, The Times (August 2023): she scored it 30/30, which Harden's recorded as her first 10 out of 10 across the board, on a tiny-in-numbers, titanic-in-ambition fine-dining restaurant that gave her one of my most memorable dining experiences. Her verdict on the two of them: Two people at the top of their game. Near perfection. She also drew the line between this and every other counter in the country: It's a bit of a thing now: chef's tables, communal dining… an evolving seasonal tasting menu… just one seating for dinner. Eòrna, though, does it with complete integrity and a level of ease and sophistication that comes only with years of experience and hard graft. Read through Harden's weekly reproduction, which carries her byline and links the original.3
• William Sitwell, The Daily Telegraph (January 2024): he called the evening like the best experimental works of theatre and the cooking a bold and exciting glimpse of a delicious future.2
• Stuart Ralston, MICHELIN Guide (August 2025): the chef-restaurateur behind LYLA, tipo and Noto was asked where he goes in Edinburgh to celebrate and answered eòrna. What Brian and Glen are doing there feels really personal and you can tell every plate has intention behind it.4
• Harden's survey (2026): Cracking concept, expertly delivered, closing on Outstanding. The previous edition's diners rated the food and wine together as high as the survey goes and singled out great being able to engage with the sommelier and chef.2
• Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman (August 2022): her review is of the itinerant version, six courses at a communal table in the back of the Miele showroom in the St James Quarter while the pair looked for a site. She scored the food 9 out of 10 and wrote, I think Brian and Glen, who I am now calling Bren, might be geniuses. It's been a while since I ate food of this standard.5
• MICHELIN Guide (2026): in the guide, with no star and no Bib Gourmand.10

Good to know

• Booking: essential. Twelve seats, one service a night, and everyone eats the same menu at the same time.1
• The evening: doors at 6:45pm, canapes from soon after seven until around 7:45pm, then six courses. It generally ends around 11pm, a little earlier midweek.1
• The counter: a U-shaped counter facing the kitchen.2 The seats are spaced, and the restaurant says talking to the other diners is never forced on anyone, so a table of two can keep to itself.1
• Price: GBP 105 a head for the menu in the 2026 Harden's survey, up from GBP 95 the year before. Harden's counts the menu as seven courses where the restaurant's own page describes canapes and then six, so treat the count as the survey's arithmetic and the price as the number to budget. Wine starts at GBP 30 a bottle and service is 10%.2
• Days: Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.1
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme rates this premises Pass, from a City of Edinburgh inspection on 13 March 2024. That is around 29 months old and past the 18-month bound this project uses, so the hygiene register is not current about the kitchen either way.9
• Getting there: Stockbridge, on Hamilton Place. Skua is 131 m away on St Stephen Street, and Lannan Bakery is on the same street at number 29.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Must go once..."
• What backs it: the note is four words and an ellipsis, so the case here is built from the sources. Chitra Ramaswamy gave it 30/30 in The Times, Stuart Ralston sends people here when he wants to celebrate, and Harden's diners close their report on the word outstanding.

Verdict

should-visit — The chef who held the MICHELIN star at Number One in The Balmoral for four years, and took that room to four AA Rosettes for the first time, now cooks six courses himself for twelve people at a counter in Stockbridge. His father was a gamekeeper and game is his specialism, which is the rare case of a pedigree line you can taste. The other half of the payroll spent three years as head sommelier at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie and pours every glass. Chitra Ramaswamy scored it 30/30 in The Times and called it near perfection, William Sitwell called the cooking a bold and exciting glimpse of a delicious future, and Stuart Ralston, who runs a starred room of his own three miles away, sends people here when he wants to celebrate. It holds short of must-visit on two counts. The MICHELIN Guide lists it with no distinction, and the strongest published verdicts are from 2023 and January 2024 on a menu rewritten with the season, so the current-quality evidence is older than the room's reputation. A 2026 review in The Scotsman or the Edinburgh Evening News would likely move it.