Howies Waterloo Place
Howies keeps cullen skink and traditional haggis on the card whatever else the season turns over, at GBP 10.25 and GBP 9.95, in a Georgian hall of 1815 under Calton Hill.
Why go
David Howie Scott opened the first Howies in July 1990 on St Leonards Street, and the operator's own account of it is unsentimental: A 28 seat restaurant with no license, no good will and no customers.
5 It traded as a set-price bring-your-own bistro, and he is still running the group thirty-six years later.5 This Georgian hall at the foot of Calton Hill is the flagship of the three doors that survive.1
The kitchen buys its beef from Gilmour of the Scottish Borders, who work only with grass-fed cattle from local farms, and its cheese board comes from Iain Mellis as Clava Brie, St Andrews Cheddar and Kintyre blue.2 The smoked salmon and the lobster both come off the Belhaven coast, the cold-smoked trout comes from Kames of Oban, and the strawberries are Blacketyside.2 The kitchen bakes bread in the building every day, which is why the cullen skink and the chicken liver pâté both arrive with rosemary focaccia rather than a packet oatcake.72
The room seats 90 in the main hall and another 30 in a private dining room, and it is five minutes on foot from Waverley.1 That combination is the practical reason people end up here: it is one of the few central rooms that can take a table of twelve at short notice and still cook to order.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the cullen skink, GBP 10.25, smoked haddock with leek, potato and cream, served with the morning's rosemary focaccia.2 The menu never says which port smoked the haddock, which the best versions in this city do.
- Order: the haggis, GBP 9.95, with neeps, tatties and a thyme jus, and take the Glengoyne 12 the menu offers beside it for GBP 6.95.2 The card prints it as
Award winning traditional haggis
and names no award, no category and no year, so read those two words as the kitchen's own. A vegan haggis sits under it at GBP 9.75 with a chive cream sauce, priced and written as a separate dish.2 - Order: the sticky toffee pudding, GBP 9.50, under a sea salt toffee sauce with Mackie's traditional ice cream.2
- Order: the Perthshire wild venison casserole, GBP 23.50, slow cooked with red wine, carrots and beetroot on sea salt roast potatoes.2 The menu warns that it may contain shot, which tells you what kind of venison it is.
- Avoid: turning up between 2.30pm and 5.15pm. Lunch stops and dinner has not started.1
- Avoid: reading the two-course offers as covering everything. The ribeye adds GBP 12, the fillet GBP 14, the roast venison haunch GBP 9, the Belhaven smoked salmon GBP 4.50 and the catch of the day GBP 2.2
What locals & experts say
- The List, Eat & Drink 365:
Creating a quintessentially Scottish dining experience can often tread a fine line between tradition and tourist-fodder. You're in safe hands with Howies, who've been working on that balance for over 30 years. In their Waterloo Place restaurant, at the foot of Calton Hill, you can enjoy that expertise in one of the city's most striking Georgian dining rooms.
3 - Fiona Duff, Edinburgh Evening News, January 2025, writing about where Edinburgh eats in a month that used to be empty:
Always a good meal and doesn't break the bank. It's a big restaurant and there wasn't a spare chair to be seen.
4 - Both of those come from a guide TipList and an opinion column. Neither is a scored review of the cooking, and this page does not have one.
Good to know
- Timing: seven days. Lunch runs 11.30am to 2.30pm Monday to Thursday and 11.30am to 3pm Friday to Sunday. Dinner starts at 5.15pm and the last booking is 9.15pm.1
- Offers: two courses at GBP 19.95 for lunch, and two courses at GBP 25.95 Sunday to Thursday if you order by 6.30pm.1
- Booking: the house asks you to book. Parties over eight go by email to waterloo@howies.uk.com rather than through the online system, with a 24-hour reply.1
- Service charge: 10% discretionary goes on the bill, and the menu states that 100% of gratuities are distributed to the team.2
- Which door: this is Waterloo Place. Howies Victoria Street at 10 Victoria Street is a different premises with its own inspection record, and Scotts Kitchen is a separate all-day business on the terrace above it.5
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 11 April 2024, FHRSID 97662, filed as Howies Waterloo at 29A Waterloo Place. That is about 28 months old, so read it as a pass that is due a refresh.6
- Getting there: five minutes on foot from Waverley, at the point where Princes Street becomes Waterloo Place under Calton Hill.1
Jeff's take (his words)
His recommendation arrived in conversation (2026-08-12): "we should add Howies Waterloo Place -- solid local staple -- classic dishes like cullen skink, haggis, sticky toffee, etc. in decent atmosphere; locals and tourists alike. add it." All three dishes he names are on the July 2026 card.
Verdict
could-visit — David Howie Scott has run Howies since a 28-seat bring-your-own room on St Leonards Street in July 1990, and this Georgian hall under Calton Hill is the flagship he still trades. The July 2026 card keeps cullen skink at GBP 10.25 and traditional haggis with neeps, tatties and a thyme jus at GBP 9.95 whatever else the season moves, buys its beef from Gilmour of the Scottish Borders and its cheese from Iain Mellis, and bakes the focaccia that comes with the soup. The List calls it safe hands on the line between Scottish tradition and tourist-fodder, in one of the city's most striking Georgian dining rooms, and Fiona Duff's Evening News column found it full on a January Thursday with the line 'Always a good meal and doesn't break the bank'. Jeff eats here and calls it a solid local staple, which is first-hand and is the strongest single piece of evidence on the page. It stops at could-visit because nobody has scored the cooking: two favorable lines from a guide TipList and a columnist are not a review, the 'award winning' on the haggis names no award, and the hygiene pass is 28 months old. A bylined verdict on a plate would move it up a rung.