Little Capo
It opened on Howe Street in November 2024 from a partnership including Stuart McCluskey of the Bon Vivant group, and within a year The Scotsman's critic had it among her picks of forty-three new rooms.
Why go
Gaby Soutar reviewed forty-three new Edinburgh restaurants across 2025 and put this one on her shortlist, writing that it had become "as much a fixture of the New Town as James Craig's architecture." The room has two halves: a curved aperitivo bar you can sit at alone, and a dining room cooking what the house calls Italian-ish. The dining room books out, which is the caveat attached to every recommendation of it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the pappardelle with ox cheek ragu and celeriac, which is the dish Soutar names, or take a stool at the counter for what she calls
exemplary cocktail magic.
1 - Avoid: arriving without a booking and expecting a table. Take the aperitivo bar instead; it is the better seat anyway.
What locals & experts say
- Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman (2025):
Sit at the curved aperitivo bar for exemplary cocktail magic, or grab a table and feast on 'Italian-ish' options such as the chill-beating pappardelle, ox cheek ragu and celeriac.
1 - Edinburgh Bar Awards 2025, Best Restaurant Bar, highly commended: the city's drinks programme placed the counter second in its category, behind Old Pal. It is the bar that got the recognition here, which supports taking the stool over waiting for a table. The vote is half public and half trade by the organiser's published method.4
- Mike Aikman, owner of Bramble, Lucky Liquor and The Last Word Saloon (The Scotsman, 2025):
Little Capo is a stunning new Italian-ish eatery although this is already a well known spot so you might struggle to get a table.
2
Good to know
- Timing: evenings. Check the venue site before planning a daytime visit.
- Booking: essential in August, and worth doing well ahead.
- Getting there: Howe Street, a few minutes downhill from George Street and the Assembly Rooms.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 6 March 2025.
Verdict
should-visit — Open since November 2024, from a partnership including Stuart McCluskey of the Bon Vivant group, and by the following autumn The Scotsman's restaurant critic had made it one of her picks of forty-three new rooms, writing that it had become 'as much a fixture of the New Town as James Craig's architecture'. The cooking is called Italian-ish and the specific plate she names is pappardelle with ox cheek ragu and celeriac. Mike Aikman, who runs three bars in this city, rates it and warns in the same sentence that you will struggle for a table. Kindling, earning it on two independent verdicts rather than on noise, and short of must-visit only because eighteen months is not yet a record.