Noto
One dessert, miso and chocolate, has been singled out by a critic in 2019, by the Michelin Inspector in 2025 and by a reviewer again in 2025, which is six years of a kitchen repeating itself on purpose.
Why go
Stuart Ralston opened this in 2019 as his second Edinburgh restaurant, and the guide's Inspector traces the format straight back to where he had been cooking: Following the success of aizle, Stuart Ralston took inspiration for his next restaurant from time spent in New York... offering well-conceived dishes at sensible prices that are ideal for sharing. The culinary influences span the globe, with a particular focus on a range of Asian cuisines, be that through duck bao buns or a luscious chocolate and miso dessert.
1 That reads on the plate as izakaya cooking: bao, XO, ponzu, katsuobushi, miso worked into the sweet courses. The Bib Gourmand is the guide's value award and this room earns it at lunch, where £30 buys a bread course, five small plates and two desserts. The bar has stools and serves the whole menu, so a solo diner gets the full card without a table.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the miso and chocolate dessert. Three separate write-ups six years apart have all stopped to name it.1
- Order: duck bao buns, which is the dish the Inspector uses to explain the kitchen's Asian range, and the Berkswell cheese croquettes if they are still on. Gaby Soutar's account of those in 2019:
three Ferrero Rocher-sized bullets obscured by a fleecy thatch of grated cheese... These could be a new currency. I would be happy to be paid in them.
2 - Avoid: adding a plate to the set lunch. Seven courses is already more than most people finish, and the sesame prawn toast is the thing diners add and then regret.4
- Avoid: booking this as a late dinner. The kitchen stops around nine.
What locals & experts say
- Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman (2019): her verdict on the restaurant in its opening months was flat and unhedged:
This is the capital's most exciting restaurant in a while.
She scored the food 9/10.2 - MICHELIN Guide, Bib Gourmand (2026 edition): the guide's own value award, at ££.1
- On the £30 lunch: Diana Turner wrote in Bite magazine in November 2025 that
Despite the low price, every dish is beautifully prepared and presented, with genuine creativity, and we feel we've had a more substantial meal than some full-priced tasting menus provide.
Bite is a bylined Edinburgh food magazine.4 - Nobody at a major paper has reviewed this kitchen since 2019. The Bib Gourmand is current and the criticism is old.
Good to know
- Hygiene, and read this before booking: the premises holds a Food Hygiene Information Scheme rating of Improvement Required, which is the failing rating in the Scottish scheme, from a City of Edinburgh inspection on 8 May 2026. No re-rating was pending as at 3 August 2026, so that is the rating in force and it is about three months old. The Bib Gourmand and the failing inspection are both true at the same time.
- Timing: open seven days, with a break between roughly 4.30 and 5.30pm, and the kitchen stops around nine.
- Booking: recommended, and handled by the restaurant itself. Slots run two and a half hours, cancellation windows are 24 and 48 hours, and a no-show costs £50 a head.3
- Groups: eight is the maximum at one table, and there is a set menu at £50 a head for parties of seven or eight.
- Solo: you can order the full menu from a bar stool, which is the reason to come alone.
- Price: £30 for the set lunch, cocktails around £13. The 2019 a la carte ran £6 to £16 a plate, and the restaurant's own menus page would not load.
- Getting there: Thistle Street is the lane behind George Street, four minutes on foot from tipo.
Jeff's take (his words)
The case for it is the Bib Gourmand, a 9/10 on the food from The Scotsman, and a dessert three write-ups have named across six years. Against that, the hygiene rating above is a current fail.
Verdict
should-visit — A Bib Gourmand for sharing plates at £30 for a seven-course lunch is the value proposition in this batch, and the Inspector's own reasoning is that the dishes are well conceived at sensible prices. The craft argument is continuity: the miso and chocolate dessert has been singled out in 2019, in the guide's 2025 Inspector text and again in 2025 by a reviewer, so the kitchen has held one idea steady for six years while the savory card turned over. Stuart Ralston's New York time reads on the plate as an izakaya register, bao and XO and ponzu, and the bar stools serve the full menu, which makes it one of the few rooms in the city where eating well alone is designed for rather than tolerated. Two things keep it off must-visit. The kitchen stops around nine, and the premises currently holds the failing tier of the Scottish hygiene scheme from an inspection three months old, which is not a reason to strike it off and is a reason to know before booking.