The Little Chartroom.

The Little Chartroom

A chef with two MICHELIN stars eats here and gives one ordering instruction: get the game.

Why go

Mark Donald runs the Glenturret Lalique restaurant, the first distillery restaurant in the world to hold two MICHELIN stars, and this was one of five rooms he named when Condé Nast Traveller asked where he eats in Edinburgh.1 Roberta Hall-McCarron has run The Little Chartroom in Leith since 2018, cooked out of a food truck on Portobello Beach through the pandemic, and has since moved the restaurant to Bonnington Road; the original premises now hold her wine bar, Eleanore. Hall-McCarron's plates run to torched mackerel with barbecued peach, lovage and ajo blanco, the cold Andalusian almond and garlic soup, and dry-aged duck with sausage, wilted leaves, blackcurrant and sorrel.2 MICHELIN carries it in the 2026 guide with no star and no Bib, a listing it held across the move.3

Order this / avoid

• Order: the game. Donald is unambiguous about it: Roberta is very good with game, so I'd go for the game. He had partridge on the opening night of the relocated room.1
• Order: the chocolate tart, the other dish he names from that meal, calling it an amazing chocolate tart.1
• Ask for: a table by the pass. There are tables right by the pass, which are cool if you want to see the chefs at work.1
• Avoid: arriving on spec. It's best to book or you probably won't get in now.1

What locals & experts say

• Mark Donald, Condé Nast Traveller (October 2024): he opens by disclosing the relationship, that Hall-McCarron is a great friend, then gives the assessment anyway. she knows she's no island. She always surrounds herself with very good people, but she really has the Midas' touch, and her food is delicious. On who fills the room now: Roberta's reputation is growing hard and fast so you'll find people here from everywhere.1
• MICHELIN Guide (2026): in the guide, filed under Leith, with no distinction.3
• Tom Kitchin (The Relisher, August 2026) picks Ardfern, the room next door, and in doing so places this one: he calls The Little Chartroom Hall-McCarron's flagship and Ardfern the all-day place beside it that she runs with her husband. That is a second starred chef in the city treating this address as her main kitchen.4

Good to know

• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme rates this premises a Pass, from an inspection on 28 January 2025, with no re-inspection pending as at 3 August 2026. That is eighteen months old, right at the edge of what this project treats as current, so read it as a pass that is due a refresh.5
• Booking: essential, on the word of a chef who eats there.
• Price: nobody publishes a menu price for this room, so the figure shown is an estimate. Check the restaurant's own site before you plan around it.
• Timing: Donald eats both services and declines to pick. "I'd go either for lunch or dinner, but just go."
• The other room: her wine bar Eleanore occupies the restaurant's original premises, so the two are separate bookings.
• Getting there: 14 Bonnington Road, in Leith, inland from the Shore.

Jeff's take (his words)

The case for it is a two-star chef naming it as one of five Edinburgh rooms he chooses to eat in, plus a MICHELIN listing held through a relocation.

Verdict

should-visit — Mark Donald holds two MICHELIN stars at Glenturret Lalique, and when Condé Nast asked him where he eats in Edinburgh, this was one of five rooms he named. He is specific in the way a cook is: ask for a table by the pass, order the game because that is what she is best at, and book, because you probably will not get in. He ate the chocolate tart and the partridge on the opening night of the relocation. The kitchen's own dish vocabulary runs to torched mackerel with barbecued peach, ajo blanco and lovage, and dry-aged duck with blackcurrant and sorrel. MICHELIN carries it in the 2026 guide, and it held that listing across a move. It stays below must-visit for reasons of evidence: the strongest voice on it is a self-declared friend of the chef, no independent visit-based review of the current room was read, and the restaurant's own price is not on record anywhere we reached.