The Rabbit Hole.

The Rabbit Hole

The fish is bought off Eddie's slab every morning, and the cheese comes from Mellis.

Why go

Mo Boulay and Antonello Esposito sold their city-centre restaurant in 2015 and opened this one in October of the same year, in the Marchmont streets where they live.2 They had twenty years in hospitality each before that. The cooking runs French brasserie through Esposito's Sicilian childhood and Boulay's rural Canadian one, on Scottish produce, with the menu tweaked monthly around a fixed backbone.2 The daily fish run is what that intent actually looks like on the plate, and it is why the seafood dishes are the ones to read first. The room was Sweet Melinda's for years before them, and Gaby Soutar clocked the change: They've fairly changed the interior since this space's light, bright and white linen-y Sweet Melinda days. It now boasts cushions with bunnies on them, moody grey walls and a curved bar area for eating and drinking.1 Banquettes wrap the candlelit room and a dining bar with stools runs down the middle of it.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: the fish, whatever it is that day. The kitchen buys off Eddie's every morning, so the seafood list is the part of the menu with the shortest chain behind it.2
• Order: the duck leg confit or the moules mariniere. Both sit on the brasserie backbone the venue says it keeps fixed under the monthly changes.2
• Order: a pudding, which is the surprise in the only review of the place. Soutar called the list unimaginative or all-winners, depending on your perspective and then ate it: Boring in theory, but rather lovely in practice.1
• Avoid: the risotto croquettes as reviewed, pretty standard arancini, a bit bland and under-seasoned, as is the curse of this genre.1
• Avoid: taking a falls off the bone pitch on the lamb at face value. Soutar was sold it that way and found the meat resolutely clinging onto the bone, like a sloth on a tree trunk, though she liked the cumin-spiced chickpea and lentil stew under it.1

What locals & experts say

• Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman: she scored the room 8 and the food 7, and her sharpest praise was for the duck. My sliced duck breast was slightly chewy in parts, but the flavour was great, especially when it came to the caramelised skin and the accompanying dribbles of red wine jus. Dinner for two excluding drinks came to £59.50.1
• The List: on who is in the room. There's always a bit of a buzz at this family-run neighbourhood brasserie thanks to an eclectic clientele of students, family groups and curious visitors. It files the place at one pound sign.3
• A List review of the opening, quoted by the venue and not traceable to The List itself: Every square inch of their compact, well-dressed room has been put to good use, with its curving bar, cosy table in the snug and comfy window booths all generating a welcoming warmth. A cheery front of house team that aims to please services a skillful kitchen. The same block describes the food: Familiar classics moules mariniere and ribeye steak star alongside the likes of duck breast with orange-glazed chicory, and Tuscan fish stew with saffron potato. The List's live entry carries different copy and the original could not be found, so read it as the venue reproducing a notice from its opening year.2
• Awards: none. The Scottish and Edinburgh award rosters cached in this repo carry no Rabbit Hole row, and no programme surfaced one.
• Harden's: the guide has no rating for it. Its page says Not enough people have commented yet, which is itself worth knowing about an eleven-year-old restaurant.4

Good to know

• Hours are unsettled, so phone. The venue publishes none on its own site. The List has it open Wednesday to Sunday with Friday and Saturday lunch; Harden's has it Tuesday to Saturday, lunch and dinner, closed Sunday. The only point every source agrees on is that Monday is dark.3
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme rates this premises Pass, from a City of Edinburgh inspection on 7 June 2023. That is about 38 months old as at 4 August 2026, well past the eighteen-month bound, so the FSA record says nothing current either way. A Pass is not a safety finding and no caution attaches.5
• Price: Soutar's 2016 bill was £59.50 for two without drinks, with mains at £16 to £16.50. Harden's prints wine from £24 a bottle, filter coffee at £3 and 10% service.
• Booking: by phone, on 0131 229 7953, and there is an enquiry form on the site. A small neighborhood room in a student district fills on a Friday.
• Name collision: there is a Rabbithole restaurant in Brooklyn that Soutar herself confused this one with. Attach the Roseneath Street address to anything you find under the bare name.
• Getting there: Roseneath Street sits between Marchmont Road and Bruntsfield Links, about fifteen minutes' walk south of the Meadows crossing.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Status: he has not said whether he has been.

Verdict

could-visit — This is an owner-cooked neighbourhood brasserie doing the unglamorous things properly. Mo Boulay and Antonello Esposito sold a city-centre restaurant in 2015 and opened this one in October of the same year in the Marchmont streets where they live, and the buying is where the intent shows: fish and shellfish off Eddie's every morning, cheese from I J Mellis, every dish started from scratch and only enough bought to cook it fresh. The menu is tweaked monthly on a fixed brasserie backbone, so somebody is still paying attention. That is a real reason to eat here if you are in the neighbourhood or walking back across the Meadows, and it is why the row clears listed. It does not clear the detour, and the evidence says so plainly rather than being quiet about it. The only published verdict on this kitchen is Gaby Soutar's from March 2016, which scored the food 7 out of 10 and named two dishes that missed: the arancini bland and under-seasoned, and a lamb shank sold as falling off the bone that was resolutely clinging to it. She scored the room higher than the food, 8 to 7, which is its own comment. Nothing has re-judged the cooking in ten years, no award exists from any body, and Harden's, whose whole method is diner surveys, still cannot say anything about an eleven-year-old restaurant because not enough people have commented. The French-brasserie format is not something you can only get here, the Sicilian and Canadian backgrounds the owners cite land on no dish anyone has described, and you have to telephone to find out whether it is open, because the venue publishes no hours and the two directories that do disagree with each other. Go if it is on your way. It often will be if you live south of the Meadows, and that is the honest scope of the recommendation.