Yamato
The owner trained at the Sushi Chef Institute in California, which is why the nigiri is the part of the menu the critics point at.1
Why go
Max Wang is originally from Taiwan and trained at the Sushi Chef Institute in California, and Time Out named him an expert in nigiri and sashimi when it placed Yamato eighteenth on its 2026 list of Edinburgh restaurants to book, calling this probably the best Japanese food you'll eat in Edinburgh.
1 The card runs past the raw fish to A5 wagyu, tempura and sake, and Time Out rates the wagyu and the miso aubergine alongside the sushi.1 Gaby Soutar reached the same conclusion from the other direction in November 2025, writing We adore Edinburgh's Yamato, along Lochrin Terrace
in a piece about its new sister restaurant Nishiki on Morrison Street.2 The Skinny files it with the Tollcross kitchens that cook in front of you.3
Good to know
- Address: 11 Lochrin Terrace EH3 9QJ, on the Tollcross side of the Meadows.3
- Booking: Time Out calls the room compact, so reserve a table.
- Price: nobody publishes one. A wagyu and sushi card is not a cheap night, and any figure here is an estimate.
- Getting there: Lochrin Terrace runs off Home Street at Tollcross, about ten minutes' walk from Lothian Road and on the same stretch as the King's Theatre.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 8 April 2025, FHRSID 1050234.4
- Sister room: Nishiki, 151-155 Morrison Street, is the same family and serves a breakfast Soutar rates.2
Verdict
should-visit — Max Wang came to Edinburgh from Taiwan by way of the Sushi Chef Institute in California, and the thing he trained in is the thing the room is judged on. Time Out put the restaurant eighteenth in the city in February 2026 and called it probably the best Japanese food in Edinburgh, with the nigiri and sashimi singled out to the owner's training. Gaby Soutar, reviewing its new sister restaurant Nishiki a few months earlier, wrote that she adores Yamato. Two critics who do not agree on much land in the same place here. It stops short of the top rung because neither of them has actually reviewed this room: what exists is a ranked roundup and an aside. The room is compact, so book, and go for the raw fish before the wagyu.