13 restaurants on and around Leith Shore
From Indian street food and Asian small plates to Scottish tasting menus, Leith’s restaurant scene is one of the most exciting in the country
Cutting Chaii
18–20 Salamander Street
Tapas-style Indian dishes inspired by the traditional Iranian cafés and food carts of old Bombay. Designed to share, the street chaats are a speciality. Try chickpeas steeped in Darjeeling tea, Koliwada fried fish fillets and crushed samosas with chaat masala, yoghurt and chutneys.
Dogstar
17 Portland Place
At Dogstar, expect to encounter local ingredients in many guises across the menu, like a sika deer main and a corresponding Scotch egg snack. The changing shellfish selection is cooked over the coals, including razor clams in sherry cream or Barra scallops with rhubarb and cavolo nero.
Dùthchas
187 Great Junction Street
Dedicated to foraged ingredients and Scottish game, the options here are a wee (three-course) or six-course tasting menu or a precision à la carte lunch. Expect the likes of rabbit with rich cabbage reduction or foraged seaweed with a side of Japanese dashi.
The Little Chartroom
14 Bonnington Road
Chef Roberta Hall-McCarron is queen of the micro season, with menus changing as seasonal ingredients appear, even fleetingly. The restaurant is calm and minimal, with floor-length curtains dividing the space. It’s a three or five-course fixed-price menu, with three dazzling options per course.
Nami
63 Shore
From the sisters behind Mimi’s Bakehouse, this friendly Asian-inspired restaurant is bringing something fresh and fun to Leith diners. Share dishes of miso grilled fish, shiitake dan dan noodles and very moreish Korean fried chicken. Reasonably priced and family friendly, Nami fills a hungry gap on the Shore.
Norah
3 Pier Place
Classy new bakery-slash-café-slash-daytime restaurant along the coast at Newhaven. Discover honest, Irish-inspired food like smoked haddock chowder, dotted with fat mussels, or bitter-leaf salad with pear and walnut topped with a mountain of Boyne Valley Bán goat’s cheese.
Also try… Ardfern, which can be a bar, café or restaurant depending on how you order; Leith’s Michelin-starred fine-diners Restaurant Martin Wishart, The Kitchin and Heron; and excellent seafood at Barry Fish, Fishers and The Ship On The Shore.
This TipList is taken from Eat & Drink 365, our sister mag recommending the best in restaurants, bars, cafés and more across Edinburgh. Want a copy? It’s available online or across all good stockists in Scotland’s capital.