First Coast

Very home-​y kitchen. Nice how the menu changes often. If you come early they even have a totally separate daily menu.
The flavour was very rich and a true explosion of flavours of all the dishes we tried. Definitely worth it and what a restaurant should be like! Very much worth it and I’ll be taking more foodies here :)
They have a mailing list where they invite you for special themed nights etc.

I thought this place was lovely! A fellow Unilocaler wanted to meet for dinner and I was excited to try a new place. The ambiance and décor is very nice and casual but warm and friendly, it seems like a great place to take friends, family, or even a date. We did the 2 course deal (for £12.50 if you come before 6:30) and I started with beef roly poly. I did not know what roly poly was until I ordered it but I loved it! Delicious dough with beef mince in the middle with a nice gravy… mm mm I will definitely be ordering this again. For the main I got the Thai chicken salad which was amazingly flavorful, fresh, and healthy. The chicken was marinated and so moist. I will surely be back here to sample other dishes on the menu!

For seven straight weeks, twice a week, I worked in Morningside, Edinburgh. Consequently, for seven straight weeks, twice a week, I made the pleasant, brisk walk from Haymarket to Morningside Road. And back again in the evening. That’s 24 times I walked along Dalry Road and 24 times I passed First Coast. It’s bright blue and white sign had certainly caught my eye and, during my evening trips back, the windows had often steamed up, the restaurant beginning to burst with life; candles and a steady stream of shadowy figures; the general hustle and bustle that has you curious to know what’s inside.
Entering into First Coast, I felt like I’d stumbled into a village bistro. The interior was homely and inviting, with painting hanging on the walls, candles on the tables and a genuinely warm welcome. It’s, therefore, no surprise that First Coast is named after a tiny village in Wester Ross. Despite not having booked a table, we were sorted with a table for two in no time. But, a word of warning, I imagine that it would be near impossible to say the same a few hours later. We walked past later and it was full to the brim. A side note: our table was right next to the bathroom, which during peak time, I imagine wouldn’t be the best as the space between the table and the bathroom is quite a narrow one. Regardless, this was just a teeny part of our First Coast experience, and a pernickety one at that.
We were presented with menus printed on paper, which can mean just one thing; an ever-​changing menu and fresh, local produce. And, of course! If you click the menu tab on First Coast’s website, it states that ‘our menu is updated on a regular basis.’ This time round, we were spoiled for choice. Just how could I not have seafood in a restaurant with a name like ‘First Coast!’ The Kerala seafood curry was delicious. With mussels on top, a fresh seafood mix and a delectably flavoursome and creamy sauce. The portion size did leave me craving more but the up-​side was that there was room for dessert. Cue several minutes of drooling before finally settling on the rosewater and pomegranate crème brûlée; quite possibly the best decision I’ve ever made. A sweet, rich charred top with a creamy, floral filling and fresh pomegranate seeds. I savoured every mouthful because I didn’t want it to end! This is the kind of dessert I’ll be dreaming about for a very long time.
Part of the reason I’m so excited to return to First Coast is to try an entirely different menu. This time round, I felt encouraged to try things I wouldn’t normally since they weren’t permanent options. — It was all delicious!
All in all, lovely!

There are so many good reviews here that I almost feel I was in a different eatery. Perhaps I need to give it another chance, yet, I found it average in every respect so I doubt I will return.

It was date night and Andrew provided excellent service. I also pre-​booked a table with an amicable operator. He even let me enjoy their special prices menu even though I came in past the time. The recommended dishes were quite spicy, which were a surprise. I will definitely come again for special occasions.

The menu here rotates quite often which is great cause you’ll always find something new and I recommend taking risks, trying new and unusual food! I was very pleasantly surprised by my dishes.
I had the, thai marinated beef salad with peppers, cucumber & mango. It was delish and had a very spicy scottish bonnet sauce and crispy onions sprinkled on top. The meat was cooked perfectly and was very good quality. For my main I chose the most adventurous dish, deep fried cauliflower with a pistachio dukkah and preserved lemon cous cous. It’s hard to imagine this dish and it will probably not look like anything you can imagine (in a very good way.). This was one amazing dish. The cauliflower was deep fried to perfection and the couscous and dukkah complimented each other very well. Every bite was a new taste sensation! Definitely one of the tastiest dishes I have had in a very very very long time!
The service was fab and very accommodating to my toddler which is always a plus. Definitely recommend making this place a regular. Or at least a tasty date night out ;)

Absolutely delicious!
A little out of the most visited part of town, I feel lucky to have found this gem of a restaurant. The atmosphere was fun and inviting. The food was perfectly prepared and well priced. Can’t go wrong…

I was a little scptical coming here, I wasnt really sure what to expect. I was in the end I have to say might impressed.
Friendly service with a good selection of beers to start with, I was happy to get a bottle of Joker IPA.
To the food, coley, parmesan & crème fraîche, baby potato & basil salad. Delicious. Well cooked fish, some nice texture in the dish and critically it was well seasoned.
Lovely local diner doing some great food. The menu is a little confusing, not sure what cuisine they are actually going for but its good and I will be back.

I am a fan of Scottish bistros. And I do love First Coast. The staff are always so friendly, the restaurant so warm and welcoming, the menu so varied. It’s the foodie jewel in Dalry’s crown and I know I will always get a good meal here.
If you go earlier in the evening you’ll get a deal on two courses for £12 or something similar. I think three courses is in the £15 range. It’s great value for money as the food is fresh, well-​presented and tastes lovely. Food combinations are inventive and interesting; you’re never quite sure what First Coast will deliver to you other than it will be really tasty.

Gutes Restaurant in Edinburgh. Wir hatten:
Eine Erbsen-​Ingwer-​Basilikum-​Suppe: Eine Wucht. Ich habe in sehr viel teureren Haubenlokalen schon schlechtere Suppen gehabt.
Vorspeisensalat mit Thai-​Dressing: Beim Salat kann man wenig falsch machen, aber das Dressing war wirklich gut.
Aberdeen Angus Sirloin-​Steak: Perfekt gebraten, leider waren die Chips dazu nicht ganz durch.
Middle Eastern Platter: Geschmacklich sehr gut, nur war die Portion etwas klein.
Die Bedienung war äußerst zuvorkommend, auch die Weinauswahl war ansprechend. Mein Kritikpunkt: Ich wollte ursprünglich, wie auf dem Online-​Menü vermerkt, Haggis bestellen. Auf der Karte im Restaurant war es aber nicht mehr zu finden, war dann aber mit dem Steak auch sehr zufrieden.

Delicious restaurant. Visited on a busy Friday night so service was a bit slow, but kept us happy with lovely sour dough bread. The food was delicious, I had Thai fish cakes to start which were cooked to perfection, followed by chicken in Crème Fresh. Bit on the pricey side, but worth it for the quality of the food.

Always has a good, well thought out menu, nice friendly staff, and the food is usually pretty good– definitely worth a visit.

So, I did make another trip to First Coast and my conclusion is… it’s nice, but I’m not overwhelmed, hence deduction of one star. On my second trip, the same issue I had taken from my first, was repeated once more. Service remains good, even when the restaurant is busy, but other parts of the business disappoint.
This time, we returned for the Scottish Menu, in celebration of St Andrews Day. The starter was a collection of treats including marag gheal (white pudding), venison (or vegetarian) haggis, cullen skink and grilled mussels with (scottish) cheddar. All in all, I thought the starter was a hit, with the highlight being the cullen skink. Everything was well flavoured and delicious.
For our mains, the boy had the beef and oyster pie. Turns out it was a singular oyster. For me, I had the kale and crowdie bridie — in effect, a cheese and kale pasty, delivered on a mustard sauce — the sauce was seriously mustardy and unpleasant — and given the bridie sat on said sauce, not much escaping it.
On the side, clapshot (swede and potato mash), burnt onions and stovies (lamb and potato). Obviously no lamb and potato for the dining vegetarian, and no replacement either, which I felt a little cheated over — after all, I still paid for my uneaten portion of stovies.
It’s a small gripe, but extends a little further — the menu was printed without really paying attention to the vegetarians amongst us — the starter section didn’t indicate it was a collection of starters (the boy only wanted soup… but did enjoy the overall selection) and didn’t indicate any vegetarian alternatives. The mains, well to be honest, a pasty is a pasty, and I could have bought very similar out of a bakery for a fraction of the cost. The sides — well, I had clapshot and the onions, which was more of a garnish than anything else. The boy’s pie looked very lonely, and his skirlie untouched (oats with added bacon in this case). Lamb stovies went down a little better.
Another gripe I have is timing. While I appreciate starters and mains appear to be freshly prepared, it takes a long time, especially on a busy night. The wait between starter and main reached painful proportions — I don’t believe it shold take that long — but it felt that perhaps preparation didn’t start til after we had finished our first course.
The medley of desserts — I didn’t really feel there was much to say — echlefechan tart crust was rock hard, with flavours not to my taste; cranachan was pleasant enough. Clootie dumpling and sherry trifle — I just don’t like either, and First Coast’s version didn’t convince me to change my mind.
So overall, I think First Coast has less promise than I hoped, downgraded as a result. Flickers of the good stuff are shown, but marred by inconsistency across courses.

Reading the other reviews, I wonder if I came on an off night?
Fully impressed with the menu, I came along for a Unilocal Eats meal. First Coast was quite full for a mid-​week meal, and being located something off the beaten path I took this to be a good sign. People definitely make a point of coming here.
Starving, I opted for a starter and a main. That, and I saw the option for black pudding, chorizo and bean stew and thought it sounded fantastic.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed. It was served up very plainly without even a garnish, and while the taste was fine, it wasn’t any more than fine. The black pudding wasn’t whole as I’d pictured it but was fully incorporated into the stew so they could well have missed it out and, with so many other rich flavours, you wouldn’t even know. I normally love a chorizo and bean stew, but this particular combo was just a bit too salty and far too rich for my taste in a starter.
I chose the coley and lentils as my main (which, by the way came some 40 minutes after we finished our starters, which came out like a flash… very strange and inconsistant). The coley was very generous and was cooked and seasoned well. By «generous» I mean that the portion was massive. It was disproportionaly massive, compared with the other main meal offerings on the menu. The lentils were fine, but I focused my limited belly space in attempting to take down as much of the tasty fish as I could.
Beyond the food, the staff were brilliant. Definitely some of the nicest wait staff I’ve come across here and that’s saying a lot. Even with a full restaurant and a number of large tables, they handled it all smoothly and professionally.
Overall, I don’t see myself coming here again. There are just too many nice places to eat in Edinburgh, and while the food was completely passable, it definitely didn’t rock my world.

As the cold draws in and Winter is coming, one of my top priorities is to find comfort food of every description. I’ll swap those morning runs and fruit salads for relaxi-​pants till noon, mash, gravy and pies please.
First Coast serve far more than mash, gravy and pies but the food us merry bunch of Unilocalers were served last Wednesday as part of the Unilocal Eats meal was certainly comforting, warm and hit the spot perfectly on a frosty evening.
I skipped the starter to leave room for my Coley Fillet with Lentils main. And just as well. That bad boy of a Coley fillet was EPIC. Have a look at my uploaded photo. I wish I’d used a coin to show the scale. The Godfather of Coley fillets. In fact I think 5 of us ordered it and there was a quick guessing game of whose was the biggest (Kerrin said mine, I said Emily’s.) All of them were huge, and I have to say mine was deliciously cooked. Grilled with a lovely lemony flavour, but still melt in the mouth and so filling. The lentils were quite a simple accompaniment but anything more would have out-​done the star of the plate.
The baked apple pudding was again simple and rustic but tasted like Christmas. This made me very happy. It was stuffed with dried fruits like raisins, sultanas and some nuts served with icecream and a little caramel sauce. I said I’d only have room for a bite. I think Kerrin managed a teeny bit before I demolished it.
The restaurant was packed when we arrived at 7pm on a Wednesday and somehow even busier when we left. Yet the staff remained every friendly, attentive and never flapped or seemed rushed. I liked that.
It was a bit odd that the starters came out really super quickly, then there was about a 40 minute wait for the mains. But good wine and good company meant this wasn’t a problem — just a bit odd.
This is definitely a homely, hearty, comforting neighbourhood restaurant with some quite unusual mixture of offerings on the menu (moroccan inspired aubergine and egg salad flatbread, and chorizo with black pudding stew) alongside British favourites (beef rib with mash and gravy).
I liked that First Coast had its own vibe and stuck to it. I admit my favourite places for a Friday night post-​work dinner are slightly more gastro-​pubby or also serve cocktails etc. Gotta admit what you like. But if I were wanting somewhere to take the family for a good wintery family dinner out, First Coast would be an ideal spot.
I’m also looking forward to seeing how they switch up their menu for summer as I’m sure they’ll do that brilliantly too.

How is First Coast not review more???
Ok, so this is my favourite restaurant anywhere in the world and I’ve eaten here about ten times. Basically everything here is good, you can trust the chef to sent you anything and it will be good. I ate chicken liver for the first time here, anything with black pudding is good and if the have a steak special (fillet and red wine jus) then order it!
The menu changes week by week. o and the smoke haddock chowder and the vanilla parfait were fantastic!

I can’t believe First Coast hasn’t been reviewed more. It’s one of the best places to eat in Edinburgh!
With its nautical décor and lovely restaurant space, it stands out for the better on Dalry Road. The staff are friendly, attentive and although it’s normally fairly busy, there’s a relaxed atmosphere.
Their menu is impeccable and also slightly more unusual than some of the Scottish fayre you find served up in Scotland’s capital. They do a great sirloin steak in here made with Aberdeen Angus, but there are also some more unusual options that you don’t see on menu’s often, such as Middle Eastern platters.
It is highly acclaimed by Edinburgh critics and with its veggie, Thai and other such exotic options, a very unusual and great dining experience. Not to be missed.

This place always seemed like a little enigma to me, I couldn’t work out what kind of place it was while passing. I decided to venture in on my lunch break to find out.
I think this place is supposed to be a British food restaurant, with most of the dishes centered round our main produced. But they do offer the odd continental dish.
I don’t know what country my Spicy Pork Shoulder and Egg Noodles came from, but I know it was great! The meat was well cooked and very juicy and the noodles were firm.
The price was great too, 2 course meal for £11 at lunch. Bargin!

I really like First Coast. Their staff is attentive, the prices reasonable and the menu has a lot of great stuff on it that it makes it hard to choose what you want. They’ll take reservations if you want to bring in a group on Friday night, and it’s easy to have a conversation without feeling overwhelmed by restaurant noise.

I visited First Coast a wee while ago after hearing good things from friend and colleagues about the restaurant. Although the service was great, I was very disappointed with my food. The squid I ordered for a starter was not cooked and rather than a delicious, slightly rubbery texture, had a soft and squishy texture that was not at all pleasant. I ordered a chicken salad for my main course and although it was OK it was not what I was expecting given the description on the menu and I did not like it at all! Although I wouldn’t wish to judge the entire restaurant by my poor choices and would recommend that you make up your own mind, I certainly won’t be returning any time soon.

We mostly use First Coast for work occasions like Christmas, someone leaving or a birthday. The food is excellent and they’ll email or fax you their current menu so you can choose before you go. This can be really helpful if you’re on a tight timescale. We all agree that the wine list is good and not too pricey. The food is well presented and just a little different from what you might find on a lunch menu in Dalry. I sometimes find the place a little cold, and I put that down to the stone walls.