Henderson’s Bistro

This part of Hendersons has recently gone totally vegan — it used to be vegetarian/​vegan and in the downstairs restaurant part on Hanover Street and the upstairs deli/​shop you can still get vegetarian stuff.
Seating is a little cramped as the restaurant is quite small and I would say that was my only downside to the experience. Mains are a quid or two more than I would prefer to pay but it is Edinburgh, the dishes contain quite a lot of ingredients, and have a good degree of creativity to them. Also, I loved the presentation, so it’s not a huge complaint.
We’d gone in around 3pm to reserve for dinner, and though it had been pretty quiet at that time when we went back later walk-​in customers had a wait for a free table as the restaurant had a few other bookings, too.
As we’re trying to budget a bit at the moment we got a jug of tap water and skipped dessert (the PAIN!). We shared a small nachos that was topped with veggie haggis, caramelised onion, guacamole, hot salsa, vegan cheese, and omitted the jalapenos. It was a decent sized starter for a slightly hefty £5.80 and was delicious; I’d probably get a whole portion to myself next time so I didn’t need to share.
For the main I got the orange & chilli tofu nacho crumble with quinoa. The tofu is smoked, and it’s marinated overnight before prepping with the crumbed topping and was really good. The side of vegetables was presented with a wedge of orange, and the quinoa with a wedge of lime, which I would suggest squeezing over the salad and quinoa to add flavour (which is probably a reason it’s there and I just wasn’t classy enough to figure this out!). Hubbie got the cashew fritters with rice and satay sauce which impressed him, and I was also liked from the nibble I had.
They have a specials blackboard which features a dessert, a soup, and a hummus, all of which I presume changes on a daily basis. I will return!

We came to Henderson’s at the recommendation of my sister who hadn’t been to Edinburgh in over ten years. Coming from Los Angeles, where vegetarian and vegan food is plentiful and fine vegetarian dining is affordable, we were pretty disappointed with Henderson’s Bistro.
The food was pretty «old school» as far as style, with huge heaps of brown rice dominating the plate and meager «mains» consisting mostly of 1970’s ingredients like lentils and whole wheat breadcrumbs.
My dish didn’t state on the menu that it was made with whole wheat, something I have to avoid, and so I was unable to eat the entire dish. Our server (a very young girl, not too bright) failed to notice that I’d not eaten my dish at all. In the end, we spent about $ 50 (US) on barely average vegetarian food that one might find in the old Lindsay Wagner cookbook. I don’t mean to be cruel, but I really could almost say that the person designing this menu is pretty clueless as is the staff. (Our waitress didn’t know the difference between white and brown rice.)
Many other Edinburgh restaurants now offer interesting vegetarian and vegan dishes. I’d only recommend coming here if you are in the Woodstock generation and miss the early days of vegetarian eating.

I tend to seek out the vegetarian restaurants whenever I travel as I want to avoid meat (unless it’s organic or free range) and I can’t eat gluten. The only issue is I can’t eat onion either and many vegetarian restaurants usually pile their dishes full of onion. At Henderson’s Bistro this didn’t seem to be a problem at all. I ordered the nachos which were gluten free, then just omitted the salsa and instead had a delicious bean salsa. It was delicious! Plenty of cheese, sour cream, guac and nacho chips. The freshly squeezed orange juice was really nice and we had a chocolate nut cake for dessert which was nice though it was quite heavy. The service was good and the bistro was obviously quite popular as it filled up around us. The menu is small but has a good range of options for everyone. I’d certainly eat there again.

This is a relaxed vegetarian bistro with great salads, interesting main dishes, and meat-​less burgers. It has a wonderful vibe. We slipped in later on a Friday evening and got a table for two. They have a great selection of organic and vegan wines by the glass or bottle. Those with dietary restrictions will find the menu clearly labeled and they will prepare many dishes without gluten or dairy. They also try to source as much local and organic products as possible. Everything we had was super fresh.

Je né suis pas un adepte des restaurants végétariens.
Le cadre est agréable et les serveurs sont sympathiques.
J’ ai commandé une lasagne excellente, avec une bière.
Le prix était très raisonnable pour Edhimboug!

Visited this little gem a few weekends ago and it was just lovely. Vintage books, bits and bobs on shelves, fresh flowers on the tables, 60s music playing in the background. Excellent setting for lunch and a catch up with family and friends. The staff were all really nice too.
I opted for the vegetarian lasagne with garlic focaccia. The lasagne was perfect. Layers of light cheese, thin lasagne sheets and assorted veg. Huge portion of salad too which tasted super fresh. Had a little bite of my boyfriend’s frittata too… Devine! The focaccia was a little bit soft, would have preferred this more firm and crispy but I’ll let them off with that since the lasagne was so damn good. The rest of our table opted for burgers which came with a side of nachos and there were no complaints.
Had some organic gin too, very nice. The vintage jug of water for our table with matching glasses was a nice touch.

In Edinburgh for work and found out that the city has quite a few vegetarian places, so advised by Unilocalers I decided for this place for a quick snack.
There is nothing quick about this place. The services is slow, however friendly, and the food takes ages to arrive.
My partner went for the Mexican roll, which was OK — a bit on the boring side. The salad, however, was gorgeously tasty and crisp.
Risotto with mushroom was my pick after going through the menu for vegetarian/​vegan food without gluten — it is amazing in itself that they could offer anything. It was OK, the mushrooms were great, but — not to pad my own back — my own risotto is better. Also, I found hair in my risotto, not that delicious. The waiters were really quick and nice to compensate for it, so no harms done.
The star of the day was the side butter squash salad. OMG! it was REALLY good — the best thing on the menu for me and probably the best butter squash dish i’ve ever tasted! If I had known better I would have ordered it for main. Yum!

Must’ve come at a great time (3pm) because everybody was leaving as we were settling in. By the time we got our drinks, the place was empty and we had the server all to ourselves.
I got the soup of the day, which was lentil & tomato with a dollop of cream… something…not exactly sure, but whatever it was, it was heaven! And I had a small arugula salad with warmed goats cheese, roasted red pepper, walnuts and honey. Mmmmm! I love when I order well.
My pasta-​loving sister got the pesto, which was truly insane. I can’t recall any restaurant in NY that does pesto this well. It was so close to homemade! Probably because I believe they used either ricotta or cream cheese to make the sauce more creamy and less oily.
Dad got the quiche & mom got the meze plate: apricot/​lentil hummus & regular hummus. Yummm.
£50 (service included) for food, 2 coffees, 1 beer, 1 wine & 1 juice. Lovely waiter who made recommendations for what Fringe shows to see, and was patient with our orders.
Just an absolutely excellent experience here, from start to finish.

I almost, almost wanted to give this a ‘meh, I’ve had better’. I’m not a veggie so perhaps the novelty of having an entire menu to choose from is lost on me slightly, but I love vegetarian food and healthy, wholesome veggie meals, and both times I’ve come here i have felt quite disappointed.
I’m saving the one star and making it three as the service is nice, the ambience is nice, and my veggie friend who I dined here with on both occaions really enjoyed it. And ilke I said, perhaps the fact that it’s a veggie-​dedicated menu and bistro makes it more enjoyable for the plant eaters amongst us.
I also think I ordered the wrong thing, both times. This time I had the special, Spanish Stew. I asked what veg was in it, and was told sweet potatoes, beans, carrot etc. Now, I imagined it to be brimming with several different types of beans. Instead, it had regular potato (a big difference. Sweet potato makes me happy, regular potato makes me bloaty and unhappy). There was a few beans scattered, and some carrots. That was it. With some rice. It was quite underwhelming. It was definitely overpriced (£8 for some spuds and carrots?)
I mean, for a restaurant that only serves vegetarian food you’d think they’d do it REALLY well. Like go all out, use amazing veg combinations you hadn’t thought about or really make the veg shine. I have said since several times that the Innocent Veg Pots and Sainsbury’s own sweet potato piri piri pot were both tastier.
My friend’s feta and spinach quiche, however, did look really good. It was LOADED with spinach. Quite often quiche can be mostly egg with some rogue bits of green. This was almost all spinach, and from the bit I tasted, it was really lovely.
The strudel we shared for dessert was quite nice but again not overwhelming.
I also think they heat up a lot of things in the microwave, as far as I could hear.
I like what Henderson’s is trying to do. It’s good, basic veggie food with a bit of variety but I just feel it could be a lot more creative and specialist without introducing ‘jouxs’ or ‘roulades’.

Finally! Made it to Hendersons — so long walking past… hello new food sensations! Well, as much as I can whilst indulging in a quite restrictive diet. Nonetheless, I tucked into a dressing-​free greek salad (with feta… couldn’t help myself), with a portion of baba ghanoush and Henderson’s own oatcakes on the side.
So the salad — good. The baba ghanoush… a little lacking in taste and in seasonings. The oatcakes knocked my socks off. I never expected an oat cake to do that to my socks. My friend enjoyed a rather generous looking Mexican wrap.
Can’t wait to try out some more when I break free from dietary restrictions.

Thoroughly enjoyed my serving of vegetable soup with side-​order of spicy bean hummus and bread and my companion praised the chocolate & almond cake.
Prices are keen and the atmosphere is very relaxed and conducive to friendly conversation with the pleasant staff.

Henderson’s have a bad-​ass reputation amongst vegetarians in Edinburgh: i.e. it’s delicious, but also a bit above our budget. It’s kind of located on the Black Bo’s price scale as opposed, say, David Bann’s. I must admit, Henderson’s Bistro was incredibly successful at getting me to eat mushrooms (I normally hate the fungi), but when I ate them there, it was absolutely delicious. Kudos to them on that front.
But, if you’re a veggie, and even if you’re not a veggie, this place is somewhere you really can’t miss out on. So don’t.

I uttered an unenthusiastic” yayyyy” at the prospect of eating at this vegetarian bistro when a friend suggested it! Mmmm vegetables…
I was just acting up though, because I know vegetarian food is just as delicious as any other and the food was really good! As well as vegetarian food, there’s the further option of having vegan food if you’re REALLY into self depravation: D
I had a medium meal of three salads, and I’m a big fan of the spicy bean paste. I chose it because it looks exactly like Nigerian stewed beans, so my brain immediately felt it would be good. The potato salad and and brown rice are also a good bet, and the desserts are absolutely delicious. I had a fruit gateaux with soya cream (I decided I might as well go all the way) but was equally tempted by the banoffee pie which my friend raved over.
Regarding the atmosphere, it’s definitely a place I could see myself whiling away the hours in. The décor is modern, but friendly and they’re pictures of supposed famous people all round the walls. Or as someone noted they’re «all middle-​aged white men» so hardly a Hollywood Walk of Fame feel here.