Howies

A real gem on Victoria Street — and I’ve been to the one at Waterloo Place and can verify that is equally as good.
The lunch menu here is perfect — two courses for just over a tenner. The service is professional and friendly. I opted for the chicken breast on a cabbage bed with mash potato, followed by banoffee pie. Everything was delicious.
The range of food on offer is excellent considering this is a lunch menu. All ingredients are locally sourced and fresh. Definitely recommended.

More than just a big pile of yum, and helped along by a very good value meal deal. We did book a table which I think is a must if coming here on a Friday or Saturday. I will get the food out of the way although to be fair it as expected is the main event and was more than a little tasty.
Starter: Warm salad of seared wood pigeon breast with bacon, croutons & sherry vinegar dressing
Main: Fillet of Shetland Salmon with a scallop beignet, crispy herb polenta & caponata sauce
Pudding: Duo of Sorbet (blackcurrant and Lemon for me).
I have to say the food was excellent with one minor floor with my starter, the croutons were more like stale bread rather than their description but all in all I really enjoyed the entire meal. The staff were polite and knew there stuff, even the one who needs to speak a little slower in order to be understood (but still charming). I certainly would recommend this place to people if you are visiting Edinburgh.

Amazing amazing amazing cultik skink.
They are supper nice and the food is spectacular.

devils advocate was full so we came here. we came for the seafood soup/​chowder. that was good. ordered salmon and mackerel. i thought it was good but my husband thought it was only a okay. service was great. but food could have been better. given the price and locale

I ate here in October 2015 and it was fabulous. We had the haggis and the chicken liver pâté, along with a flight of Scotch whiskeys, and it was really superb. The quality of the food was excellent, the staff was professional, the décor was perfect for the experience. I hope I get back to Edinburgh so I can eat there again!

Greetings from NYC! Loved it here. Walked in for a late lunch after visiting St. James Court Factory Outlet. I had bread w olive oil, 175 Chile’s sav. Blanc (great bargain for NYers), calamari and salmon. Salmon was moist and good. The breadcrumbs on top of it were good too. The calamari was crunchy and good too. 2 courses for L9.95… Great meal! I’ll return the next time I am in EDI…

5 star local food at 3 star prices — go there now!
Absolutely fantastic local food at a brilliant price. The best restaurant we visited during our festival weekend stay.
Amazing service too!

Howie’s. Usually a place for either a cheesesteak or a pastrami on rye. But not here at this Howie’s. Who would a thought that Howie is a Scottish name? McHowie’s, maybe, or the Laird of Howie, but it is what it is. A short walk from the Scotsman Hotel on the scenic Grass Market, this was a great meal! We managed to avoid the black pudding (sausage made from pig blood — I’ll pass) and had a fine meal, starting with skink. This is not the slinky skink with a long tail — it’s a chowder made with smoked haddock. Way excellent. Also, a chicken breast stuffed with sundried tomatoes and red peppers couldn’t have been better. A little noisy (the venue, not the chicken…), but not overbearingly so.
If I ever get back to Edinburgh, which is doubtful, I’ll definitely hit Howie’s up for more skink. But give it a try… it beats the McDonalds (another Scottish restaurant) up the block.

This a proper Restaurant, not pub, on the dopest street in Old Town.
Classy interior, refined servers and hostess.
Tasty options for the prix fixe lunch menu.
Swanky and deelish.
This place is definitely for moi.

We tried haggis for the first time (have to try the local foods) and it was very good. We’ll be interested to see if others are as nicely textured & seasoned as Howies.
The service was very good & the atmosphere friendly. We visited with two other tables of guests.

Amazing food, amazing service. Random find, absolutely pleased. I would recommend this place any day.

One of my favorite meals out in a long time! We enjoyed this enough we went back two nights running — and enjoyed both. The location is right by the castle, so easy to find for new people to the city, and both nights we arrived as they opened for dinner at 5:30.
The restaurant is nice and atmospheric — one night I could watch the pass from the kitchen, which was neat, and the beer suggested by the waiter was the best I’d had in Edinburgh (Stewart Ales Holyrood, for those interested). I had the soup, the stuffed chicken and a side of chips each night, and it was lovely.
The icing on the cake is they catered very nicely for my wife, who has celiac disease and we struggled to find placed to eat out (hence, we went back).

The pigeon was excellent, best pigeon I’ve ever had. They undercooked it slightly which is great for pigeon. perfectly seasoned, beautifully presented.
The salmon, however, was under seasoned an overcooked. They didn’t include the skin nor any lemon. I seasoned it myself and acided it and it was ok.
However the service was unfortunate. As the lunch service got busier, the staff couldn’t keep up with anything. My water was refilled only sparingly, and only after asking, and it took two tries to ask for lemon. Even the lemon that came was oddly cut.
Overall, good food, very poor service when busy. I think it’s because it’s understaffed slightly. Probably a lot better when there are less people.
They also included a service fee, which is the first time any Scottish restaurant has done so for a group that is not large. I will be the one to decide whether you deserve a tip. And in this case, clearly not.
Disappointing. It’s also taking forever for them to pick up the check. Tunnel vision.

The hubby and I popped into Howie’s around noon on new years day after unsuccessfully attempting to eat at Oink (again, for the six time).
The space is awesome — the owner told me it was a stable in it’s old life. It’s nicely decorated and since we were there over the holidays, they had a tree and some other Christmassy decorations arranged throughout the restaurant. Upon entering, you will be greeted by one of the many smiling staff and with the smell of delicious coffee and food.
Their two-​course lunch offering was something we simply could not refuse. At £9.95, it was a steal. Included was either a starter and main or main and dessert. The husband and I opted for the starter/​main option.
They offer daily specials which are detailed on a big black chalkboard hung high in the dining room. You know, pie of the day, casserole of the day, fish of the day, drink of the day. You get the drift.
The drink of the day — obviously since it was new years day — was a bloody mary. «Two of those, please» we said. The sad truth was that they were terribly disappointing — something you’d get in a chain pub.
I ordered the carrot and coriander soup as my starter which came with a slice of bread. It was delicious. Absolutely delicious. I have no idea what my husband ordered because I was so enamored with my soup.
For the mains, the husband ordered the beef casserole with root veg and mash and I ordered the steak pie with greens and mash. The long and short of our two orders were that they were basically teh same dish. The minor differences being that mine was served in a baking dish and his in a bowl, mine had carrots and his had parsnips, and mine had a pasty «lid.» Everything else was the same — a good way to go about things from a kitchen perspective.
We both really liked the beef in our dishes. It was cooked well and neither of us found fatburgs floating around in our dishes. I could have done without the pasty crust but that’s a personal thing. I’m just not a pasty kind of girl. I thought the mashed potatoes paired well with my kale and steak pie but my husband commented, «Your mash is better than this mash.» Thanks, I muttered.
Overall, top notch for the food (one note though is that I think there are two microwaves in the kitchen which were being used A LOT which is kind of concerning).
Service was really good but we did have one issue. I ordered a glass of wine which never arrived. When the manager stopped by our table (randomly to see how we were getting on), she asked if we needed anything and I mentioned my MIA wine and she said that she would take care of it and she did, like immediately and then told us that they had comped the wine due to the mishap. Now, this is what I expect at restaurants and, unfortunately, this level of service is just so hard to find outside of the US. Job well done, Howie’s!

Howie’s was recommended to us by our Rabbie’s tour guide. Great tip. Best restaurant we visited on our trip to the UK. Lots of good local fare, unique to visitors (like me) from the U.S. Service was great. Whiskey and beer selections were perfect and the location was amazing. A short walk to the castle.

Howies is a bit of an edinburgh institution, it’s been around for years and offers quailty bistro food from fresh ingredients. having never actually been, when it was decided that this was where we would be having our work christmas lunch i was looking forward to finally trying it.
we arrived at half two on a friday afternoon and were shown to a long table along the back wall. the restaurant space is a bit odd… on entering there is a tiny waiting area which also serves as the bar so not ideal when you’re a massive party squashed in waiting to be seated. also the space lacks atmosphere and is sort of soulless with clean walls and a mix of blues for colouring. the restaurant is two rooms, one slightly larger than the next and these may have more atmosphere on a normal night instead of when its packed with office christmas parties.
we had barely sat down when we were offered an aperetif and had our starters placed in front of us. i had the spicy parsnip soup, which was quite nice and a good sized portion. starters were shortly followed by mains of which i found my venison stew tasty but not overly impressive. the stew compromised of venison, carrots, and a serving of mashed potatoes. i thought it could have used a few more veg to round it out but found it to be nice just not that exciting. finally dessert arrived in speedy time and i was quite pleased with my cheese board. three different types of cheeses, quince, and a good number of oatcakes. i would have appreciated being told what the cheeses were though…
so overall i thought Howie’s was ok, it was nice enough that i would go back to try it on a non-​christmas dinner basis but not so nice that i would go rushing back. the part that really bothered me was that the whole meal felt like we were on a conveyor belt in some factory instead of there to enjoy a nice meal. we were in and out in just over 2 hours which isn’t really enough time to enjoy a three course meal. hopefully if i make a repeat visit i’ll be able to update my review with a further star.

Also a place I’d passed by, peeked in, and made a mental note to visit.
It’s upscale without being pushy. I mean the décor. It’s warm, but elegant; sparse but comfortable. My friend and I both remarked on how nice it was. There are a lot of staff, which is luxurious. Someone took my coat, someone sat me, another brought water, maybe one of the earlier ones took our order, a different one delivered it. It was funny, because usually you’d strike up little conversations with your waiter, but here it was always someone new, and if you were boring/​naughty you could just keep saying the same things.
Anyway, the food was good. Not great, not WOW! It was tasty. I’d be fine if someone suggested this place again. A note on their Gluten Free options: some menu items have the little GF symbol, but it means they CAN be GF, like if something listed which sounds like it has gluten is taken out. For instance, one of the desserts was a pannacotta with a ginger biscuit and whatever. But to be GF there would be no biscuit. Not that there was also a GF ginger biscuit. So kinda disappointing in the level of accommodation.

This place sells poor food at high prices. Don’t eat here.
My mom and I were in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh near the Royal Mile below the Castle. We were hungry and looking for a pleasant meal and evening. Howies looks like an upscale, comfortable restaurant with £20 entrees and a selection of appetizers, so we decided to have dinner there. Unfortunately the food is mediocre, the portions small, and the service both inattentive and grudging.
I had one of the daily specials, which was a Caesar salad with chicken and bacon. When it arrived I was somewhat dismayed by the presentation: a plate with some lettuce on it. Turns out the chunks of chicken and tiny pieces of undercooked bacon were hidden underneath all the lettuce. It predictably didn’t taste that great.
My mom ordered the «Baked Fillet of Loch Duart Salmon with Herb Crust,» for £15. It turned out to be a very small piece of salmon, with no crust. It was served with some pea sauce, which itself was quite bland and added nothing to the salmon. It was rather puzzling to see a dish that was so spectacularly unsatisfying.
In addition to the poor food, the service was bad. After dinner my mom and I both ordered tea. Hers arrived with a tea bag in the pot, but I just got a pot of hot water and someone from the kitchen with a tea bag trying to run and catch up with the server before he delivered the hot water. It would have been rather funny if it wasn’t unprofessional. Similarly, I noticed one of the cooks eating a sandwich in the kitchen, which I understand is generally considered poor form, or possibly a health hazard.
I think the meal might not have been so disappointing if we had not been looking forward to a really good dinner, the type that you normally get at a well decorated, expensive restaurant. I strongly recommend that you eat somewhere else.

We luckily stumbled upon this little gem while walking around Old Town in desperate need of some lunch. I’m quite fussy when it comes to food largely due to food intolerances but also because I refuse to eat meat that isn’t at least free range. When I saw Howies sources their produce locally and that their chicken was free range I was sold. Even better the chicken dish was gluten and onion free!
Despite the restaurant being busy, we were quickly shown to a table and the service was very prompt and friendly. Our food took around 10 –15 minutes to come out. It was delicious! The chicken was cooked the perfection, the chicken jus was tasty and the potatoes and beans rounded off the dish beautifully. I would have loved to have stayed and tried the dessert however as we were in a rush we had to go! I wouldn’t hesitate to return.

I’m all for paying the right price for meals. With promise of locally sourced, gourmet prepared dishes– I was very willing to fork out.
While the food was decent, but a couple of things really threw me for a spin and I felt jibbed by my £35 meal;
— there is a balance between attentive serving, and passive aggressively rushing. Yes, I walked in off the street and obviously a tourist… But I should not have been rushed.
Case in point: there was a server standing next to me watching me take my last bite– for all 3 courses! — so they can take the plates away immediately
— £3.95 for two half slices of bread and a pad of butter? Seriously? That better have been Himalayan pink salt on the butter, otherwise I call it a hidden service charge
— the waitress working my table, I suspect, has English as her second language. Well guess what, me too. I guessed it was language/​cultural barrier but in hospitality there is no reason to open the dialogue with «are you ready to order». Really– the very first thing she said to me was that. No hello/​good evening/​how are you
— there was not a lick of green vegetable in both my Cullen Skink, or my lamb roast. Maybe some chopped herb garnishes. Meal was all starch and protein. The end.
— dessert menu was boring. If you’ve ever spoke to an executive chef with no experience or interest in pastry, they will always put simple faithful a like fruit crumble, panna cotta and cheesecake on a dessert menu. This is what Howie’s offered
Well it’s not all doomed. Their meat dish and the lamb gravy was divine. Wish there was more gravy though.

Das war eine Empfehlung für Edinburgh, und wir wurden nicht enttäuscht! Sehr nette Bedienung, tolle Speisen, was fehlt ist Bier vom Fass, so ein Pint schmeckt viel besser, als aus der Flasche!

Howies ist echt ein sehr nettes Restaurant. Die Atmosphäre ist sehr angenehm, das Personal freundlich, das Essen preiswert und sehr lecker.
Es gibt eine sehr nette Mittagskarte, auch das Haggis ist hier sehr lecker und die Nachtishkarte bietet einen sehr gutebln Karrottenkuchen.
Weine gibt es ab ca 3 Pfund pro kleinem Glas, Wasser ist wie überall in Schottland gratis.
Bedenkt man dann die Lage, passt hier einfach alles.