Scotsman Hotel

Great old school vibe with class. They offer great three course lunch specials. The salmon and heirloom salad were both great.

Small room; not terribly clean; no hot water for morning showers about which the mgmt was aware but did not notify us or offer compensation until we asked for it. Still costly even with the reimbursed meals. Retrospectively not sure if room ever has hot water.

Location is great but hotel dated. Robe at 2′ long tear. No attention to detail and aside from Bell Staff, everyone else was rude.

Stayed here as a long-​planned upgrade from the — as it turned out — disappointing B&B in Lake Windermere. The Scotsman is a classy hotel fashioned out of the former headquarters of the Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. Thanks to a pretty good (but very poorly designed) nav in our rented («hired,» as they say in the UK) MB C220, we were able to navigate the sinuous streets of Edinburgh and find the hotel. The hotel is located on a very busy main street. This fact exposes one of its chief deficiencies: in order to check in and unload the car, you have to park in the middle of a very busy bus lane, leading to lots of close-​calls with buses pulling past to stop at a bus shelter/​stop only a few yards farther on. Also, random folks complaining that we were blocking the bus lane. Duh. Also, the parking lot is blocks away and a long haul walk back to the hotel. Glad it wasn’t raining at the time!
We were first given a room that had no view other than the wall of the building a few feet away. You could barely see the sky and the feeling of claustrophobia necessitated a trip by my wife back to the front desk to request another. After some discussion behind closed doors between the front of house staff and the management, we were upgraded to a Director’s Suite on the 8^th floor. This room was a duplex, with the bedroom upstairs and a second bathroom downstairs at the entrance level. A great feature was the flagon of whisky (Scotch, of course) and a couple of glasses that were perks of this particular room level. As it happens, this exact room is pictured in the hotel’s brochure. The large master bath was well-​appointed but for one weird feature: because the bathroom is in what was the attic of the building, directly under the roof, the main mirror over the sink is mounted on the ceiling at a steep angle. You have to look up to see yourself, and the angle makes it impossible to shave or put on makeup! Fortunately, there is another, smaller mirror, nearby.
Dinner at the hotel restaurant was very pleasant. I had — what else? — fish and chips. They were excellent, but unfortunately not quite at the level of the F&C I had eaten a couple of days before at the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel (see that review, also). Nae th’less, the included breakfasts were quite nice, so no complaints.
Negatives: besides the unloading-​loading traffic issue, the only other issue I have is the WiFi. It was simply a pain in the ass to use, requiring almost constant re-​logging in with a new UID and PWD each time. I get that they don’t want to run out of IP addresses, but they could at least make the leas times longer.
The hotel is just down the street from the intersection with the Royal Mile, a long street that leads up Edinburgh Castle and is lined with shops, all of which sell the exact same cashmere sweaters at the exact same prices! But that’s a different review.
I want to give a shout out to the hotel’s man, Jorge. He was extremely helpful and cooperative and worked hard to make our stay pleasant.
If you want a great, luxurious hotel experience in Edinburgh, I highly recommend the Scotsman.

We just recently stayed at the Scotsman for a couple of days, and I rate them 4.5 stars (sorry Unilocal doesn’t offer half stars, so 4 is the closest I can choose.)
The Scotsman is truly a first rate hotel. To begin with, their location is fantastic for seeing Edinburgh. They are basically right along the royal mile, and across from the train station. 80% of the main sights in Edinburgh are within a 10 minute walk.
Then add in that the building is absolutely beautiful, inside and out. Even if you don’t eat at the hotel restaurant, you have to at least stop in for a drink as the wood, marble, and brass make an outstanding atmosphere. I assume this must have been the lobby of the old newspaper business.
The rooms are classically decorated and very nice and large. We stayed in a room overlooking the train station, which I would recommend as the view is stunning from the bay windows. And thanks to double windows, no noise from the station makes its way into the room. The, and only improvement they could make is to replace the mattresses with something more comfortable.
The staff were all very nice, helpful, and made us feel comfortable. Could not have asked for more from the staff.
Can not comment on the food, as we did not have an opportunity to try the hotel restaurant. Did I mention how fantastic the Scotsman location is? Well, that includes 5 minute walk to dozens of restaurants and pubs… which is where we found ourselves for all our meals.
This will be my hotel of choice for any future visits to Edinburgh, and I would highly recommend to anyone.

My husband and I took our honeymoon tour of Ireland and Scotland back in August of 2013. When we were in Ireland, preparing to depart for Edinburgh, my husband was consulting his Scotland guidebook and mentioned to me the tradition of «high tea.» It sounded excellent, so I looked online for places that offered a gluten free option for afternoon tea. The Scotsman had rave reviews and was the least expensive option, so we decided to stop there on our first day in Edinburgh after a long day of «touristy» things (Holyrood and the Castle). We did not make a reservation, but stopped in around 3:30 in the afternoon.
We were very impressed with how classy everything seemed. We were ushered into a quiet room with a few other groups scattered around at different tables. It felt very sophisticated and was quite a fun experience. I ordered the gluten free option and my husband went with the regular. I had a pot of apple tea — it was pink when I added the cream! When they brought the tray out, it didn’t seem like a lot of food. The height was deceptive — it’s really a ton of food. I started with the finger sandwiches and worked my way up the tray. I liked most of the sandwiches, although I did not like one of the fish sandwiches, so I gave it to my husband.
The thing that really stood out for me was the scone. Oh, my God. The scone. To die for! It was slightly smaller than my husband’s gluten-​filled counterpart, but the texture was phenomenal (I was recently gluten free at that point). I smothered it with clotted cream and jelly and happily went to town on it. Last, but not least, were the desserts. I remember all of them being delicious, although I seem to recall that the gluten free tray had one less dessert than the regular tray. It didn’t matter, though. We both left stuffed. You could have rolled me out of there. Our waiter came back when we were finished and seemed surprised that we finished our trays down to the last crumb. He came across as somewhat haughty and a little judgmental, but we didn’t let that get in the way of our experience. We do our best when traveling internationally to be normal, quiet, and respectful (the opposite of the American stereotype some people have).
Anyway, the point is, definitely come here for tea if you’re celiac or gluten intolerant or just gluten free by choice. It is so worth it. My husband loved his tea, too, so the regular must be just as good. It is worth every pence!

Great for a civilised drink, I had wine but the people next to me ordered giant club sandwiches which looked excellent, great relaxing but smart atmosphere, love it

A hotel in the middle of Edinburgh town and the Old town as well!
We went there for afternoon tea (£16.95 each) recently and were not disappointed.
The food was excellent, served on silver plates and 3 trier cake stands. The finger sandwiches were neatly prepared: tuna, cucumber, salmon etc. The scones were adequately served with jam and cream, not to mention the delight of the petite mini cakes. Just lovely!
The interior of the hotel is exquisite with wood paneling, soft carpets, chic and classy all in one.
We were seated in the drawing room at the back of the hotel and had the room to ourselves. It had a big fireplace in the corner, which kind of was the focus point. Somehow the room did not overwhelm me, thus the 3 stars.
I would definitely try and stay in the hotel, if you are able to effort it. Its central location enables you to explore the city by foot and you also have access to the local bus service in no time.

The Scotsman Hotel is a great venue for many occasions, this occasion was a afternoon tea with some Unilocalers in one of the function rooms. It was a nice big banquet table set up and we were brought to the room by one of the bartenders. We were then handed to the very capable hands of a function manager — she took our coats and sat us down.
we were sat on a table with full linen and (porcelain?) crockery. Our water glasses were promptly filled. Once we all sat down she placed the napkin and took our tea orders. They had a full complement of loose teas.
I went for the famous Scotsman breakfast and an additional Jasmine green tea. These are served in full sized classic teapots and strainers.
She also fully explained the delight that were served to us — after ensuring that there were any dietary requirements.
Scones, clotted cream, sliders, bon bons, profiteroles, soldier cut crust-​less sandwiches with salmon cucumber, egg, ham, cheese and also some flap jacks and carrot cakes.
The acoustics of the room allowed for a conversation to be followed from all over the table without getting too loud., although the level of conversation topics was at times a bit questionable, but that cannot be attributed to the Scotsman: o)
I had a wonderful time and relay enjoyed the visit. This is something i would be proud to take my mum to when she visits Edinburgh!

Posh pinkies at the ready dahlings, it was time for the Unilocalers to do afternoon tea.
I had expected us to be seated in the North Bridge Brassiere, which would have been nice enough as its all leather seating and dark wood, but myself and Tanja were surprised to be informed that we were to be seated in the drawing room — oooh, posh…
Our table for tea for 12 awaited us, a lovely linen clad table with pink orchids upon it which were surprisingly tall (though I could duck under to say hello to fellow Unilocalers). The room has its own designated ‘Afternoon Tea Manager’ who explained what would happen and also took into account our diverse dietary needs — gluten free, vegetarian, no fish, etc. Tea orders were taken and then when big teapots arrived, I assumed they’d be shared but no, these were our individual teapots. I really enjoyed my Edinburgh Breakfast tea but I know the Earl Grey Unilocalers were disappointed.
Myself and Jenny L were sharing a gluten free afternoon tea so we got our own little cake stand with a top tier of cakes, middle tier of scones and clotted cream and bottom tier of sandwiches. After a million photos had been taken, we all dived in. The sandwiches were lovely. The Scotsman uses genius bread and although I would have previously not bought the white and brown before as in its early days, it was lousy, it i much improved and our sandwiches were really tasty. We had cheese and tomato relish, ham and mustard, salmon and cream cheese and egg and cress — about 6 of these mixed variety sandwich fingers each. I have to confess here that today at home, I recreated my cheese and tomato relish on genius white for lunch, as it was so tasty :-)
Having previously done the GF scone test at Casa Angelina, I was curious to see what this would be like but the scone was well made, great texture and had a good height (some GF products don’t rise properly). The jam came in little jars which I know Laura D didn’t like so much, but for GF and contamination issues, I was more than happy with the jars of strawberry and raspberry jam. The clotted cream came in a ball so there was tons for us to slather on, should we choose to.
Our top tier came with little bits of cake. I love miniature bites like this so the meringues with lemon curd were lovely, there were rich chocolate truffles, almondy cake — ok so the almondy cake is not home made but I’ll forgive that as any cake made from Daim bars is awesome, cranachan spoons and I think a couple of other things which escape me.
We paid £16.95 each for afternoon tea and for me, the sheer amount of food was great. I would come here and do afternoon tea here again as I thought it was well done and it was very good value for money. What was left (I think about 6 boxes of food) was packed up and given to the Unilocalers so no cooking for some people last night (I certainly couldn’t face more food afterwards).
Great food and service, nice formal atmosphere (napkins were placed in our lap) and lovely company made this lovely day :-)

A large group of us Unilocalers came here for an afternoon tea today. I was keen to test the quality of The Scotsman version as I’ve been disappointed recently with afternoon teas.
I expected us to be seated in the main brasserie area but surprisingly we were led to a beautifully decorated room in the back, all set up with white tablecloths and pink orchid flowers. Very lovely although in normal circumstances if you only had a small group the lack of other customers might make this a bit lacking in atmosphere. No opportunity to people watch.
As we were a large group, the sandwiches, scones and mini cakes were plated up separately but I think they normally come on a 3 tiered stand as you would expect. Everything was fresh and tasty. Ham, egg, cheese & pickle and salmon & cream cheese sandwiches (cucumber and cream cheese offered for one of tge veggie option alternatives). Scones lovely — crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Mini jam pots were on offer. A lot of places go this route as I suppose it’s easier but to me ‘special’ means homemade jam. The mini cakes were nice but nothing out of the ordinary. I tried the flapjack, brownie and crannachan before I admitted defeat and couldn’t eat another morsel. No macaroons :(
The service was top notch though. I couldn’t tell if this was normal or because we were in a group. Nevertheless they were very attentive, speedy and accommodated the vegetarian and gluten free requests brilliantly.
The tea choice wasn’t extensive. Maybe 10 teas in total and most of them run of the mill teas. My earl gray was a bit weak but it was served in a large teapot which I liked as I had more than enough tea that lasted throughout. I hate being offered individually sized pots that maybe do 2 small cups.
I would go back but can’t rate it 5 stars as nothing stood out as «wow» or special enough to warrant a higher rating. Room for improvement but overall a nice experience.

This review is for the restaurant and bar only, not having stayed there.
Eat and drink here. It looks like it would be a tourist trap but it’s a lovely pampering and delicious treat. I would absolutely return here over the Witchery and even the Castle Terrace, two other restaurants not really in my price range that I can’t believe I ate at.
The whiskey recommendations were sound, the waitstaff was sweet, and the food was delicious. I ordered and/​or poached from my friend the smoked salmon appetizer, the haggis, the dry aged beef with whiskey and cheese sauce, and the cheese plate dessert. Amazing.
Seriously, eat here. I can’t wait for my next opportunity to do so.

I think I chose to go to this hotel at the wrong time — Christmas, myself and family went for Christmas lunch. I was impressed by the interior and the food served, however this was greatley let down by the service, or lack of it. They really could have benefitted by having more staff serving as we waited more than the expected time between courses. A-​ok for Christmas lunch, but probably not worth the money paid and will be looking elsewhere for our lunch this year.

My husband and I stayed here for our anniversary. The lobby is gorgeous, we were given a complimentary taste of whiskey, and since it was our anniversary, they sent up 2 glasses of champagne as well. The room was beautiful, large lovely bathroom, and breakfast in the morning was so above and beyond the traditional continental breakfast. Staff were courteous, helpful and friendly. Lots of shops nearby as well as the castle. Discounted car park available.

My favorite hotel in Europe after a monthlong stay. We had an editor’s suite and it was a huge room. Two rooms large rooms actually. Large bathroom. Excellent service, great location. Very nice pool. Loved everything about the place! It is nice but not stuffy. Hope to visit again one day!

Wonderful rooms, spacious bathroom in editor suite. Pleasant and helpful staff, met every request. Dining was the only non-​5 star because they were a bit overwhelmed by the size of the crowd, but the staff was pleasant a tried their best to accommodate everyone. The food was well prepared and good quality. I would still give the North Bridge Brasserie a 4 star rating. Excellent location to old and new town attractions. Would highly recommend with anyone who would be spending the Christmas holiday away from home. I only wish the spa hadn’t been completely booked during our stay because I’m sure it is wonderful as well.

I’ve never stayed at the Scotsman Hotel, although I can imagine with it being a five star boutique hotel, spending a few nights here would probably be delightful. The main staircase in the Scotsman Hotel is something to behold, as is the actual building itself, which juts out into the Edinburgh landscape, and is accessed from North Bridge. The building is Victorian, and with its turrets and stained glass windows, is simply stunning.
Despite having not stayed overnight in the hotel, I do have experience of drinking at the bar, surprise, surprise, and having a few cocktails in what used to be the offices for the Scotsman newspaper has massive atmospheric appeal for me. Coming to work here in the heyday of print journalism must have been absolutely awesome. The North Bridge Brasserie and Bar, where you can have yourself a classy and well concocted selection of cocktails, and other beverages, used to be the reception room for the newspaper, and is equally as striking as the rest of the building. Definitely recommended, not least for the rich history and grand atmosphere of the venue.

Wow. My last review of this place was of my visit to the bar, but when my parents styed in the hotel here for my graduation the whole thing was so amazing I have to write an update.
They were upgraded to a suite without even asking, and for no apparent reason, for starters. And the «can’t do enough for their customers» attitude was apparent in every aspect of the service, especially the receptionist and concierge. If someone asked me to recommend a premium hotel in Edinburgh, I’d definitely say this one over the likes of The Balmoral.

This swish bar mostly attracts business people for clientale, and although no one will ever openly admit to it, you are x-​rayed scanned as soon as you step you converse-​cladded-​foot in here. Ah Edinburgh.
Located in the building that homes the newspaper the Scotsman its interior layout is very modern. I have yet to try the food here, but my fancy gin’n’t was perfect. Ambience is great here if there are other people. Otherwise it can be… a bit too quiet for comfort.

I used to love coming here with my mum for a cocktail before going into George St for dinner, but the last few times I’ve been have left me a bit disappointed. It was once really busy with a great atmosphere, and really quite cool! The dark brown theme made it seem mysterious and trendy, but my last few visits found the dark brown theme seem dirty and almost shabby. The staff are really friendly and make an effort to welcome you and serve you but again I feel it has gone a bit downhill. The cocktails are really good though, but pricey.
Maybe all it needs is a new lick of paint or an update. This used to be one of my favourite bars in Edinburgh, so I really hope it gets its act together so I can be a regular once again!