The Stockbridge Restaurant

A reasonably priced, reliable restaurant. The food is of good quality and is tasty. I’ve had the venison and duck here and they were both well-​balanced and seasoned well both times and cooked to my liking. The dessert menu is average, I’d recommend the banana tart; not a fan of the chocolate brulee — it was too creamy and heavy for me. I would return here.

Well, this was my 3^rd trip here — this time for the girlfriend’s birthday.
It’s always been one of my fave spots in the city, and I’ve never had a bad experience there. In spite of the seemingly low score, that’s still true now — the food was perfectly enjoyable, staff were all great… I was just left a little underwhelmed this time round.
I went with scallops to start — seem to be eating them a lot recently — and they were amazing. Brilliant texture, incredible flavour, and wasn’t OTT with the accompanying apple either.
My main was the grouse — it was well cooked, good quality produce, but I was just left feeling a bit «meh». If I’m honest, I got the same feeling looking at the menu too. When I go to places multiple times, I like to see changes and evolution with the menus, but this felt no different to what I had the first time 2 years ago. Nothing seems to have moved on. It was good, it just didn’t wow me anymore.
The only other sticking point was the atmosphere — again, my third trip and I’m yet to see the place busy and bustling. You end up feeling like you’re eating in a library a little, which is a shame as its a great little spot.
All in all, still good, but just feels like it’s gone a little stale at the mo.

We booked using open table and advised the restaurant that we were celebrating our 28^th wedding anniversary, thinking they might at least acknowledge the fact to please my wife; not looking for anything, just trying to embellish the celebration and the meal. Zero on that score, don’t necessarily blame the restaurant but question why they use a system they don’t fully utilize or train their staff for?
We were seated promptly but noticed that other diners who came in after us were served before us and treated in a manner that was obviously different to our experience. The food was as critiqued, good in every respect and the Californian wine we ordered was superb.
However, the service disparity between ourselves and other diners continued where we had to ask for water and only once did service offer to top up our glasses with wine whilst others were being continuously attended to. We are benign diners, polite and courteous and normally spend a lot on good food so they could not say we were bad or difficult customers to serve, non-​the-​less we felt we were treated in a lesser or disparaging manner.
I will probably not revisit the experience given that fact.

Ate here on a Saturday night and have to say, the food was fantastic. We arrived just after 8.30pm and although service was a little slow to start with (early diners were still finishing up), we felt real cosy down off the street in the Stockbridge Restaurant.
Menu is sort of Scottish gourmet, so plenty of local ingredients (Haggis with a panoply of pork anyone?), delicious fresh bread, great amuse-​bouche (my partner was audibly groaning at the lemon sorbet), and the final quadruple /​quintuple chocolate dessert with assorted mousses and choc-​treats was most favourably received, judging by the silent and intense manner in which it was eaten.
The little touches made the meal a treat, like the mysterious, yet delectable, green dip with our bread, the discrete chiller bucket for our white wine, the smörgåsbord of cheese I had with paper thin oat cakes, the unhurried tail-​end to the meal with the offer of a taxi — I could go on.
Bit pricey, but what the hey — Stockbridge Restaurant gets a thumbs up from me.

Headed here for a mid-​week dinner last December and ate & drank very well. The beef cheeks were a particular highlight and the service was some of the most attentive I’ve ever experienced. Thoroughly deserves its reputation.

My second time here and this time with Unilocal Eats.
I was happy to return after a good first experience and also for the wife and I to take two friends over from Australia out for a meal.
I thought the set menu had a great choice and to be honest it was the abundant of pig on offer that sold the restaurant to me. The crab spring spring rolls for a starter were lovely but only made me hungry (the perfect starter perhaps?). Then the main… pig cheek, pork belly and more pig only thing missing was that it wasn’t wrapped in bacon. So good.
Love the interior, and the details and the art work. Could see my paintings hanging on the walls *hint hint*
Big thanks to Jen and Unilocal for organising Unilocal Eats Week (look forward to the next one)

Despite my preferred attire and attitude, which generally resembles that of a nonconformist punk, you can actually dress this boy up and take him out on the rare occasion. Unlike Steph D., in that respect, I can get into the fine dinning experience and really do enjoy it. Sometimes we have to grow up…
Stockbridge Restaurant was an all around excellent dining experience. My starter, crab spring rolls pared with a tomato/​avocado salsa (reference the pictures) were very tasty and pleasing to this crab lover. My main was a nice buttery, moist grilled Coley. The presentation of all dishes was top notch and obviously done by a skilled chef concerned with making good food and showing it off.
My biggest complaint is the auditory ambiance. There really was none. A vacuous void of sound filled only by patroness prattle, which I suppose would be fine, but a little classic jazz in the background would go a long way in providing a relaxing (dare I say slightly more romantic) environment.

I went here for the Unilocal Eats Event and had a wonderful time.
I’d highly recommend this restaurant for a quiet dating evening as it’s just one of those places where you could have a romantic dinner without being disturbed by shouts for more pitchers of beer from the bar.
Now onwards fishies towards the food! It was amazing, the starter was the crab spring roll which was all kinds of delicious and subtly paired flavours. My main was duck egg w/​Hollandaise sauce, the which I found to be lovely, absolutely lovely. The wine was nicely paired with the food, the food was nicely paired with my mouth (what?), and I felt calm and relaxed, yet strangely fulfilled when I floated out of the restaurant. (This does not happen often, I assure you).
I have no complaints about this restaurant, the food was very well done, and the ambiance was much to my liking. The only thing I’d mention is that our waitress seemed incredibly flustered for most of the night. She was obviously stressed and had a difficult time preserving her calm, and I think in part because of this, she managed to spill wine over Jurgen, my bread plate, and various drops over the rest of the table. Poor thing.
Not a big deal, just, slip the waitress a Xanax before sitting down, she’ll mellow out soon enough and you’ll have a lovely meal.
Don’t tell anyone I said that.
And don’t wear white while ordering red wine. ;)

This review is going to be coupled with another review of ZARA’s pizza place. The reason I put them together is because while I ate a meal of Coley at the Stockbridge… at 3am I opted for a mushroom pizza at ZARA and I thought it might make sense if I compared notes.
Stockbridge atmosphere: Freaky quiet. Little bit stodgy (did I use that right?). Old fashioned, but quite classy. Friendly greeting for Jenny and the rest of us, but still I felt a bit out of sorts (like a kid in my mom’s heels).
ZARA atmosphere: Freaky loud. Drunken stag do-​ers. Crowded and messy, and just as you’d expect it to be.
Stockbridge prices: Went on Unilocal Eats! so it wasn’t so expensive as it would have been, but a pretty penny for teeny tiny little portions.
ZARA prices. 5 pounds for maybe the best pizza in town. Fed 2 happily.
Now the food. I’m going to wax on a bit about Stockbridge:
THE BREAD: Now I love a little taste of the upper class, but I have to admit that the weird herbed breads were my favorite thing I had here all night.
The AMUSE BOUCHE: This was meat, and I don’t eat meat.
THE STARTER: This was phenomenal and I could have eaten it all. night. long. Crab meat and some other stuff… so delicious.
THE MEAL: Coley and chips which tasted so healthy that I HAD to get dessert because the Coley was just not bad enough for me.
THE DESSERT: Sorry, I’m American and while this was delicious and full of some weird caramelly pieces and nuts it was not really a brownie, was it?
ZARA
THE PIZZA: Cheesy, amazing deliciousness where the fat ran right onto the carton. No skimping on the toppings, chockablock full of mushrooms. The crust is the kind that NO ONE throws away, crispy and light and maybe tastes better than the pizza itself.
RESULT — ZARA: 5*****/Stockbridge ***
For the money and deliciousness the unsophisticated in me comes out and says — Pizza over Posh.

Came here for the Unilocal eats deal with some of the wonderful Edinburgh Elite. This was my frist trip to the restaurant its a place ive been keen on for a while.
The menu they put on for the Unilocal Eats caused some controversy in that nobody seemed able to decide what to have!
I opted for the crab spring roll starter ehich came with a nice salsa and aioli! Cracker of a dish, light, fresh with the crab taste brautifully complimented! :)
The main… pig on a plate! SO close to be perfect! Crispy pigs ear, black pudding, pigs cheek and pork belly!!! NOOoooom
Pigs ear = ace
Black Pudding = ace
Pigs cheek = ace
Pork belly = the meat tasty but the fat could have done with being a little crisper!
For desert brownie with white choc icecream! — not bad! not the best i have had but good none the less!
The meal was great but not as good as it gets so not quite a 5 star! Small moan — waitress spilt wine over me and the table! Didnt really apologise other than to offer me white wine on a napkin! Having spilled wine across the table i thought she could have given us a bit off or a free glass of wine!
£90 shirt ruined — angry Jd. Food was good though just dont let that waitress pour the wine!

I had no idea this restaurant was here until recently, when I was invited here for a birthday meal. In fact, I’ve realised that a lot of my reviews start this way, with me not realising somewhere exists, despite having spent a long time living here. Anyway, I’m now aware of this restaurant’s existence, and now that I know it’s here, I’ll certainly be coming back for some more of their tasty, served up wares.
The restaurant makes up part of the eclectic range of delights to be found on St Stephen St, at both basement and street level. Stockbridge Restaurant is tucked away down a set of stairs, and is fairly miniature in size, much like a lot of restaurants on the street, but I think that gives them a lot of character and individuality, although it does mean booking ahead, especially at the weekends.
The look here is plush, classy, and well furnished. If you want somewhere impressive, but not too overdone by everyone in Edinburgh for some romance time, or somewhere nice to take the family, this restaurant is a great option. The food runs along traditional lines, with a stylised edge and presentation, and I recall going for the pigeon to start, followed by a sturdy meat option. The tables are quite close together, but it’s all good if you have a decent level of concentration. Sadly, I’m really nosey, so couldn’t help but look round the restaurant a couple of times to see how a few couples’ dates were going.

This place does real high class dining with the works — they give you different glasses for white wine as for red, bring you those dinky amuse-​bouche dollops of food, and there’s never just butter for the bread when you could have a green herb dip, too. It is all presented beautifully, from the whipsnap sharp linen to the real art on the walls, and most particularly the glossy, carefully arranged food. In fact all of our evening was carefully done, with great combinations of ingredients and judicious cooking. The staff were lovely and everything I put my fork into tasted great. I can’t get my mind off the heavy rib eye that oozed juice with great meaty mushrooms underneath.

I discovered this restaurant by accident one Christmas, after being let down by the restaurant that I’d booked for my work’s Christmas party. So at very VERY short notice, I needed to find a replacement venue for about 40 people. The internet was my friend that night and I spent the evening scouring places in Edinburgh for the perfect restaurant.
I stumbled across The Stockbridge Restaurantthey allowed me to book out the entire restaurant; permitted me to haggle with them over their set menu and extend it to at least two or three options per course rather than just one; so all that was left for me to do was turn up on the night.
I was thrilled when I saw the restaurant ‘in the flesh’. The railings outside were lit up with fairy lights (which extended to the interiors also), black painted walls inside contributed to a moody and sultry ambience, and the presentation of foodinspired! For £25 per head (at Christmas remember, so this was one hell of a bargain), we were served a 5 course meal and coffee. It was exquisite! A total find. The compliments rolled in all night as I was thanked for finding such an amazing restaurant. Of course I couldn’t take any of that creditit was pure chance, and I was as relieved as anybody else.
Service was smooth, efficient, courteous and without fault.
For modern, inspired Scottish cuisine in delightful surroundings — a treat for the sensesI’d suggest The Stockbridge Restaurant.