Origano

Delicious!!! Beats La Favorita at the moment!
Been to sit in a couple of times for lunch and the service was great and the food fabulous! I have had the seafood pizza and the tuna salad to sit in and my companion couldn’t see past the chicken salad! I have tried to get a table without booking on sn evening but was never lucky enough to score one so would recommend booking ahead.
The takeaway is equally as great, many a pizza and antipasto has been ordered. Always hot. Alway crispy (take note La Favorita) and always cooked through and always tasty.
Would recommend

Fantastic pizzas. All fresh ingredients. Would highly recommend. Take away and sit in are both fantastic.

I am not as big a fan of Origano as some others who are ecstatic about it. Still this is a very good «addition» to Leith dining. Of course it’s not completely new, as it’s just a bigger sister restaurant to the original just up Leith Walk (which is still operating as a take away). Friendly staff, candlelit and cushioned vibe, great quality italian food — bruschetta, antipasti, pizza, lasagne (no pasta), tiramisu etc. Decent wine selection and very good espresso.

Excellent food! Had the garlic bread, pizza without cheese (dairy intolerant) and a salad. Absolutely enjoyed the meal. Food was slow, but man was it good! Atmosphere was very nice and the place was packed. I can see why. Everything had excellent flavors and taste to it. Will be challenging to try other places for our stay in Edinburgh.

of recent years when you think of really good pizza in edinburgh, another local leith restaurant will generally come to mind. but the other week during one of my early morning runs i suddenly noticed that the tiny Origano had moved locations to a much bigger premises just across the road from their original location. with that in mind i very much made the suggestion to the boyfriend that we ought to get round to trying this place before it moved further away from my flat!
so on saturday night, after a rather stressful day of filling out forms we wandered along in the evening sunshine to see if they might have a table available for walk ins. sadly when we arrived there was already two girls waiting and the other two seats at the counter occupied by two other girls having a coffee. with hope though we were told to grab a drink somewhere nearby and check back in 30 minutes or so and he might have a table. we grabbed a drink across the road at boda bar and when we arrived back around 45 minutes later much to our delight he had a table available.
the menu is simple and what you would expect from an italian. the starters were a mix of bruschettas followed by a meat sharing platter, a veggie option or a mix of the two. there were also a few different types of garlic breads to choose from. the rest of menu was a majority of pizza choices all coming in three sizes and a few salads and pasta dishes. after a brief review of things we went with a small mixed sharing platter and a large Estivia pizza with parma ham.
our bottle of wine arrived quickly (although after drinking half a glass i realised that this was a more expensive bottle than the one we actually ordered… we weren’t charged for it so i’m not sure if they realised their error) and shortly after our mixed sharing platter. i’m not sure if i was super hungry or this was genuinely incredibly tasty but it was so good. there was a few pieces of foccacia bread with a wee pot of garlic butter that was just divine and sun dried tomato pesto. then a mixed salad of rocket with grana padana with some cured meats, think it was parma ham breasola and some salami. it was a really good size and just so tasty! the garlic butter was incredible and i almost wished i asked for extra to dip my pizza crusts in.
the pizza arrived next and it was a lovely thin and crispy base. the parma ham, rocket, and mozarella pearls were all super fresh tasty and mixed with the pizza sauce and base made a really good bite. we managed to eat the whole large pizza between us and it was so good i’m not even ashamed to admit it. we finished dinner with an amaretto coffee each. the meal was £50 for the both of us, which at first seemed pricey but if you took the wine and coffee out of this the bill would have been just over £20 for the food which is actually quite reasonable.
i’m not sure what the old location was like, but the new restaurant is really lovely. has a great romantic atmosphere but would also be good for dinner with friends or family. the service is friendly and fairly quick but they don’t push to get tables back. i’ll definitely be heading back here for more pizza in the future!

We went to the wee one ages ago and it was a comical dining experience. The only guy serving went AWAY for 40 mins to deliver takeaway orders at 8pm while every customer in the restaurant had to wait for him to come back to order/​eat/​drink/​pay/​leave etc etc…
Anyway, like everyone else we waited months and months for the Big Origano to open. Looks nice inside. How nice a wee tiny business like theirs has enjoyed such success that a larger premises, built/​designed for purpose, no less, is required…
Origano’s online popularity has dropped dramatically since the new opening and we thought it was a shame. Most grumbles seem to be with the booking policy. No bookings unless you’re more than 6. So all 2s, 3s, 4s etc are going along, in all kinds of shit weather, to be told there’s nothing for them without silly wait times, Such a ridiculous system for restaurants, I’ve always thought. Fruitless. Why not take reservations? People need to plan a spoily night out! They will not factor you in if they are not guaranteed a space!!! Don’t you want to be a part of people’s plans? Don’t you want locals to be able to call up and get in when they can’t be bothered to cook and wash-​up at home? Are you SO sure you can depend on walk-​ins to survive? If so, you should be Chancellor or something…
We happened to drive by Origano today at 6.30pm tonight (Wednesday) and sought a quick dindins. The barperson right by the entrance and 2 waitresses saw me and looked away. Ignored me. A managery type eventually said ‘can I help you at all???’. They were not full and not busy and I was obviously looking to eat there. I said I after a table and he was so snotty in saying, ‘Well no. Not now. Maybe in…’ By the time he finished his sentence I already felt so unwelcome and so unwillining to hand over my money for their ‘service’ that I was glad there was no room. First impressions etc…
Gave 2 stars coz i think we’ll still try again one day. Food MUST be great for all the fans they have…

We were able to get a table without a reservation, and it was a quaint little restaurant. If you are on foot it’s definitely worth the walk from Prince’s Street. We shared the vegetarian platter for our starter, and it was delicious. The bread and bruschetta were a credit to the chef. For our mains, we had the mushroom tagliatelle and the Origano pizza — they were both amazing. This restaurant should be at the top of anyone’s dinner list when visiting Edinburgh.

Origano is Leith Walk’s (and Edinburgh’s) best kept secret.
The cozy romantic atmosphere and friendly staff make you feel like a regular as soon as you walk in the door.
When dining in we have the Bruschetta Pepperonata with roasted peppers, goat’s cheese, rocket and balsamic vinegar — which I often wish was an entire meal!
The Spinacio pizza with a fried egg in the middle is my meal of choice, while my OH goes for the Calabrazi (often on their specials menu). The 11″ is plenty for me to be a full meal, while OH goes for the 14″.
They offer a lovely selection of wines and drinks — and offer BYOB Monday and Tuesdays for wine (£3 corkage).
Origanio is very close to another pizza place that people rave about, which leaves me in shock as I think these pizza’s are much better (yes, taste is subjective!).
Offering take-​away and delivery services, our above order comes out cheaper than if we were buying two pizzas from a local chain and the quality and flavours are so much better.

We enjoyed our first night in Edinburgh dining at Origano. It was an all around lovely experience. For a starter my husband and I had the Bruschetta Crudo. For the main course we shared personal pizzas– my husband had the Vesuvio (spicy!) and I ordered the Caprino. Our waiter was very friendly and helpful as some of the menu ingredients were new to us. We don’t have rocket in Canada. Stellar meal! The suggested wine pairing highly complemented the flavours. Highly recommended for a lovely evening out.

I’m finding it hard to be fair here. The food is actually really nice — fresh, tasty, great quality. But it’s just not very Italian. And given that I had taken some friends there who are about to move to italy, and love all things Italian, it was disappointing. Fluffy white bread, however delicious, isn’t very Italian. And puffy pizzas … it was like a fancy Dominos.
So — nice place, lovely people, and actually very nice food. Just not very Italian nice food. So — fair enough, so long as you know what you’re going for!

This unassuming little place opened up right around the corner from our flat, yet with so many good Italian restaurants in Edinburgh, it was hard to convince myself to risk my cash somewhere new. But I’d heard such good things that I wanted to give it a go. Support local businesses and all that, innit.
As seems to be the fashion for Edinburgh eateries these days, it’s a small room with a short, simple menu. Just a handful of pizzas, pastas and salads, which is a refreshing way to focus the mind and indeed the stomach. The evening started well in a nice cosy room with friendly staff and we settled in with a few friends for some tasty Italian food.
Unfortunately the food, while nice enough, was a bit of a disappointment. The antipasto plate was pleasant if unspectacular, and was brought down by the crappy soft white bread rather than the good Italian-​style bread you’d expect. And the mains followed the same path. The sauce for my penne all’arrabbiata was quite nice (if untraditional) but the pasta was over cooked, which is a cardinal sin in Italian cooking. Anyone who’s been within a couple of time zones of Italy knows about their obsession with al dente pasta. Likewise, the pizzas. The toppings looked tasty enough but they were made with thick crusts rather than proper thin Italian-​style bases. That’s fine if you’re making your own pizza at home but why go to an Italian pizzeria to eat non-​Italian pizza?
With Al Dente on Easter Road cooking traditional Italian pasta and La Favorita on Leith Walk serving the best pizza this side of Naples, and a plethora of old-​school British-​style places serving soft pasta and doughy pizza, I don’t know what market Origano is chasing.
PS. Note that they are now only BYOB on Mondays and Tuesdays. But the wine list is reasonably priced so you don’t need to empty your wallet.

A wee gem, way down on Leith Walk. Perfect for a cosy evening’s dinner (ideal, when those evenings start to draw in and you’re looking for somewhere snug) with that special someone — or with a bunch of your workmates (an office party was in when I went — but even though they took up most of the space, the atmosphere remained cosy).
It’s small and simple, with the menu written up on a blackboard. Loads of options (great for vegetarians) — the antipasto plate is huge and really tasty. Great pizza, too. A highlight for me was the B.Y.O. option — go and buy your own beer/​wine, and enjoy it with your meal. The corkage was absolutely minimal, as far as I remember — 50p for beer, £2 for wine — but don’t quote me on that as it was a few months ago.
We got the window seat, which I always like — a really great spot, especially if you’re solo dining. Really warm, friendly, cosy, independent — I love this place. Go check it out, because it really deserves your business.