Where to Eat & Drink in Grassmarket, Edinburgh 2026
The top independent spots to eat and drink in Grassmarket, Edinburgh right now: Gurkha Bar and Restaurant Edinburgh, Makars Mash Bar and Vittoria on the Bridge.
| Restaurants · ranked | ||
| 1 | Gurkha Bar and Restaurant Edinburgh | ★4.94,444 |
Wonderful experience. Friendly staff, beautiful food and thoughtful extras thrown it. Cannot recommend enough!Google review · C.B. · verbatim | ||
| 2 | Makars Mash Bar | ★4.811,069 |
| 3 | Vittoria on the Bridge | ★4.67,624 |
| 4 | Society Bar & Kitchen | ★4.86,948 |
| 5 | The Dome | ★4.610,517 |
| 6 | Let Me Eat too | ★4.81,963 |
| 7 | Hendersons | ★4.92,139 |
| 8 | Bucks Bar - Grindlay Street Edinburgh | ★4.7918 |
| 9 | The Devil's Advocate | ★4.45,320 |
| 10 | Hula | ★4.74,580 |
| 11 | The Spence | ★4.6667 |
| 12 | Amarone | ★4.44,530 |
| Bars · ranked | ||
| 1 | Albanach | ★4.43,477 |
| 2 | Hey Palu | ★4.91,113 |
| 3 | Deacon Brodies Tavern | ★4.46,581 |
| 4 | The Piper's Rest | ★4.63,803 |
| 5 | Salt Horse Beer Shop, Bar & Burgers | ★4.71,642 |
| 6 | Royal Mile Tavern | ★4.53,213 |
| 7 | The Fox and Faun | ★4.61,080 |
| 8 | Frankenstein | ★4.36,664 |
20 independent venues, re-ranked monthly from real reviews — no national chains, no paid placements.
Grassmarket Venue Map
What Should I Try in Grassmarket?
Swipe for more picks
Visiting Edinburgh, United Kingdom? Grassmarket — Tourist-facing but strong independents — is the neighbourhood with 20 ranked independent restaurants and bars our review-velocity ranking is tracking right now. Rankings refreshed monthly from 88,292 live reviews — no national chains, no ads.
How to Get There
From Edinburgh Waverley station:
- Walking:10 mins south-west via George IV Bridge, or down the Royal Mile and through Victoria Street
- Bus:2 bus from Princes Street to Grassmarket, about 5 minutes
Lothian Buses Ticket Info
Single bus fare. The Grassmarket is easily walkable from Waverley - buses are more useful for the suburban zones.
Local tip: Walk down Victoria Street from the Royal Mile for the best entrance. The curving colourful street opens up dramatically into the Grassmarket square with the Castle above. For a quieter experience, visit on weekday evenings when the day-trip tourists have gone.
Looking for a venue not on the Hot List? Browse every restaurant and bar in Grassmarket →
Explore More in Edinburgh
Grassmarket FAQs
Head straight to Gurkha Bar and Restaurant Edinburgh on Brougham Pl, where the kitchen serves thali, momo, and chilli dishes. You'll spend between £20–30 per person for an evening out.
They usually miss Makars Mash Bar on Bank St, which focuses on slow-cooked shoulder, shank, and haggis pie. It's priced at £20–30 per person.
Stop by Vittoria on the Bridge on George IV Bridge for carbonara and pasta, then head over to Hey Palu on Bread St for inventive cocktails and negronis.
Salt Horse Beer Shop, Bar & Burgers on Blackfriars St and The Fox and Faun on Shandwick Pl both run £10–20 per person. Meanwhile, places like Gurkha Bar and Restaurant Edinburgh on Brougham Pl and Makars Mash Bar on Bank St sit at £20–30.
Book a table at Society Bar & Kitchen on Waterloo Pl for breakfast, benedict, and eggs, or drop into The Piper's Rest on Hunter Square for skink, haggis, and whisky.
Begin with a plate at Gurkha Bar and Restaurant Edinburgh on Brougham Pl, then move to Albanach on High St for a pour of whisky.
Still have questions? The best answers come from locals at the venue.
Get a personal recommendation
Our GPT knows every venue on the Grassmarket hot list. Ask it what to book tonight, where to eat or drink on a budget, or the best table for a date.
Ask DOW on ChatGPTDOW ranks venues with a 100-point Hot Score, recalculated monthly from live Google data. Three signals, in this order: written review activity — text reviews over 50 characters in the last 90 days, the heaviest by some distance; the standing Google rating from 4.0 up; and Google Business Profile completeness — phone, website, opening hours, description, photos and categories. In Portugal and Spain, reviews written in the city's own language carry more weight than English ones. We don't publish the exact weightings: a formula you can compute backwards is one you can farm. No editorial picks, no paid placements, no national chains.