monteiths

that being said, these flaws in no way impact on the dining experience. i cannot say enough how wonderful this little place is. it's a real gem. i truly wish them well, and if you're looking for a romantic eatery, this is a great place to start. i haven't even touched upon the selling point for the restaurant, which is the whisky experience that comes in the form of a specially tailored four course whisky menu, but this is something i have yet to experience first hand. but that's only a matter of time...

lovely staff, amazing food, incredible cocktails

i absolutely adore monteiths. it's my favourite hidden gem off the busy royal mile. the interior is cosy and scottish without being tacky, the staff are so attentive, the drinks are beautiful and the food is gorgeous. i honestly cannot recommend this place enough - you must go!

we always eat here when we are in edinburgh. it's a hidden gem and i always recommend it to friends. the service is great and the atmosphere in the restaurant is fantastic, there's a great energy with a good mix of people. the steak is a highlight, i ordered a rare fillet and it was cooked perfectly. the orchard bramble cocktail is always a personal favourite but this time i decided to try a few others too. they offer a cocktail with bee pollen and heather and this is a must try! i can't recall the name of the gentleman serving us last time, i believe he said he was south african? but he was really fantastic and attentive and chatty despite how busy it was.

this restaurant is hidden away from the famous royal mile in the old town. you would love the entrance to the restaurant -- tree branches to make a arch along the alleyway, it seems like you are entering a secret garden.

the food: although it took quite a while to prepare the food for the party of 5, the food was worth waiting for.

the drinks: this restaurant also has a good selection of wine, we've tried theses two, both reasonably priced and good to go with red meat. -- chianti classico la pievanella, and torres mas rabell tinto

i will definitely come back to this restaurant for my next visit!

the haggis drew me in, but what a great bustling little place this is. this basement restaurant is quite cramped, but this probably adds to the atmosphere. the waiting staff are also great and really friendly and generally do a good job keeping so many tables and orders in their heads. the aforementioned haggis is a small affair, but it was full of flavour and restored my faith in this dish. it can be tasty! we also had the squid to start, but they graciously cooked it without the crackling owing to my sons dairy intolerance. a big thank you for that. it was still good quality, thick and firm. and i can only imagine what it would be like with the crackling. we also had the duck, lam, cod and venison. we were pre-warned that the meats would be served pink, which i believe it should be anyway. the quality of the meats was again excellent - no gristle at all and so soft to cut. i had my eyes opened to smoked vegetables - go on try it. the duck fat chips we could have had more of. actually we did order more of them, but they didn't arrive along with the two lots of spinach. hey ho the tenderstem broccoli they gave us instead was perfectly al dente so we didn't send it back. as i say, it was the august and this place was heaving. next time we're in edinburgh, we will book again

a great looking bar - good ambience overall!! visited this place just for drinks n haggis - both put a smile on my face :)
prices are slightly steep but the overall experience was really good.

my partner and i tried out the festive menu for £35 each which i thought to be considerably decent. i went for the smoked salmon with pickled fennel, apple and thyme crackers to start with. followed by the slow cooked duck leg on a bed of celeriac puree', roast potatoes, crispy kale and cranberries. finished off with sticky toffee pudding which was yummy. great food and ambiance, perfect for a romantic meal.

sigh, i'm not sure why i don't get excited by monteiths. it looks great! especially as you descend into the alley of fairy lights, and enter into a deco that i feel is reminiscence of a highland lodge.

it's not bad. it's also nothing to shout about. at least what i'm referring to is the food. deco and staff are great. just the food. and for its prices and it's ambience it creates? it could do so much better.

the hunt for imaginative food in the most touristy parts of any city can be a bit of a challenge, but if recent(-ish) reviews are anything to go by, edinburgh’s not actually doing too badly at all. monteiths is tucked away down off one of the royal mile’s olde-worlde vennels, under a welcoming arch of fairy lights. i’ve dined and enjoyed drinks â a couple of times here before, but for some reason hadn’t ever gotten round to review. an invitation was the right opportunity to do just that.

horrible service, very rude staff - worst i have experienced in edinburgh!. i went to monteith on saturday afternoon with my boyfriend and a couple friends for the second time. the previous visit had already been a little disappointing due to unfriendly staff but we thought we would give it another go. i now have to say that i will not go back and i would not recommend this place to anyone!
we arrived about 5pm, it was pretty quiet and we wanted to sit at a table in the back (which is the restaurant area at night time). we were told that we are “not allowed to sit there if we were only having drinks” as they were starting to serve dinner soon. i thought it was a little silly as hardly anyone else was in but fair enough, we went to the bar and luckily quite quickly got a table. the waitresses were pretty much ignoring us, didn't clear the table(i mentioned before the place wasn't busy) so we eventually took all the glasses from previous customers to the bar and asked if someone could wipe the table – which one of the waitresses did but she couldn’t have been more aggressive whilst doing so. we had just ordered a second round of drinks when one of the waitress put a reserved sign on our table saying that we would have to leave the table in 15min at 6.30pm. this already happened at our first visit a couple weeks before. to improve customer service i would suggest that they should put reserved signs on the tables before people sit down or not take reservations for tables which are already in use. anyway, luckily the table next to us become vacant so we moved over. maybe half an hour later another waitress put a reserved sign on our table again saying we would have to leave at 7.30pm. she came back at 7.15 to remind us that we had to leave soon and at 7.25 she actually that we “really have to leave now” – the people who apparently had reserved the table hadn't even arrived by that point. i hardly could believe how rude they were. my friends and i are very polite people and we understand that working in hospitality can be stressful when it’s very busy, but so much rude behaviour is not acceptable. i would like to mention that the 2 male bartenders were very nice and polite. anyway, we left and went down to the shore for a lovely dinner at the kings wark and drinks at the shore bar. both of these places i can highly recommend, great customer service, great food and a very welcoming and warm atmosphere.

it was our girly yearly get together christmas dinner. and this year, it was my choice. and i wished i hadn't. a bad mistake, sorry to my girlfriends for the disappointment.

arrived around 5.45pm for the christmas season, only 1 or 2 tables sitting and was pretty empty still. we ordered drinks. then ordered our starters and mains.

our drinks. ...took a long time...finally arrived and was almost 15 mins for 2 cocktails and 2 juices. waited till our cocktails were dried out and our starters arrived. starters were very nice, my smoked salmon lovely. the mussels were nice too.

ordered another round of drinks. another 15 mins wait. mains arrive with our side order of chips. side order was £2.50 i think it was, and was literally 5 chips. chunky 5 chips.

sigh, we sat for almost 3 hours..5.30pm till 8.30pm and not because we ordered that much food..just the service was terrible.

you know, i raved about this place, the exterior, the warmth inviting moment when entering in..and so the food was good. not great. but the service was bad, just took so long for a dish to come. we wouldn't have sat there for 3 hours but it took that long for courses to come we didn't have a choice.

so with the amount of good food restaurants out there, i'd go elsewhere unless you happen to be hungry walking down that particular road whilst its still opened.

this place has amazing seafood so i have been here a number of times. the lobster and the fish are equally good so i recommend both. the bread is absolutely lovely too! the best part - desert! chocolate oozing away in your mouth with ice cream. totes loves!

we visited monteith's with an itison voucher and weren't expecting much from our sirloin steak and duck fat chips. the entrance to the restaurant is through a close decorated with fairy lights which gave your entrance an enchanted historic feel of edinburgh and the restaurant/bar has been decorated in the same theme. its walls are decorated with deer antlers and other hunting style memorabilia as well as leather bound books, keeping to a victorian style hunting mansion type theme.

when we were seated and looked at the menu, we decided to go with the smoked mushroom side dish to go with our sirloin steak. one thing i noticed when asking for steak in various restaurants is it's difficult for the chefs to get a steak cooked medium rare; it relies heavily on the chef knowing the stove well to cook your steak at the right heat and for the right amount of time. monteith's made a perfect, melt in your mouth steak and the duck fat chips (although it seemed like you only got 6 chips) were thick jenga blocks. the smoky flavour of the mushrooms was a new flavour to experience with button mushrooms that i enjoyed quite a lot.we were also given a glass of house wine to go with our meal and while i'm not much of a wine drinker, the small amount i drank was very nice indeed.

i would definitely recommend monteith's to anyone who's looking for a fine dining experience.

a few weeks ago we found ourselves on the no. 35 heading up to the royal mile and excitedly talking about what we were going to have from the new cocktail menu at monteiths .  we’d been invited along to sample both the new cocktail menu and some food.  now i’d had a quick look at the menu and there was so many lovely things i’d wanted to try.  i’d previously been to monteiths for a drink but mr edinburger had never been and was very much looking forward to the evening. for those of you who don’t know, monteiths is situated down a wee alley just off the royal mile. basically just follow the fairy lights.  they have a lovely seating area outside and then inside you’re greeted with a very cosy, traditional scottish feeling room.  due to the lightening we had a bit of a camera failure and monteiths have kindly provided us images of the interior and cocktails. now everyone who either reads the blog, follows us on twitter or knows us will know that i like a good cocktail.  monteiths have rec

we visited monteiths a few weeks ago and it was a great evening. an evening of good food, cocktails in cosy surroundings greeted us. they have recently launched a new cocktail menu. i tried two and will definitely be going back to try some more.

to read our full review check out edinburgers.co.uk/monteiths-review/