Howies in Edinburgh, City of

Fantastic service! Friendly but not overbearing. Good Scottish food. Generous portions. Loved the smoked trout pate!

Everything was as expected for this old favourite of ours ! My wife having booked our Wedding Anniversary celebration here with friends it was excellent ! The service, menu , private room, wine all first class ! Thank you to all the Howies staff !

Locale tipico di Edimburgo, molto bello e scenografico. Il menù è vario ma ogni cosa che ho mangiato non era particolarmente buona. il dolce alla fine mi ha stramazzato...sono stato male per due giorni. Sarò stato sfortunato ma non mi sento di consigliare questo ristorante che è pure caro..

Excellent meal. Good value and as always a BYOB bonus, so we shared a bottle of fizz. Fantastic service. Great atmosphere and attentive staff.

Having struggled to book somewhere for a large party of 16 howies fitted us in for early dinner. The haggis neeps and tatties and venison stew were amazing, amazing service too.

Food was so tasty can't wait to go back

A bit disappointing small portions on Fixed priced lunch menu. Expensive wine. Nice staff & service was prompt

Terrible service. Servers did not check in with the customers at all during the meal. Very disappointing. Do not recommend this restaurant

Delicious ! For us the best restaurant we have had in Edinburgh, with top service and unbeatable value for money!

Food was super tasty, great service, cozy atmosphere. Extremely fine espresso 😀

Service very good and food was amazing . Highly recommended

Starter and main course £18, good price. The starter is not very big, but you are fine with the main. They offer you tap water if you wanted. They take food allergies into account.

Wait 10 minutes in the entrance, the waiters pass without saying a word. They probably have a lot of customers so move on.

I went in because the atmosphere looked nice from the outside, but no matter how long I waited, no server came to show me around. They didn't even tell me how long I should wait, or if they were full or if they only had reservations, so I ended up going to a different restaurant. I'm very sorry that I wasted my time.

A nice Scottish restaurant. Very elegantly furnished. The employees are very caring, polite and sincere. The food is high quality and delicious. Soup and Haggis are successful. Scottish salmon is a masterpiece.. There is a rich alcohol menu. Prices are around Edinburgh average. Recommended..

Not my kind of place. The helpings are a bit on the small side and I feel that they think quite highly of themselves.

Tonic, knights and nuts, blessings are complete plum friends

Good choices . Prompt and friendly service . …surprised to be addressed as guys though … Not rushed -and not rushed out .

Main courses delicious but surprised hot food served on cold plates. Attentive waitress for first course but for puddings we were not offered the gluten free menu by a different waiter. As ever, we made do with sorbet/ice cream.

Disappointing from last year . Chicken very tasty but dry and not many potatoes came with it, sticky toffee was just lukewarm and hardly any sauce compared to last visit. 3 service staff walking around chewing gum although when approached a table they stopped . A table of 6 and we wanted to pay separately, the waitress slapped the bill on the table and said sort it out yourselves . It's a shame as I'd taken a group of friends from Austria especially to Howie's....noone was impressed

thank you, thank you for having us. had our wedding meal here and the staff were very accommodating. food was excellent. highly recommend. 10/10

Loved everything about this place

I highly recommend this restaurant. The staff are friendly and the food is delicious, especially the desserts.

Very good food, very friendly and professional service, very pleasant atmosphere

Great Casserole & Haggis. Service is good too. ~30-40£ pp with a glass of alcohol

Best fillet steak and haggis around.

Wonderful place with local specialties! Always full, so book your table in advance.

Lamb and haggis are both delicious~

They are professional, friendly and helpful. We do a lots of corporate event and they make us always happy. Lara, Cosimo and Euse and all team thank you for everything, you are amazing team

Delicious food and a great ambience

Great restaurant for our first introduction to Scottish cuisine during our vacation. We received a warm welcome from the host and were seated quickly. The staff were courteous and helped us accommodate food allergies. The food was very good, cullen skink is a tasty seafood chowder and their casseroles are similar to stews we have in the US. There was also a wide selection of whiskeys to choose from, and they also had a featured whiskey of the week that was a good dram. Definitely a good restaurant and a great first stop for foreign visitors as an intro.

Fantastic food and friendly staff. This is my second time visiting Howie’s. Never disappoints!! Highly recommended

The restaurant has a lovely atmosphere with swift and thorough service. Unfortunately the food is rather a letdown. We orders the Cullen Skink, chicken breast and Venison casserole (special or the night). The Cullen skink had a great flavour and texture and was overall well balanced. The chicken breast however was incredibly bland. A bog standard chicken breast is shamelessly grilled with a distinct lack of flavour or seasoning. The venison casserole was incredibly rich with a deep flavour but the potatoes pairing was inadequate for such a saucy and otherwise great dish. Overall disappointed.

Excellent food and service! I chose the haggis dish and salmon with potatoes and vegetables. At the end one capuccino

Love the casserole and sticky toffee. Never get tired of them.

Lovely meal Only slight annoyance we were seated at the greeting station where staff congregated and were quite loud and bumped our table a few times.

There was nothing that I didn't like. But the mussels are great. The spectacular haggis. And everything is very good.

The best meal we had in Edinburgh - we have a toddler so cannot go to fancy restaurants but this was a surprise. The menu was interesting and the food delicious - everything tasted fresh, really well cooked and there was care in the presentation. We were sad we only found Howies on our last day.

Main course very underwhelming. Salmon cooked ok but sauce lacked taste and potatoes looked tired. Meal as a whole overpriced for what it was. Waiting staff were lovely.

The best food I had in Edinburgh

Very bad experience. We got in the restaurant at 17:30 and they said they can only offer a table till 19:00. We agreed and ordered. However, after having starter we’ve been waiting for main course for almost half hour. They served our main at 18:45 which means we have only 15 mins to eat. We asked for take away the desserts but they don’t offer us take-away cutlery for it. They said it’s our fault for not telling them we can’t wait for long. But it was the waiter said we can only eat until 19:00 at the beginning???? We were politely asking but the waitress got mad. We understand the kitchen was busy but should you at least show a good attitude to solve the problem if you’re still charging us service fee? Anyways Will never come back again.

Didn’t get to eat here so this one star review is only for the nonexistent ‘customer service’ thanks to the guy who refused to seat us at 2pm when it was not busy at all. He cited fully booked which is weird considering it was post busy lunch time and so many empty tables out there are crying incredulity. When I asked if these empty tables are all booked for that hour, the guy told me ‘no table no matter how you ask’… ok ok he was right. So many way nicer Scottish haggis choices in Edinburgh, why would anyone bother to beg you for a table?

At the foot of Calton Hill we paid tribute (the occasion was special and deserved). Delicious soup, game tub, salmon, local cheeses and cake with local beers too. There was a lot of atmosphere and the waitresses were lovely. Neat decoration and a stone's throw from Princess Street and all the Christmas decorations.

It is very close to Carlton Hill, so stop by if you are going to visit it. We went to try our luck without a reservation but it is always full so we had to make the reservation right there and wait approximately half an hour. My recommendation is to book at least one day in advance. Even so, the waiters were super friendly and we ate very well, they seem like small amounts at first glance but they are very copious meals that fill you up quickly. The place has a very nice decoration. The haggis are delicious and so is the risotto.

Generous in portions and delicious Cullen Skink! Snatched a reservation for the next day when we dropped by on our first night in Edinburgh finding it fully booked. The atmosphere was great being in a dome like structure and the servers were busy but friendly and approachable. I must say the tables were quite close together, making it a bit crammed. Everything was delicious from the bread to desserts. I highly recommend the Scottish soup dish Cullen Skink if you like creamy soups and potatoes. All their fish dishes were perfectly cooked and lightly seasoned without going overboard with the salt. Would visit again!

This discrimination incident happened in May 2024 when I booked a table of 12 here with both of my family and my husband's family. I have paid the deposit (£10 per person) ahead to secure the table. Unfortunately, my father-in-law had a high fever on the day and couldn't make it to dinner, but there were still 11 of us arrived at the restaurant. I understood that there was a 24 hour cancellation policy, but given the circumstance, I decided to be upfront and explained politely to the reception lady upon arrival. My god she was dismissive, blunt and rude. Kept asking had I not read the cancellation policy, and she couldn't do anything. She didn't show any interest of my explanation. I find it very uncomfortable and asked to speak to her manager, who then came up to me, grabbed my hand and shouted, 'Don't be rude to my staff!!'. I was in shock, confused, and completely felt violated by his manner. My mother-in-law, who is a white Scottish lady, immediately came over and asked what happened. It was then this manager's toned completely changed and brushed everything off. My mother-in-law didn't even say much, the manager just simply changed his attitude instantly. I cannot help but felt being discriminated as a Chinese, and this is the first discrimination incident that I have ever experienced in the UK even though I don't carry much Chinese accent. I am not a tourist but I definitely felt being treated badly like one. I will never forget this disgusting experience and I will never go back to any of the Howies restaurants.

I ate well, a good soup and an excellent stew. The service was friendly and fast. I recommend - for the price - to use the early evening menu.

The food was overall good and the service was good. The Haggis and the main courses were very nice, but the dessert was a little too sweet. The waitress was very patient when we were ordering the food and checking the bill. But I’d like to apologize for the waitress for denying to pay the service charge. We didn’t mean to complain the service, because we didn’t know the norm. I feel sorry for making the waitress disappointed. Definitely will come back to this restaurant in the future.

It was a good experience. Among the dishes we had, the salmon and rib eye, very delicious. Also the desserts: banoffee pie and cranachan

one of the best restaurant in Edinburgh with affordable prices

Kind and professional service, delicious traditional Scottish food (the salmon and Cullen skink were sublime)

I usually order the steak, on my last three visits, there has been no correlation with "how would you like it?", "rare", to what you actually get.

Absolutely superb. Wonderful restaurant experience with exceptional food and service. It's worth a visit to Edinburgh alone to come here. All the food is excellent, but the sticky toffee pudding is hands down the best I've ever had, and I've had a few over the years.

Walked in with no reservation and the staff managed to give us a table

This was a superb restaurant for dining, with designs showing the wonders Scotland is known for! These include the deerhounds and the architecture is grand like it is a theatre too, staff made us feel welcomed. I had a delicious smoked salmon dish with potato's, peas and béarnaise sauce! Bailey's was a nice side drink and water was provided, seating is very comfortable too.

You can really eat very well here. I can only recommend the restaurant.

Brilliant venue with stunning food can't wait to go again! 😊

All very good, quality food and the right price for what they offer. The staff were very kind and helpful. If you are in Edinburgh I highly recommend this restaurant.

It is a very good Scottish restaurant. Pulled pork terrine and venison casserole were my favourite. When never my friends visited me in Edinburgh, I took them here.

Great experience as always. One of the best places to enjoy Scottish cuisine. Very nice and professional waitress, a must in the city!

Really lovely haggis and casserole dish (basically like a stew). Good ambience, good food. Would definitely come again. And I loved the little Scottish biscuit they served with the tea!

Very nice place and staff always very attentive and kind but, for my taste, the food is not worth the amount of dinner paid.

It has impressive meat and also lobster, very good. And the service of 10

Food and dessert was very good! On par with the price. Good to have some (very nicely cooked) vegetables in a meal. Service was nice but turned a bit slow yet understandable when a large group next to us arrived. Discretionary tip (10%) was not discretionary as its price was already punched in without prompt.

Food was delicious and well priced. The services was really good. We loved it and would recommend it whilst visiting Edinburgh.

Very bad, service staff are arrogant

I had no complaint to the food. However, the service was absolutely terrible. The lady who served us acted like she was in a hurry all the time. She took away the menu from our hands rudely once we ordered our meals. Perhaps she was in bad mood that day, as I hardly saw any smile on her face. The horrible thing happened at the end of the meal. After we paid, while my friend was trying to leave the table, another staff rudely ORDERED my friend to step aside in order to let his other guests in!!! The attitude was absolutely unacceptable, perhaps he thought we were no longer their customers as we had paid already! We sure won’t come back again.

Cosimo and mark served amazing drinks and mouth tempting food. Highly recommended for food lovers visiting Edinburgh

Love the haggis and whisky. Waitresses are very friendly.

Nice restaurant! Has been there more than 5 times

Excellent lunch with former Banking colleague & wife. Service first class.

Had a great meal here. Would definitely come back. Great food, great wine. You honestly can't go wrong

A gem in Edinburgh! The food is amazing, cozy ambience , service is great. They offer 2-course or 3-course meal and the price is reasonable. I ordered Catch of the day which is Pan roasted salmon with sautéed peppers, crispy potatoes, in coriander sauce. It was done just right and tasted delicious. My partner ordered Sea Bass, it tasted fabulous. Oh, of course I can’t skip dessert. Howie’s famous Banoffee pie is a must try, you would like to have second after the first bite. If I live closed by, it definitely will be my kitchen.🥰

Everything about our experience at Howie’s was amazing. The service was great, the food was delicious, including dessert, and the drinks were exceptional. If we lived nearby we would definitely return!

I am french and I have loved the food :) perfectly cooked lamb and the banana toffee cake was amazing. The staff was really friendly. Great place.

Surly initial contact, but superb service otherwise. Outstanding salmon entree, outstanding selection of wine by the glass (sauvignon blanc) at very reasonable price. Sticky toffee pudding was as good as it gets. Very reasonable price for such excellent quality.

I was surprised by the long queue and full house. The rib eye is average and “catch of the day” salmon smell fishy and not enough sauce. Like the charcoal grill rib eye taste good but you have to ask for the sauce. Staff are very efficient, just get their job done. Can’t complain in tourist town like Edinburgh.

I came to eat based on good reviews, but it was very disappointing and can't be considered good food at all. The beef was tough, the chicken breast had no flavor, and it was even burnt.

Wr had the best experience ans food at Howie’s. Lisa is a great manager and very helpful. Excellent service with Emma. Marcel is a scotch genius 🥃. We loved it and went back for a second night in our vacation.

For me, having a pleasant dinner is a lot about service. We were pleased to have Susan with us. All her recommendations were on point, which also leads me to the point… FOOD WAS INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS! Everything we had we loved. Great place to visit!

Best restaurant I have been to in a long while! Service was very friendly and efficient but not rushed even though it was busy. Both myself and my wife had 3 courses, I also tried several cocktails. All the dishes we had were excellent, great taste and not too heavy. For such good quality service, food I was actually expecting my bill to be even higher so I would say for the quality you get here I would expect to pay even more (especially as I had steak too). Overall, it's a great restaurant. I would highly recommend and will definitely be back in the future!

We had a lovely meal here. The food was excellent 👌🏼 waitress was friendly and helpful. We would have liked to have stayed longer to sit and chat but had to give our table back - only downer.

All very good and precise and punctual service. Very good haggis, correct quality/price ratio

Great place great value nice staff ..a wee bit pushed for timw with 2hr slot for 6 people

Four of us went here a few weeks ago for lunch, everyone happy and all of us ate well Different starters which were all good, 4 steaks for mains, cooked perfectly and all to range of levels we asked. Great cocktails, wine and good deserts. Relaxed proper dining experience. Bill was 300 for the 4. But we did go for it!

Very poor service.The food is ok , but the service is terrible and made me scared! Someone who looks like boss is rude, when I calling the waitress, the boss went directly to me and aggressively requested me not to wave when she serves others, we explained we actually waving after she served others, and also when she are free, but no one notices us at that time. But she still critique me and keep saying me rude. The attitude filled us with horror and cannot eat. What’s more, they don’t put in place the tableware in right place for us. We are here for travel not for being criticized.

Very good food and attentive service. Highly rated

I booked a table and ask by the window and I got it. 😆 The service was nice. Really love the casserole. It’s huge so I left some waste. The soup is a little bit too salty. Overall it’s worth trying.

Absolutely wonderful place. Food amazing. Love it.

Lovely place to visit, the staff are very friendly but not prepared when full of customers. The mussels are amazing! You will not be disappointed! However, the burger felt like a let down! We eventually had to get up to actually pay.

Great experience with a large group booked in advance, good range of options from a set menu with attentive and friendly staff. Very rasonable price to quality ratio. Thank you!

A lively local restaurant where friends and family go for a good time and a high quality dinner, the food is of exceptional taste and I very much enjoyed eating here. In particular the house Haggis and the specialty Beef Casserole were delightful. I very much recommend this place if you’re in Edinburgh.

Fabulous place with excellent food at a reasonable price

There was no pressure to rush. Staff were delightful and the food was excellent

Typical Edinburgh place with traditional food. The Haggis was very good and the casserole was a delicacy. We also had the Sticky Toffee Pudding which was delicious. Super warm and fast attention. You have to reserve yes or yes because it fills up every day

First time in Edinburgh.. Very accommodating due to a busy time. Food was excellent, and so was the service 😋 Highly recommended 👌🏾

The restaurant is located at the foot of Calton Hill. It is conveniently located and easy to reach. It's a pity that the food quality is average and there are no surprises.

Based on our experience, this place makes it business from bus tours and passing tourists who may only come once during their visit. If they are looking for repeating customers, then their host has a serious amount of work to do on attitude and professionalism. He was pleasant when we first arrived, but his demeanor changed once we he saw we did not have a reservation. Then he became condescending and blatantly rude. He offered us a table outside, which was totally fine, but kept mentioning that if it rains (as it was cloudy outside), there are no other places to sit and we still have to pay for our order. We said that was fine, and then he in an arrogant tone tells the server outside that these folks are willing to sit outside and to make sure they pay for everything. Sorry, but I am not stupid, nor a criminal who will not pay for things that I order, so I am at a complete lost for his commentary. To say the least, he put a complete downer on the whole experience that we just ordered a coffee and left (and we did pay) - Oh, and it never rained either. Bottom line, if you are in the area, go to the Society Bar and Kitchen instead. They will make you feel welcome and not be rude as this host was. Update > disappointed with the response, but not surprised. On the paying response, the comment was heard by 4 other people, including our server, and what triggered the writing of this review. Clearly no interest on learning how to improve customer experiences

best food in UK, match my Chinese taste

This was our second time here, Howie’s is fantastic. Emma served us and she was fantastic, service was flawless. Nothing is too much of an ask for everyone at Howie’s. The food is enough to visit alone, honest food and worth every Penny.