Restaurant in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Edinburgh's best-value Scottish pub, Michelin-backed.
Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) make The Scran & Scallie Edinburgh's clearest answer to the question of where to eat well without a fine dining budget. From the Tom Kitchin stable, it serves serious Scottish comfort food — steak pie, haggis, fish and chips — in a lively Stockbridge pub setting. Book ahead; this is one of the busiest restaurants in the city.
If you're looking for a relaxed dinner that punches well above its price point in a city full of formal tasting menus, The Scran & Scallie is the booking to make. This is the right venue for groups who want serious Scottish cooking without the ceremony, and for anyone visiting Edinburgh who wants to eat well without committing to a £££ special-occasion blowout. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) confirm what regulars in the Stockbridge area already know: the kitchen here earns its reputation consistently, not just on a good night.
The Scran & Scallie occupies the kind of position in Edinburgh's dining geography that most cities struggle to fill: a genuinely good pub-restaurant that feels like a neighbourhood anchor rather than a tourist destination. Located on Comely Bank Road in the residential Stockbridge area, the room operates with the energy of a local you'd actually return to. It's louder than a fine dining room and more animated than a gastropub trying too hard to look casual. The atmosphere leans convivial — expect noise, movement, and tables that turn over, which means the room rewards early bookings over late ones if you want a less hectic experience.
The sensory register here is pub-warm rather than restaurant-cool. There's nothing austere about how the space feels, which is precisely the point. Tom Kitchin, whose name sits behind this operation, built The Kitchin as Edinburgh's benchmark for high-intensity Scottish fine dining. The Scran & Scallie is the deliberate counterweight: the same sourcing philosophy applied to steak pie, fish and chips, and haggis, neeps and tatties, served in a room where you don't need to dress up or keep your voice down. Chef Jamie Knox leads the kitchen day to day.
Menu reads as a confident argument for Scottish comfort food done properly. The dishes named in the Bib Gourmand recognition are the ones to order: the steak pie and the haggis with neeps and tatties are the clearest expressions of what the kitchen does well. This is not a menu trying to reinvent these dishes — it's a menu trying to execute them better than anyone else at this price level. The dessert section is reportedly strong, so don't treat it as an afterthought.
Holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand for two years running in the current Edinburgh dining environment is not a given. The city's restaurant scene has grown significantly more competitive, with venues like AVERY, Condita, and Timberyard raising the bar at the leading end. In that context, The Scran & Scallie retaining its Bib Gourmand signals consistency, not complacency. It has found its lane , accessible, high-quality Scottish pub food in a residential neighbourhood , and it hasn't drifted from it.
Yes, with one qualification. This is a strong choice for a relaxed birthday dinner, a low-key celebration, or an anniversary where the priority is great food over formal atmosphere. It is not the venue for a proposal dinner requiring quiet intimacy or a business meal where conversation needs to stay confidential. For those occasions, Martin Wishart or The Kitchin will serve you better. But if the occasion calls for something that feels genuinely celebratory without being stiff, and you want food that people will actually talk about rather than politely admire, The Scran & Scallie delivers.
Google reviewers back this up: a 4.5 rating across 2,408 reviews is a meaningful signal at a venue this busy. High-volume, neighbourhood-serving restaurants are often where review scores regress to the mean. Maintaining a 4.5 here indicates consistent execution, not just good days.
This is one of the busiest restaurants in Edinburgh by any measure. Walk-ins are unlikely to result in a table during peak service, and the Michelin recognition will have tightened availability further. Book in advance , ideally at least a week out for midweek, longer for weekends. The price point is ££, making it accessible relative to Edinburgh's fine dining tier, but demand means availability, not affordability, is the actual constraint here. See the practical comparison table below for how this stacks up against Edinburgh's other top-rated options.
For more on where to eat, drink, and stay around the city, see our full Edinburgh restaurants guide, our Edinburgh hotels guide, and our Edinburgh bars guide. If you're exploring further afield in the UK, Hand and Flowers in Marlow is the closest structural equivalent to The Scran & Scallie at the national level , a pub-format venue with serious culinary credentials and a loyal local base. For Scottish cooking with more ambition at the plate, The Kitchin remains the obvious next step in Edinburgh itself, or look at Nàdair in Atlanta if you want to see how Scottish cuisine travels internationally.
Book The Scran & Scallie if you want the best-value expression of Scottish cooking in Edinburgh, backed by two years of Michelin recognition and a neighbourhood following that fills the room every service. Go early if atmosphere matters. Don't skip dessert. And if your group wants a more formal experience or a quieter room, look at Martin Wishart or Condita instead.
| Venue | Price | Style | Booking difficulty | Michelin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Scran & Scallie | ££ | Scottish pub-restaurant | Easy (book ahead) | Bib Gourmand 2025 |
| The Kitchin | ££££ | Modern Scottish fine dining | Moderate | One Star |
| Martin Wishart | ££££ | Modern European formal | Moderate | One Star |
| Timberyard | ££££ | Nordic-influenced modern | Moderate | One Star |
| AVERY | ££££ | Creative tasting menu | Hard | One Star |
| Condita | ££££ | Modern tasting menu | Hard | One Star |
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Scran & Scallie | Scottish | Comfort food abounds at this relaxed operation from the Tom Kitchin stable, which positions itself as a real neighbourhood pub, but one that also happens to serve great tasting food. As this is one of the busiest eateries in Edinburgh, you need to make sure to book if you’re to indulge in the hearty joys of steak pie, fish & chips or haggis, neeps & tatties. Leave room for dessert too, as the sweet-toothed are well looked after here.; Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | Easy | — |
| Martin Wishart | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| The Kitchin | Modern British, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Timberyard | Modern British - Nordic, Modern British | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| AVERY | Creative | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Condita | Modern Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
How The Scran & Scallie stacks up against the competition.
At ££, yes — this is among the strongest value propositions in Edinburgh's dining scene. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) confirm the kitchen consistently delivers quality above what the price point suggests. If you want Scottish comfort cooking done properly without the cost of a tasting menu, this is the call.
The menu is anchored in traditional Scottish pub fare — steak pie, fish and chips, haggis, neeps and tatties — so it skews heavily toward meat and fish. Specific dietary accommodation details are not documented in available data, so check the venue's official channels before booking if you have serious requirements. The format is a pub-restaurant, not a fine-dining kitchen built around flexibility.
The Michelin recognition specifically calls out steak pie, fish and chips, and haggis, neeps and tatties as the dishes to anchor your meal around. Dessert is also flagged as worth saving room for. Order from the core Scottish comfort food menu rather than treating this like a place to experiment at the edges.
Book well in advance — this is described as one of Edinburgh's busiest restaurants, and the Bib Gourmand profile keeps demand high. Walk-ins during peak service are unlikely to result in a table. If you're visiting Edinburgh on a fixed itinerary, secure a reservation before you travel.
For a step up in formality and price from the same Tom Kitchin stable, The Kitchin is the obvious comparison. For creative tasting menus at a higher price point, Condita or Timberyard are the Edinburgh benchmarks. AVERY and Martin Wishart both operate at the formal end, where you're paying for precision rather than comfort. The Scran & Scallie holds its own specifically in the relaxed, everyday-value tier.
Yes, if the occasion calls for a relaxed, convivial atmosphere rather than ceremony. A birthday dinner or low-key anniversary works well here — the quality is backed by Michelin recognition, but the pub-restaurant format means there is no white-tablecloth formality. For a milestone where presentation and theatre matter, The Kitchin or Martin Wishart are the stronger fit.
The Scran & Scallie does not operate as a tasting menu restaurant — it is a pub-restaurant built around à la carte Scottish comfort food. If a tasting menu format is what you're after in Edinburgh, Condita is the city's most focused option at that end of the market. Come here for steak pie and haggis, not a multi-course progression.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
