5 Great Edinburgh Restaurants On or Near the Royal Mile

When we traveled to Edinburgh, we were on the lookout for great restaurants, but also restaurants that were close to where we were staying on the Royal Mile.  We discovered five delicious Edinburgh restaurants on or near the Royal Mile, some through research and some just by happenstance.  They ran the gamut from fine-dining, Michelin-rated restaurants to casual eateries.  All had fantastic food and are worth a visit.

Wedgwood the Restaurant

Wedgwood the Restaurant is a Michelin-rated Edinburgh restaurant located right on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.  The Michelin rating is not Wedgwood’s only accolade.  It has also received the STLN Wine Award, been listed in the Sunday Times Top 100 Restaurants, and received the Thistle Awards Hospitality Hero 2015.

Wedgwood the Restaurant is family-owned.  Paul Wedgwood is co-owner and head chef and Lisa Wedgwood is co-owner and restaurant manager.  Wedgwood the Restaurant is the result of a dream to open a fine dining restaurant in informal surroundings with exceptional service and using the best of Scotland’s ingredients, the makings for a perfect night out.

Our meal consisted of hogget, which is two-year old lamb, sea trout, and beef carpaccio.  We were amused by the asterisk next to the pigeon item, stating that the pigeon my contain shot.  This was not the last time we saw this note on a Scottish menu and I was lucky enough to receive some shot with my pigeon at a different meal.

Ondine Restaurant

Ondine Restaurant is another Michelin-rated Edinburgh restaurant just off of the Royal Mile.  Ondine is everything seafood, calling itself a “proper seafood restaurant.”  Ondine is a fine-dining restaurant, but also a place where you can roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty while diving into platters of succulent seafood.  Ondine also provides views of Old Town Edinburgh through panoramic windows.

Kim’s Mini Meals

Kim’s Mini Meals is the farthest from the Royal Mile of these five Edinburgh restaurants, about a 10-minute walk and near the University of Edinburgh.  Family-owned Kim’s Mini Meals is also Michelin-rated and is the perfect restaurant for if you want something a little different, as Kim’s Mini Meals serves Korean food.  Kim’s Mini Meals doesn’t take reservations, so don’t be surprised if there is a long line outside the door as the restaurant is also quite small.  However, the wait really wasn’t that bad and the food was definitely worth it.

Every meal starts with free side dishes and soup.  We also had pajeon, a pancake of eggs, flour, spring onion, and seafood, and dolsot galbi, marinated pork ribs in a hot stone pot.

Cannonball Restaurant & Bar

Cannonball Restaurant & Bar is an Edinburgh restaurant right on the Royal Mile and is a very convenient place to enjoy lunch after visiting Edinburgh Castle and before imbibing Scotch whisky at the Scotch Whisky Experience.

Related: 20 Fun Things to Do in Edinburgh in 3 Days

The Contini family has run restaurants in Edinburgh since 1919.  The Cannonball Restaurant & Bar is their newest restaurant which opened in 2014 right next door to Edinburgh Castle.  Cannonball serves upscale Scottish food with options like Scottish oysters, a house salad with seasonal greens and roasted local vegetables, haggis cannonballs, and local smoked salmon.

City Restaurant

If you’re traveling in the United Kingdom, you kind of have to get fish and chips.  When getting a ride from the Edinburgh airport to our hotel, we asked our taxi driver for recommendations near our hotel on the Royal Mile, the Radisson Blu.  He told us that one of his favorite fish and chips spots in Edinburgh was City Restaurant, which also happened to be only a six minute walk away.

City Restaurant is a casual restaurant that not only has fish and chips take-away, but also seating for dining in and some local beer.  City Restaurant also stays open until midnight, which made it the perfect place to have a quick dinner after arriving on our late flight.

City Restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Fish and chips can be haddock, cod, or sea bass, and they even offer gluten free battered haddock.  There are also other fried seafood options like breaded scampi, tempura tiger prawns, and calamari rings.

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3 Top Scottish Golf Courses (That Aren’t St. Andrews)

When a golfer goes to Scotland, everyone asks if they are going to play the Old Course at St. Andrews, the most famous golf course in the world.  But since Scotland is the birthplace of golf, there are a ton more Scottish golf courses  beyond St. Andrews, and many of them are top golf courses in their own right for various reasons.  The following is my account of three fanfreekintastic Scottish golf courses I was able to experience on our trip about Scotland starting in Edinburgh and finishing at the end of Loch Ness.

Musselburgh Links

You know those two old wood-shafted golf clubs your weird Uncle Frank has hanging in a decorative X pattern on the wall in his man-cave across from the dart board?  Well, I actually played golf with those and loved it.

Musselburgh Links is arguably the oldest golf course in the world (it was recognized by Guinness as such) and Mary Queen of Scots is said to have played there in 1567.  In fact, the size of the hole in which the game is still played was determined by a tool at this place.  Open Championships were played here centuries ago.  Of course, the debate is often made for St. Andrews, which has recorded golf being played on the land dating back to 1552.

I’m not here to try to figure all that out.  All I know is there’s a gigantic banner on one of the gates which reads: MUSSELBURGH LINKS, THE OLD GOLF COURSE - THE OLDEST GOLF COURSE IN THE WORLD.  They’re quite proud of it, as they should be, and that’s enough for me.  Be sure to visit the old Clubhouse which is basically a museum showing the history of the old Club.  They’ll be happy to give you a more convincing argument.

I’m not going to lie to you. I made an attempt to get in at St. Andrews to play the Old Course. I established my handicap and I found out you need to play a round at one of the other St. Andrews’ golf courses. It’s basically a lottery and I didn’t get lucky. I’m sure that’s the case with many golfers hoping to play those storied links and I was, needless to say, disappointed when I found out I wasn’t going to get to play the most famous of the Scottish golf courses.

But, when I was informed I was going to play Musselburgh Links and found out what it is, I became very excited.  It’s an easy fifteen minute, three quid roundtrip bus ride from Edinburgh.  You’ll find Musselburgh Links in the middle of the Musselburgh Racecourse.  That’s right, this Scottish golf course is mostly in the “infield” of a horseracing track.  How funny is this local rule?  When a ball lands in a hoof-print, following verification by a playing partner, the rule for ground under repair applies.

Musselburgh Links, for the most part, is fairly flat, especially by today’s standards.  The course is nine holes (remember, they hadn’t settled on an 18-hole format yet) where the wind swirls and can blow your ball 20 yards pull or fade.  Now imagine facing that while gripping what seems like a leather-handled garden tool.

I was provided with a set of five clubs.  The Brassie is like your driver.  The Brassie was invented at Musselburgh Links when a metal plate was mounted to the bottom of a wood.  The set also included a Mashie, which I’m told is the 150-yard club for most golfers; a Mashie Niblick, good to 125 yards; a Niblick, your 100 and in club; and, finally, a putter. 

My playing partners were club members and happy to see someone take the old hickories out for a spin.  They’re surprisingly powerful and workable to a degree, but a mishit is a catastrophe.  There’s a small chipping area to get acquainted with the “wedge,” and a putting area too.  But there’s no full range to figure out the bigger clubs, so it’s a baptism by firing away.  Grip it and rip it, so they say.

Sure, you can play your round with a modern set of clubs and maybe enjoy it as much as any other course, but I suggest giving the old hickories a try.  It’s a once-in-a-lifetime round and a memory for a lifetime. 

Braemar Golf Club

My second round at a Scottish golf course found me in a mountain town in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, at around 1,200 feet above sea level.  Braemar is home to the Highest Golf Course in Scotland, Braemar Golf Club, another track I thoroughly enjoyed.  The course had seen a bit of rain and snow before I played, and yet it wasn’t soggy.  I get a feeling the grounds here are a little more accustomed to the moisture than our sunny southern California courses.  

It was here I was introduced to the mighty rough these Scot folks brag about.  I can personally say it’s no joke. Do not venture off the mowed area!  I only managed to really hide one ball in there.  When you can no longer see your feet from knee-high foliage, it’s time to call it a loss.

This course also has not a solitary sand bunker.  They don’t need them. Instead, they have these grass mounds which protect the greens.   I was lucky enough to not have to deal with any directly, but I did have to pitch over top of a few, having barely missed the green.

Another feature which promises this is no cream-puff of real estate is the fact that there is the possibility of four par-threes which measure over 200 yards depending on which tees you hit from.  Honestly, it’s one of those places you would be happy to play more than once if your visit keeps you in the area long enough, as it is a national park, but there would be no guarantee you’d score any better.

What I found most memorable was that the mountains surround the entire course and provide an amazing snowcapped view from every angle.  I saw a few deer wandering about the hills.  Wildlife is always a plus as far as I’m concerned so long as I don’t have to worry about getting bit somehow (we have rattlesnakes in our neighborhood).

The course is raised around the edges, which not only makes for interesting looks at pins, but also a fine glance at the scenery this land is so famous for.  The staff is super friendly and helpful.  They set me up with everything I needed, even extra balls just in case.   I normally only travel with one sleeve of three and a glove.  I felt like I had the whole place to myself the day I played, so I’m going to go with an often overused phrase and call this one a hidden gem.

Fort Augustus Golf Club

The captain of our Scottish Highlands barge cruise with Caledonian Discovery suggested I make my final round at the Fort Augustus Golf Club at the foot of Loch Ness, plugged by Scotland’s Golf Now as possibly being “the hardest nine-hole golf course in Scotland and the hardest par 67 layout anywhere in the country.”  The article continues, saying this Scottish golf course “could certainly be the hardest course in Scotland without a drop of water anywhere on the premises.”

Space being limited, you play the course twice from different tee locations.  The Fort Augustus Golf Club is no grand establishment.  There’s no posh clubhouse to speak of.  We weren’t even able to contact the starter by phone when trying to make a tee time on our visit.  We found the greens keeper mowing the fairways, which we found in very good order, and he was able to get us a round. 

They can provide you with clubs, tees, and balls.  What else do you need?  There is even a green fees box available for folks wanting to play when no one is available.  It works on an honor system.  (Can you even imagine?)  For just a bit more they rented us clubs and we were instructed to just leave them in the water closet on the side of the clubhouse.

The Fort Augustus Golf Club has its own funny local rules for sheep poop and wool on the greens and fairways.  You basically clean and replace as necessary.

It’s a beautiful place to get a round in.  I met a new buddy on board our cruise who, just like me, would have been happy to play any of the many Scottish golf courses.  What a bonus that it turned out to be this amazingly quaint, yet picturesque, walk in the park.

From the lochs, it seems a lot flatter than it actually is.  In fact, there’s quite a bit of undulation.  The greens are fair and roll true.  Hats off to the nice folks who keep and maintain this rustic course located where, when the wind blows (and it always does), it can be a real test for even an experienced golfer but, more importantly, a fun experience for a not so serious one.

If you’re a golfer traveling to Scotland, I hope you’ll consider giving one of these Scottish golf courses a try.  There’s more to Scotland than the big famous golf courses you hear about all the time.  Each of these golf courses has something to put it into the list of top Scottish golf courses.  Musselburgh Links is arguably the oldest golf course in the world.  Braemar Golf Club is the highest golf course in Scotland.  Fort Augustus Golf Club is the hardest nine-hole golf course in Scotland.  And as for Musselburgh Links, when are you going to have the chance to play with hickory clubs they used back in the 1500s, unless you steal your Uncle Franks?

Thank you to Musselburgh Links and Braemar Golf Club for hosting my rounds and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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