Street Food

We choose a street and tell you where to eat. Suzy Pope takes us on the second leg of her two-part exploration of Leith Walk, eating her way from Iona Street up to Elm Row

ELEANORE

There’s no denying the romance at this spot for wine and nibbles by Edinburgh’s award-winning chef Roberta Hall-McCarron. A menu of small plates is focused on locally sourced seafood and each dish delivered as culinary art.

THE WALNUT

The best thing about The Walnut may be its set lunch and dinner menus, featuring fabulous Scottish produce like crispy venison, wild mushrooms and flaky coley. But there’s the added bonus of BYOB if you want to keep things on budget: a rarity for a restaurant of this quality.

BODEGA

With pale pink and tropical green decor, this Mexican restaurant is certainly photogenic inside. Tasty twists on soft tacos dominate the menu. Think buffalo sesame chicken with a dollop of blue cheese sauce, or tempura tiger prawns with a sweet chilli and soy dressing. The house cocktails deserve their own Insta page too.

GULP RAMEN

The noodles are handmade every day with flour sourced locally and from Japan, and you can taste it in every al dente bite. The signature tonkotsu ramen is rich and warming, perfect for a soggy Edinburgh day, and the veggie offering of silken tofu and shiitake broth doesn’t feel like an afterthought.

SPRY WINES

It’s a vision of minimalism inside, with pristine white walls, raw wood and a focus on the bottles upon bottles of naturally made wines. The small-plate menu won’t fill you up but hispi cabbage with a dusting of pistachio or cured mackerel with cherries and buttermilk are the perfect accompaniment to a crisp Chenin Blanc.