Edinburgh restaurants: 17 long lost Edinburgh restaurants that are gone but not forgotten

A taste of the past as we remember restaurants that closed in the city.

By Rhoda Morrison

Published 2nd Jan 2024, 04:45 GMT

Edinburgh has a host of great restaurants and cafes, with many eateries in the city having been featured on lists of the UK’s best.

Many restaurants in the Capital closed their doors for good in 2023, but we've taken a look back at old favourites which closed their doors much earlier. Take a look through our gallery and see which ones you remember.

Another Shandwick Place eatery was The New Yorker Restaurant, an American-style diner that opened to a great deal of fanfare in the early 1960s.

1. The New Yorker

Another Shandwick Place eatery was The New Yorker Restaurant, an American-style diner that opened to a great deal of fanfare in the early 1960s. Photo: TSPL

Staff dressed as gangsters beside a stretch limousine to advertise the opening of Fat Sam's Chicago-style diner and bar on the site of the Edinburgh meat market at Fountainbridge in September 1986.

2. Fat Sam's opening 1986

Staff dressed as gangsters beside a stretch limousine to advertise the opening of Fat Sam's Chicago-style diner and bar on the site of the Edinburgh meat market at Fountainbridge in September 1986. Photo: Alex Brown

The Quaich - Steak House/lounge bar, a popular joint (we'll get our coats..) at the corner of Shandwick Place in 1964.

3. The Quaich steak house

The Quaich - Steak House/lounge bar, a popular joint (we'll get our coats..) at the corner of Shandwick Place in 1964. Photo: TSPL

Badrul Hassain, head chef at of Lancers Indian restaurant in Stockbridge Edinburgh, June 1985.

4. Lancers Indian restaurant

Badrul Hassain, head chef at of Lancers Indian restaurant in Stockbridge Edinburgh, June 1985. Photo: Hamish Campbell

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