Edinburgh

Restaurant Martin Wishart

Name: Restaurant Martin Wishart
Address: Edinburgh, Edinburgh, GB
Telephone: 0131 553 3557

French cooking with Scottish produce on the Shore at Leith, in a converted warehouse, where Martin Wishart opened in 1999 and has held a Michelin star since 2001.

Visit website Call

Welcome

On the Shore at Leith, the name is set in raised letters on a white wall, above tall windows looking out over the water.

The dining room is quiet and polished. Green velvet banquettes curve beneath clusters of glass chandeliers, against dark geometric wallpaper and timber panelling, and the tables are topped with weathered marble. Small bronze acrobats perch on black plinths between the booths. The plates arrive one at a time and carefully made: a seafood course at the centre of a wide textured bowl, a seared duck breast with a pastry roll and purée, its sauce poured at the table, each with a glass of wine chosen to go with it. Book for lunch, when the light comes off the river, and leave the afternoon free.

Before you go

A market menu and a longer tasting menu, with a fish tasting menu and a vegetarian one.

Lunch from Wednesday to Saturday and dinner from Wednesday to Friday, in the season that ran into May 2026.

Where: On the Shore, Leith, overlooking the Water of Leith.

Opening hours

Book

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: noon–1.30pm, 6.30pm–10pm
Thursday: noon–1.30pm, 6.30pm–10pm
Friday: noon–1.30pm, 6.30pm–10pm
Saturday: noon–1.30pm, 6.30pm–10pm
Sunday: Closed

Did you know

Black leather chairs surround marble-topped tables beneath teal curtains in an Edinburgh restaurant.

Did you know

Nearly a carpenter.

Martin Wishart left school at fifteen thinking of becoming a carpenter, until he was offered an apprenticeship in a hotel kitchen in Edinburgh.

Cluster pendant lights hang above green banquette seating and marble tables in an Edinburgh restaurant.

Did you know

On a doorstep in Burgundy.

At twenty he left his job at Cameron House on Loch Lomond and turned up at the door of Marc Meneau's restaurant in Burgundy, and Meneau took him in.

A sign reading Martin Wishart Restaurant is mounted on a white wall in Edinburgh.

Did you know

Seven years looking.

He decided at twenty-three to open his own restaurant, and took nearly seven years to find the building in Leith.

A seafood starter is plated beside a glass of wine and a vase of flowers on a marble table in an Edinburgh restaurant.

Did you know

Wobbly chairs.

Martin Wishart tiled the kitchen and painted the walls himself, and the first dining room had wobbly chairs and a concrete floor. The Michelin star came two years later, in 2001.

A rolled napkin and seafood starter sit on a marble table beside a vase of flowers in an Edinburgh restaurant.

Did you know

Delivered alive.

The langoustines, scallops, crabs and lobsters all arrive at the kitchen live.

A seared meat course is plated beside a glass of red wine and a rolled napkin on a marble table in an Edinburgh restaurant.

Did you know

A first for a chef.

In 2012 he became the first chef to be given an honorary degree by the University of Edinburgh.

Ben Lerwill

From our guide to Edinburgh

As one of the top chefs in the UK, Edinburgh-born Martin Wishart has a reputation that precedes him. This eponymous restaurant offers top-notch Michelin-starred dining with a European influence.