Hidden Scotland
Sign in

Food and drink
in the Scottish Borders.

It’s 21:32 in the Borders.
Scottish Borders

Where to eat in the Borders.

The Borders eat well, with beef and lamb from the hills, game from the estates and fish landed at Eyemouth. There's a family restaurant with a Michelin Bib in Melrose, an Italian kitchen in an old railway station, and country restaurants known for their game. On the coast, try fish and chips by the harbour or crab in a cottage café at St Abbs. The towns have good delis and coffee roasters. Book ahead at weekends.

The Spotty Dog→
Three Hills Coffee→
The Hoebridge→
Buccleuch Arms→
The Flat Cat Gallery→
Giacopazzi's→
Place of the day20 hours ago

Coldingham Beach Café.

A small white café on the sand at Coldingham Bay near St Abbs, for coffee, milkshakes and cake beside the beach huts.

See the place
Tonight19 hours agoScottish BordersBuccleuch ArmsRestaurantScottish BordersProvenderRestaurantScottish BordersMonte CassinoRestaurantScottish BordersThe Caddy MannRestaurantScottish BordersBrevityRestaurantScottish BordersBurts HotelRestaurant

A table for tonight.

Restaurants to book ahead, and the ones you can still walk into.

See all the restaurants
Food and drink18 hours ago

The Spotty Dog.

A delicatessen on the High Street in Lauder, with cheeses, wines, herbs and spices, hampers, and coffee and bacon rolls to take away.

See the place
From the magazine17 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

The Mainstreet Trading Company, a bookshop in a former Victorian grocery in St Boswells, in the Scottish Borders, was named Britain's Best Small Shop in 2018.

The building began life as a Victorian grocery store and later became an auction house, before Rosamund and Bill de la Hey turned it into a bookshop in 2008. Ten years on came the national title, which, as the magazine says, tells you all you need to know about its local charm, independent spirit and dedication to quality. Inside there are tables piled with new books, a café serving coffee and food, and a children's room watched over by a painted green dragon. In a barn behind, the couple have added a deli and homeware shop.

See The Mainstreet Trading Company · Scottish Borders
From our guide16 hours ago

The Caddy Mann.

A highly respected restaurant with a string of accolades to its name – including being chosen as the UK’s best game restaurant – the Caddy Mann is a family-run affair that puts as much love into its coffee and home-bakes as it does into its lunch and dinner menus. The slow-baked Caddy Mann lamb and the locally sourced Game Pie are both popular dishes.

See the place
Did you know15 hours ago

The Borders Distillery in Hawick makes its gin in a rare Carterhead still, which steams the plants that flavour it instead of boiling them.

Most gin stills boil their botanicals, the herbs and spices that give a gin its taste; the Carterhead passes the rising spirit vapour gently through them. The gin is named after William Kerr, born in Hawick in 1779, who became one of the 19th century's most accomplished botanists, and the distillery reckons he would have approved. The same still steams the distillery's barley vodka through charcoal as it is distilled, and the vodka, Puffing Billy, is named after the still.

See Borders Distillery · Scottish Borders
Food and drink14 hours ago

Three Hills Coffee.

A speciality coffee roastery and cafe on the High Street in Selkirk, roasting its own beans and teaching barista courses.

See the place
Newly discovered13 hours agoScottish BordersColdingham Beach CaféCafeScottish BordersThe Woodlands CaféCafeScottish BordersThe Falls of ClydeAttractionScottish BordersEbbcarrs CafeCafeScottish BordersMarchmont HouseAttractionScottish BordersThe Clubhouse, EyemouthRestaurant

Some good places to go, newly added to the site.

The newest places on our pages in Borders.

Browse everywhere to go
From our guide12 hours ago

Mainstreet Trading Company.

Based in a premises that was once a Victorian grocery store then later an auction store, this characterful bookshop-cum-café-cum-deli has previously been voted Britain’s Best Small Shop, which tells you all need to know about its blend of local charm, independent spirit and dedication to quality.

See the place
Food and drink11 hours ago

The Hoebridge.

A restaurant in an old inn at Gattonside, across the Tweed from Melrose, with a seasonal menu and a garden, open for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday.

See the place
Afterwards11 hours agoScottish BordersMelrose Abbey300 yardsScottish BordersHarmony Garden300 yardsScottish BordersRhymer’s Stone1.1 miles

Round the corner from Burts Hotel.

The three good places closest to it: Melrose Abbey, Harmony Garden and Rhymer’s Stone.

See Burts Hotel
Did you know10 hours ago

Traquair House, near Innerleithen in the Borders, brews its ale in oak vessels, some of them more than 200 years old, in a brewhouse beneath its chapel.

Ale was brewed at Traquair as long ago as the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, and in 1739 a 200-gallon copper was put into the brewhouse under the chapel. In the early 1960s Peter Maxwell Stuart, the 20th Laird, or owner of the estate, rediscovered the old equipment, and in 1965 he started brewing with it again. The house says it is the only brewery left in the UK fermenting its beer in unlined oak vessels, and its ales include House Ale and Jacobite Ale, which is spiced with coriander. Tours of the brewery can be booked on request, with a tasting of three ales.

See Traquair House · Scottish Borders