Sunny side up (north) – Ottolenghi Edinburgh extends a warm, colourful welcome

As light and temperatures rapidly dip in the Scottish capital, a great gasp of culinary sunshine has alighted on Edinburgh’s New Town in the shape of Yotam Ottolenghi’s new restaurant on George Street. More than complex pickles and dips, the big O’s arrival heralds a vote of confidence in the capital’s food credentials: ‘I couldn't be happier to be opening in Edinburgh,’ the chef divulges. ‘The city has been on our list for a long time: it's one of the best food scenes in the UK, with growers, producers and fishermen right on the doorstep.’

Edinburgh’s opening is also a homecoming of sorts for a Scot who has been central to Ottolenghi’s food story: ‘What makes this opening particularly special is Neil Campbell, our very own executive chef,’ Ottolenghi continues. ‘Neil grew up on the Isle of Skye and built much of his career in Scottish kitchens. He has spent the last decade helping shape the Ottolenghi way. Only he could have pulled off a menu that feels unmistakably Ottolenghi but with a uniquely Scottish twist.’

We’re not talking deep-fried Mars bars, for which any lazy (non-Scottish) food journo reaches when writing about Scottish fare. No. ‘This is the food and landscape that shaped me as a chef,’ Campbell says. ‘It's a privilege to celebrate the ingredients I've always loved through the flavours and cooking style I've spent the last decade developing with the Ottolenghi team.’

And the team has gone hard in celebration of Scottish suppliers: from Welch’s fishmongers to Ochil langoustines, vegetables from The Free Company and Phantassie to dairy from Katy Rodgers and Graham’s, chocolate from the Chocolate Tree in East Lothian, and mushrooms from Rhyze. Pastries will come from Company Bakery in Musselburgh and Ottolenghi has worked with Woven Whisky in Leith to blend the restaurant’s very own ‘water of life’. Even the aprons are made by local menswear designer Kestin.

The breakfast-to-dinner dining room has been designed by Alex Meitlis, a long-time collaborator of Ottolenghi. It’s clearly a meeting of minds and values. Meitlis describes ‘generosity and warmth’ as the definitive factors behind the food and design outlook. ‘I've been designing the Ottolenghi restaurants and delis for over 20 years, and the thing that has never changed is that the design is the canvas for the food – for sharing and gathering together,’ Meitlis says. ‘So the interiors have to feel lived-in and inviting rather than precious. George Street gives you wonderful Georgian bones: proportion, symmetry, natural light, and the instinct was to honour that rather than override it.

‘In [the] Edinburgh [restaurant], the central bar sits at the heart of the room, which is very deliberate: it's the gravitational centre, the place the energy radiates from,’ Meitlis continues. ‘The textures and materials lean into wood and warmth, and every element of furniture and textiles was designed bespoke for the space. For private celebrations, we created a garret-style bar seating up to 30, full of hand-painted shapes. It’s a room that invites you to feast and be loud.’ This will be music to the ears of a local Edinburgh New Town audience who enjoy braying over brunch.

Artists and fellow Ottolenghi collaborators Gilles & Cecilie developed a concept for the restaurant to unite the local context with Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean heartland, titled: ‘We Share the Same Sea’. ‘It came from a simple, hopeful thought: the sea that touches Scotland is the same sea that touches the shores of the southern Mediterranean, where so much of Ottolenghi's cooking comes from,’ the couple say. ‘For a restaurant bringing those two worlds together on a northern coast, that felt like exactly the right thread to follow: flavours and people carried across the same water, arriving somewhere new and becoming part of it. It is always expandingly creative to work with the Ottolenghi team, Yotam and Alex.’

Ottolenghi Edinburgh is an effervescent and uplifting environment that sits in contrast to the more Nordic-infused interiors that have become de rigueur in the capital’s foodie establishments. We welcome this burst of texture and colour. It feels healthy, sociable and exuberant, rather than earnest or tweezered. ‘There's a generosity of spirit here that feels completely in keeping with what this restaurant is about,’ Gilles & Cecilie explain. ‘Inside you’ll find paintings that are abstractions of reflections we collected in conversations with people connected to the location.’

A gloriously hearty and heart-filled generosity runs through all aspects of the new Ottolenghi project, which the man himself modestly credits as being of its place, rather than imported: ‘I love the way Scottish hospitality is really warm, without any fuss.’ We’ll take it, said the Scots. Alongside a lifetime’s supply of banana bread with tahini and honeycomb, thank you very much.

Ottolenghi Edinburgh opens on 2 October 2026, 92 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 3DF