The 5 Best Vegetarian Restaurants in Edinburgh (2026)

Hendersons is the restaurant I'd point to first if someone asked for one vegetarian meal in Edinburgh, and it comes with real history. The current Barclay Place restaurant, opened in 2021, is run by Barrie Henderson, continuing his grandmother Janet's legacy — the original Henderson's opened on Hanover Street in 1962 and was, by its own account, the UK's longest-running vegetarian restaurant, before COVID closed it in 2020. The new incarnation is fully vegetarian and vegan, so there's no split menu to navigate, and it earns a genuinely rare 4.9 from over 2,000 Google reviews. Mains like the Henderson haggis and the tofu steak run £21, and the oyster mushroom 'scallops' starter (£11) is the dish regulars mention first.

Book ahead for the Sunday roast, a seitan-and-Yorkshire-pudding version at £21.50 — it's limited and must be pre-ordered by 6pm Saturday, so turning up unordered on a Sunday doesn't guarantee a portion. Groups of six or more can't book online and need to email instead. It's open daily from noon (the kitchen closes for an hour at 4pm), and it's the one I'd book first if I only had one vegetarian meal to plan in the city.

David Bann on St Mary's Street, just off the bottom of the Royal Mile, is the one I'd book for an occasion. Chef David Bann opened it in 2002, and more than 20 years on it still reads as genuinely creative rather than a vegetarian option bolted onto a normal menu: the spicy aubergine koftas (cashew, aduki bean, sweet potato, coriander panisse, beetroot raita, £19.50) and the vegetarian haggis with braised neeps and whisky onion gravy, the same price, are the two mains that keep coming up in reviews. Roughly half the menu is vegan and the kitchen will adapt more on request, so vegans eat well here too, but it's built as a vegetarian restaurant first.

A 4.7 rating across nearly 2,000 reviews is a strong score for a restaurant this established. The smart move on a weekday is the lunch offer, two courses for £25 or three for £30, Sunday to Friday, noon to 4pm. Same-day tables can't be booked online since the site's booking widget only opens an hour ahead, so call for those, and note a 12.5% service charge is added automatically for parties of five or more.

Kalpna on St Patrick Square is the Gujarati and South Indian vegetarian restaurant Edinburgh students have been recommending to each other for decades — the restaurant's own marketing celebrates 50 years of service. The thali format is the reason to come: the Kalpna Thaali (£19.95) or the larger Thaali Raj Bhog (£25.95) are built for one person to sample widely, both available in a vegan version too, so don't assume a single thali will stretch across a shared table without asking staff first. Outside the thalis, the edamame biryani (£13.95) and the Kalpna dal makhani (£12.95) are the dishes worth ordering on their own.

It also runs a lunch buffet Monday to Saturday (12:00–14:30) and a Chef's Table experience for groups of eight or more from 5:30pm. The honest note: at 4.0 from nearly 1,700 reviews, its Google score is the lowest of the five restaurants here, noticeably below Hendersons and David Bann — though the sheer volume and longevity of reviews suggests a kitchen that's stayed consistent rather than one in decline. Book through the website for dinner.

Mother India's Cafe on Infirmary Street isn't a vegetarian restaurant — it's an Indian tapas restaurant that happens to run one of the best vegetarian menus in the city, and I think that honesty matters more than pretending otherwise. Sixteen distinct vegetarian small plates sit on the printed menu, from familiar saag paneer (£8.15) and vegetable biryani (£9.15) to less common ones like sweetcorn and paneer masala and karahi mushroom, both £8.85. The tapas format means you order three or four dishes rather than one vegetarian 'main,' which is the right way to eat here regardless of diet.

At 4.5 from 3,396 reviews, it's the most-reviewed restaurant on this list by a wide margin. It's open daily to 9:30pm, and reservations go through a form on the restaurant's own page rather than a third-party booking system. If you want a fully vegetarian dining room rather than an omnivore restaurant with an exceptional vegetarian selection, go to Kalpna or David Bann instead; if you want the best vegetarian Indian tapas in Edinburgh, this is it.

Paradise Palms off Bristo Square is a bar, record store and diner rolled into one, and Google's own listing calls it 'imaginative vegetarian dining' rather than vegan — accurately, since it's largely but not strictly plant-based. The quesa birria tacos (£14.95) are the dish people come back for, and the barbacoa seitan fajitas (£19.95) are the other main worth ordering. It runs on 100% renewable energy and bio-fuel cooking, which is as much a part of its identity as the food.

One genuinely useful catch: Google lists the bar as open until 3am, but that's the bar's late licence, not the kitchen — food service actually stops at 10pm, so don't turn up at midnight expecting to eat. It's walk-in most of the year, but Fringe season pushes it to walk-in-only with no bookings taken at all. Its own accessibility FAQ is unusually candid: the venue floor works for wheelchair users, but the toilets are on a different level, and staff say they'll make extra space available on request rather than pretending it's a non-issue.