Number One

One of Edinburgh’s best restaurants, holding a Michelin Star for 12 consecutive years. Number One presents a unique blend of Scottish and French cuisine.

Number One Restaurant at The Balmoral in Edinburgh - Rocco Forte

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Number One, Balmoral Hotel - Edinburgh Restaurant Reviews ...

Number One (1 Princes Street, Edinburgh) | The List

Opulent, fine dining with strong Scottish focus in the landmark Balmoral Hotel.

The 2017/18 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+ ).

With its timelessly classy décor and acres of space between tables, it’s immediately apparent that this is no ordinary dining experience.

Set beneath a magnificent clock tower, The Balmoral Hotel is an elegantly cosmopolitan five-star hotel in the heart of Edinburgh's bustling Princes Street.

Number One restaurant offers a refined dining experience, with a Michelin-starred menu that emphasises local produce in a creative display of Scottish cooking.

Number One, The Balmoral, Edinburgh, restaurant review ...

The Balmoral's Number One restaurant deserves its reputation as one of the top eateries in Edinburgh, finds Claire Gardner As we sipped ice cold champagne and were asked by a charming waiter not only what type of bread we would like, but also for our choice of butter, we knew we were in for a treat.

And while we were guzzling fizz and chewing on slices of bread slathered in butter (we went for the slightly salted rather than the unsalted or bacon options), our dapper sommelier Glen arrived on the scene to talk us through our dinner choice and the wines involved.

So, enter stage right Sommelier Glen, just seconds behind one of the many bustling waiting staff carrying our starters, Balmoral whisky smoked salmon with lemon butter, quails egg and caviar.

Before we tucked in, our glasses were charged with a delicious Heidsieck Brut Champagne, chosen, Glen told us, to compliment and tease out the ‘smokiness” of the salmon.

Next course was Rose veal sweetbread with Scottish asparagus and Madeira sauce and a glass of rich red, a German wine Malterdinger Spatburgunder which slipped down a treat, then onto the desert, a dark chocolate tart with praline and dark chocolate served with a pudding wine, a sweet yet spicy number which matched perfectly with the richness of the dish.

Major Foodie Review - Number One

This was a highly enjoyable tasting menu with a high level of design from intricate canapes and petit fours to the bread selection and I had one of the best dishes in a long time via their signature cold-smoked salmon dish which was frankly superb.

Serving as an evening, romantic treat as probably its main forte (with no natural light being underground) I believe this could be enhanced even more with a small tweak to their music selection and I would also see this restaurant working for celebration events well.

This, combined with the luxuriously rich quail’s egg gave the dish it sumptuous quailty with perfect balance of salt from the caviar and cod roe and a beautiful judgement of the lemon curd providing sweetness and just enough sharp from the apple matchsticks.

The latter components helped to bring this dish together completely.

The final layer of small chicken skin crisps were a wonderful component to have and these raised the overall flavour to the stratosphere and it really was an utterly superb dish as a result.

Number One restaurant review 2010 September Edinburgh | British ...

Bread is made from scratch in the kitchen and tonight was a choice of slices of walnut and raisin, “foccacia” (which appeared to be no such thing) of olive and tomato, cheese bread and rye bread, as well as white multigrain.

Pea, Parmesan and mushroom tart with cold pea purée had well-made pastry, though the puree could have done with a bit more intensity of pea flavour (15/20).

The distinct flavours of chestnut mushroom (brown cap mushrooms) and cauliflower puree dominated the delicate flavour of the langoustine, which was barely detectable; in terms of balance, a green vegetable would have been useful too (14/20).

A pretty dessert was mirabelle plums in filo pastry with (seasonal) greengage puree and mirabelle sorbet, alongside some white chocolate.

There were some good dishes, notably the duck, but too few that for me were really at the one star level.

Number One, Balmoral Hotel - Edinburgh Restaurant Reviews ...

The Cellar, restaurant review: Billy Boyter has gained a Michelin star ...

Boyter works every service, constantly changing the menu, foraging for ingredients and pouring as much creativity and care into every dish as he did when he was head chef at Edinburgh's swankiest restaurant, Number One at the Balmoral Hotel.

Out of the blue – he learned via a tweet – Boyter is now the recipient of a shiny new Michelin star.

Thanks to the Guide's relentless chef-tracking system, which followed him from the capital back to his home town in the East Neuk, Boyter's hidden gem has gained rapid promotion to the Scottish premier league.

Boyter's ability to deliver blasts of clear, distinct flavour makes these delicate dishes wonderfully satisfying The Cellar's heritage is more than honoured in a magnificent fish dish: pearly stone bass, its skin blackened and crisp, on black quinoa muddled with tiny shrimp, golden raisins and samphire, with lemongrass butter lending a citric shiver.

As if the Michelin excitement wasn't enough, Boyter and his wife had a new baby girl last month.