Pre-Theatre Dinner in Edinburgh: The Best Places to Eat and Drink Near the Playhouse

There is a particular kind of Edinburgh evening that does not get written about enough.

It starts with a table on Broughton Street sometime around half past five. A drink while you look at the menu. Food that arrives at the right pace and leaves you satisfied but not heavy. A walk up the hill to the Playhouse in time to find your seats without rushing. Two hours of something that stays with you. And then, if the evening is going well, the walk back down again to somewhere warm where the conversation can properly begin.

The Edinburgh Playhouse sits at the top of Leith Walk, which puts Broughton Street in almost perfect position for a pre-theatre dinner. It is a ten minute walk at a comfortable pace, which means you are not rushing from the table to the auditorium, and you are not sitting with an hour to kill either. The timing, when you plan it right, is one of the more pleasurable logistical coincidences in Edinburgh dining.

This is a guide to making the most of that coincidence. The restaurants below are all within easy reach of the Playhouse, all worth your time, and between them cover most moods and appetites. There is also a section at the end about what to do after the curtain comes down, because that is often where the best part of the evening happens.

Getting the timing right

Before getting into specific restaurants, it is worth thinking about the pre-theatre window itself, because it shapes everything.

Most evening performances at the Playhouse have curtain times between 7pm and 7:30pm. Shows tend to run between two and two and a half hours, which means you are typically out by 9:30pm or 10pm at the latest. That gives you a very comfortable post-show window for a drink and a conversation if you want one.

For dinner before the show, you want to be seated no later than 5:30pm to 5:45pm and aiming to leave your table by 6:45pm. That gives you the ten minute walk up to the Playhouse, a few minutes to find your seats, and no anxiety about the curtain going up without you. An hour and fifteen minutes at the table is enough for a relaxed, unhurried meal without watching the clock obsessively, particularly in restaurants built around sharing plates or a straightforward two-course format.

Where it starts to get complicated is in restaurants that work to a more formal three-course structure with long gaps between courses. If you are choosing somewhere with that kind of rhythm, make sure you mention to the team when booking that you are going to the theatre. Most good restaurants will work with you on the timing. The ones that will not are probably not the right choice for a pre-theatre evening.

Nectar Bar

I will be upfront: this is our restaurant. But I will also be honest, which is that Nectar genuinely works well for a pre-theatre dinner for reasons that go beyond proximity.

We are a Greek-Mediterranean sharing plates and cocktail bar on Broughton Street, and the format we cook in suits the pre-theatre window naturally. Sharing plates arrive as they are ready rather than in a locked three-course sequence, which means the pace is largely in your hands. If you want to move through the meal efficiently, the kitchen will move with you. If you arrive at 5:30pm and want to start with a cocktail and take your time before the food comes, that works too.

The food comes from Margarita's kitchen, and it is the kind of cooking that leaves you in the right state for an evening at the theatre: satisfied, not overfull. The meat platter and the veggie platter are the natural anchors for a group of two or four, giving enough variety to share without over-ordering. The grilled halloumi with dark forest fruit chutney is the dish that comes back to almost every table. The cheese filo pastry with honey and sesame is the thing that disappears fastest. The chicken skewer and the prawn saganaki are both worth ordering if the table is hungry.

Panos's cocktail list is worth arriving early for. The Warmth Within, Patron Reposado with apricot liqueur, lime and a jalapeno syrup, is the kind of drink that settles you into an evening without overwhelming it. The Drops of the River, a botanical combination of Bombay Sapphire, mastiha liqueur, St Germain and jasmine, is the one I would order if I wanted something that felt like a proper beginning to a special night out.

We are open from 5pm Tuesday to Friday and from noon on Saturday and Sunday. Booking ahead for a pre-theatre evening is worth doing, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays. Reserve your table here.

Vinette

Directly across the road from us at 36 Broughton Street is Vinette, Stuart Ralston's take on a Parisian bar à vin, and it is one of the most interesting openings on the street in recent years. Ralston is the chef behind Michelin-starred Lyla, and Vinette carries the same commitment to quality in a considerably more relaxed format.

The cooking sits in bistro territory: European dishes rooted in French technique but made with Scottish produce, short menus, and a confidence in the simplicity of the whole thing. The burger has become something of a talking point since they opened, and the lunch set menu, which includes wine, is one of the better value propositions on Broughton Street. Downstairs, Vivien is the team's cocktail bar, named after the poet Renée Vivien, and it is the kind of atmospheric, candlelit space that works very well as a pre- or post-theatre drink destination.

Vinette is the right choice if you want something in the French bistro mould: considered, well-sourced, and a little more structured than the sharing plates format at Nectar. The two restaurants, sitting across the road from each other, cover most of what a group with different moods might want from the same stretch of the street.

Bistro Coco

Next door to us on Broughton Street, Bistro Coco is a French bistro that does exactly what it sets out to do with real consistency. Classic cooking, unfussy in its approach, and reliable in a way that matters when you have a curtain time to keep.

For a pre-theatre dinner, Bistro Coco suits people who want a more traditional two-course structure rather than the informal rhythm of a sharing plates meal. If someone at your table is not a sharing plates person, or if you want a slightly more formal feel to the start of the evening, this is the right call. The food is the kind of cooking that made French bistro cuisine a template for the rest of the world: not trying to reinvent anything, just doing the fundamentals very well.

Bistro Coco, Nectar and Vinette together mean that Broughton Street alone covers French bistro, Mediterranean sharing plates, and Parisian wine bar within about a hundred metres of each other. Most pre-theatre dining decisions begin and end on this stretch.

Thamel

A few doors down from us, Thamel sits alongside The Blind Tiger, a speakeasy bar operating in the same building, and the combination makes it one of the more complete pre-theatre options on the street.

The food at Thamel is worth knowing about before you go. Get the olives. That is not a throwaway line: the olives at Thamel are consistently one of the things people mention when they talk about eating on Broughton Street, and they are the kind of thing that disappears quickly when they arrive. The kitchen runs a menu that fits naturally within the neighbourhood's character: thoughtful, not trying to be everything, and the kind of cooking that works well at a table where people are in a good mood.

The Blind Tiger is also worth keeping in mind as a post-theatre destination. Live jazz on Fridays and a DJ on Saturdays give it a distinct personality depending on the night, and it is the kind of place where a conversation that started over dinner can continue somewhere with genuine atmosphere rather than a standard late bar. You can book through thamel.co.uk.

Edinburgh Street Food

Edinburgh Street Food operates on a different model to the sit-down restaurants, and understanding that difference before you plan around it matters.

The format is a collection of street food traders under one roof, with communal eating, quick turnaround, and the kind of variety that solves the problem of a group with very different appetites or dietary preferences. Everyone orders what they want, everything arrives quickly, and there is no pacing choreography to navigate.

For a pre-theatre dinner, the speed and informality are genuine advantages if you are with a group that wants to keep things relaxed and move efficiently. You can be in, fed, and ready to walk up the hill well within the pre-theatre window without any of the timing anxiety that can creep into a more formal restaurant experience on a time-constrained evening. It is a different kind of pre-theatre meal, but it is a good one for the right group.

The Olive Branch

On the corner of Broughton Street and Broughton Place, The Olive Branch has been one of the neighbourhood's steady fixtures since 2003. It is a bistro that takes a broad approach to its menu, drawing on Mediterranean influences alongside more familiar Scottish comfort cooking, and it is the kind of place that suits a group with mixed preferences: something for the person who wants a burger alongside something for the person who wants fish or a vegetarian main.

The Olive Branch is one of those restaurants that Broughton Street regulars return to because it is consistently good rather than occasionally brilliant. For a pre-theatre dinner, that consistency matters. You know roughly what you are going to get, you know it will be decent, and you know the timing will not surprise you.

Giuliano's

If you are coming from further afield and want to eat as close to the Playhouse as possible before the show, Giuliano's on Union Place is directly opposite the theatre. It is an Edinburgh institution of the straightforwardly Italian kind: large, accommodating, capable of handling groups at short notice, and reliable in the way that Italian restaurant cooking in Edinburgh tends to be at its best.

Giuliano's is not the most adventurous choice on this list, but adventure is not always what you want from a pre-theatre dinner. Sometimes you want pasta, good service, and the reassurance that the evening starts well before the curtain goes up. On that basis, Giuliano's delivers consistently.

LaSal

Directly opposite the Playhouse on Union Place, LaSal is an authentic Spanish restaurant that represents one of the closest possible pre-theatre options to the theatre itself. If you are arriving in Edinburgh by train and heading straight to the Playhouse area, LaSal is worth knowing about: it is a few steps from the venue, the menu covers the kind of Spanish sharing plates that suit an unhurried pre-theatre meal, and the tequila and mezcal list is genuinely extensive for anyone who wants to start the evening with something interesting in the glass.

After the show: where the evening really begins

Here is the honest truth about a night at the Edinburgh Playhouse that tends not to make it into guides. The best part of the evening often happens after the curtain comes down.

You walk out of the theatre with your coat half-buttoned and your head full of whatever you have just watched. You have a choice at that point. You can go home and let the evening close quietly. Or you can find somewhere warm and keep talking.

The second option is almost always better.

We see this at Nectar regularly, and it is one of the things about running a late-night bar on this street that I find most enjoyable. A group comes in for dinner at 5:30pm, leaves around 6:45pm, and then the door opens again sometime after 10pm and they are back. Sometimes with extra people they met at the interval or in the queue outside. Sometimes having bumped into strangers who turned out to be going to the same show and ended up with things to say about it. The post-theatre table has a particular energy that a pre-theatre dinner does not: looser, more animated, people leaning across to other tables to find out what they made of the ending.

We are open until 11pm Sunday to Thursday and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, so there is no rush after the curtain comes down. The Mountain Chalet, our Woodford Reserve bourbon cocktail with Aperol, Martini Rosso and orange foam, is the one I most often see ordered at that post-theatre hour. Something about a warm, spirit-forward drink suits the mood of having just watched something that has properly moved you. The Gangster, date-infused Bacardi Spiced with maple, lemon and rose bitters, is the other one that fits the moment.

The Blind Tiger at Thamel and Vivien downstairs at Vinette are both excellent post-show options if you want to continue on the same stretch of the street. Both have the right atmosphere for an evening that is not ready to end.

Planning the whole evening

If you want a simple structure for getting the most out of a Playhouse night, here is how I would approach it.

Arrive on Broughton Street by 5:30pm. Choose your restaurant based on the mood of your group and what you are hungry for. Leave the table by 6:45pm. Walk up to the Playhouse in ten minutes. Watch the show. Walk back down the hill. Find somewhere for a drink and keep talking about it for as long as the evening wants to last.

Broughton Street, as a setting for that kind of night, is one of the best the city has to offer.

Book your table at Nectar Bar before the show, or come back after.

Opening hours Tuesday to Thursday: 5pm to 11pm Friday: 5pm to 1am Saturday: 12pm to 1am Sunday: 12pm to 11pm Monday: Closed

Nectar Bar, 73 Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3RJ