Date restaurants in Edinburgh

Whether you are meeting someone for the first time after taking the plunge on Tinder, or you’re just looking for a little bit of space away from work and kids, then how about Pickles? It’s a small basement wine bar, chunky natural wood dominating the colour scheme, the menu largely consisting of cheese and meat platters, and pâtés. It’s completely informal, operates a no-bookings policy – so you just have to take your chances when you drop in – and it doesn’t even open until late afternoon. But if you do score a table and park yourself with her, or him, in front of a Scottish cheese board and a couple of glasses of appropriate wine then at least you have the building blocks of a great evening in place. 

Aesthetics are important, don’t you think? That holds true for virtually everything on a date, from presentation of self, through use of language, ease of interaction to choice of venue for dinner and the appearance of whatever is magicked on to the plate. At Kanpai, you can concentrate on chat, eye contact and the avoidance of wardrobe malfunction because the food is reliably drop-dead gorgeous and serves as a launchpad for all kinds of conversations.

If you’re shying away from big bucks or look-at-me gestures on your date then stepping instead into a café where the décor transports you to an obscure corner of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar might be a winner. Empires is a small Turkish meze venue, it’s not expensive and what it lacks in finesse is made up for by an enduring charm.

Part of the rolling gentrification of Leith Walk that has seen some much better bars and eateries appear up and down the thoroughfare in the last few years, the Walnut launched at the end of 2015 as a small, independent venue offering a high standard of bistro cooking in simple surroundings: one room, mix’n’match chairs, wooden floor, light colour scheme. In terms of accessibility, informality, sheer quality and its BYOB policy, it’s an absolutely lovely place to eat. A typical three courses here might involve pea and ham hock soup with poached egg and truffle oil to start; lamb hotpot with black pudding as a main; apple frangipane tart to finish. Vegetarians are very well catered for (roast carrot, goat cheese and walnut salad with sherry vinaigrette to start; chickpea and aubergine cassoulet as a main for example) while the BYOB idea means you can splash out on some wine to do justice to the food (Oddbins, Sainsbury’s Local and Tesco Express are all very close by while there’s a Majestic about 10 minutes’ walk down Leith Walk). There's nothing intimidating or distracting here: just you, great cooking, decent wine, your date – and a bill that will seem pretty economical given the talent in the kitchen.