This exceptional French-British bistro is now open on larger digs on Bonnington Road, as chef owner Roberta Hall-McCarron and her husband, Shaun McCarron (on front-of-house), have opened their second restaurant, a wine bar and eatery called Eleanore, in its former spot around the corner on Albert Place. Summer highlights at The Little Chartroom include crispy lamb belly with white beans, nasturtium and radish, stuffed hake with nori and courgette, and a plum bakewell with treacle soda bread ice cream. 14 Bonnington Road, 0131-556 6600; thelittlechartroom.com

A firm favourite of restaurateur Jérôme Henry, chef-proprietor of Le Roi Fou, The Little Chartroom has been garnering rave reviews since opening in 2018. The navy-and-cream colour scheme creates a cool, calm ambience, with the maritime feel further enhanced by nautical maps hung on the walls. The highly seasonal French-British lunch menu takes simple dishes and throws in the occasional Scottish twist – think sausage rolls with haggis and mustard dip, or smoked fish pearl barley risotto and poached egg.

Roberta Hall-McCarron stormed onto the Edinburgh food scene, a tiny gastronomic typhoon stirring up the city’s restaurant scene. The Little Chartroom is now a bigger chartroom: a comfortably restrained, zen-like space at the end of the Bonnington Road. Once diners manage to distract themselves from the open-kitchen ballet, they can attend to a menu with three choices in each of three courses.

Far from the city centre throng, Edinburgh Food Studio is a tiny unassuming restaurant and ‘food research hub’ dishing up some of the most creative, nerdy…

Cosy, intimate and serving up delicious food is this cute little neighbourhood bistro in Leith that also happens to be one of the best gluten-free restaurants in Edinburgh. The Little Chartroom is home to an open kitchen facing a minimal, small dining room laced with dainty wooden chairs and candle-lit tables. While not exclusively advertised as coeliac-friendly, its menu can be adapted for those on a gluten-free diet, so you can look forward to duck liver parfait, mackerel with gooseberry and kohlrabi, and roast chicken breast alongside a crispy thigh, courgette, mascarpone and jalapeño.

2022 Review: In September 2021, Great British Menu chef Roberta Hall-McCarron and FOH husband Shaun relaunched their French/British-inspired venture in larger, more polished premises on Bonnington Road. We’ve maintained ratings in anticipation of a more ambitious spin on their menu, foraged from the wilds and waters of the Scottish landscape (now with three options for each course, plus in-house sourdough). (Eleanore, a restaurant and wine bar for counter-style dining on Scottish small plates, is due to succeed this venture in the ex-Little Chartroom premises in late 2021).

Instagrammable dishes packed with flavour at The Little Chartroom / Image: Amelia Masters. With a reputation that has already extended far beyond the city since it opened in 2018, the Little Chartroom is a smart but not exactly ostentatious shopfront dining room on Leith Walk, one of Edinburgh’s busiest and most up-and-coming thoroughfares. Its married patrons are veterans of the city’s Kitchin and Castle Terrace, and together they’ ve created a modest 18-cover restaurant which blends French and British influences into sublime lunch and dinner menus.

The Little Chartroom may be classed as a ‘neighborhood restaurant,’ but chef Roberta Hall-McCarron’s food successfully convinces locals and tourists alike to leave Edinburgh’s main drag and venture out to Leith. An intimate little restaurant (there are just 30 covers including a four-person, kitchen-facing counter), The Little Chartroom is quality over quantity – the menu isn’t an hours-long tasting menu affair, instead offering a choice of three starters, three mains and three desserts. And what starters, mains and desserts they are.

Last summer, one of the hottest – and tiniest – restaurants in town, the Little Chartroom, launched a pop-up on the promenade – the Little Chartroom on the Prom. The street-food pod dished up barbecue takeaways such as smoked cod roe, flatbread, cockles, seaweed and fennel along with smoked mackerel tacos with green pepper salsa and seaweed – and was such a success it's become a permanent fixture. Due to open this spring, meanwhile, is an upmarket seafood bar and takeaway, Joppa Rocks – in the old public toilets on the promenade.

Elegant, tasteful, refined – The Little Chartroom is the ‘us’ that appears on dating apps and CV, only it’s the real deal. To visit there for dinner (Wednesday to Sunday) or lunch (Friday to Sunday) is to step into a world that’s just like ‘reality’, but, somehow, nicer. Throughout the summer, The Little Chartroom is offering a Sunday Night set menu which, like the wine list and the interior, is perfectly-judged – raw scallop, ham hock rarebit, Merguez sausage and toasted hay panna cotta.

We’re celebrating International Women’s Day by showcasing three leading women in Edinburgh’s hospitality industry: Roberta Hall-McCarron, chef and co-owner at The Little Chartroom; Virginie Brouard, owner of La P’tite Folie and Le Di-Vin Wine Bar; and Mary Hillard, owner and artisan chocolate/gelato maker, at Mary’s Milk Bar. These female-led venues are some of the best-loved fixtures on Edinburgh’s culinary landscape, imagined and owned by some of the most inspiring ladies in the city.

The project of two of the city’s well-respected industry faces – chef Roberta Hall (ex-The Kitchin) and front-of-house Shaun McCarron (ex-Castle Terrace) – this 18-seat restaurant is an intimate spot that serves just four dishes each lunch and dinner. Current offerings include the likes of stuffed lamb saddle with crispy kidney, black garlic, apricot, bitter leaves, smoked yoghurt and almonds, and cucumber gazpacho, white asparagus, apple and grape. 30 Albert Place, EH7 5HN

The food is good… really good” at Roberta Hall-McCarron’s popular operation, where “the queue to get in has dropped from a five-month wait to a couple of weeks” following a move to larger premises a couple of years back (the original is now open as Eleanore, see also). It offers “very friendly service and a great location” – and “happily it’s a place you can go for a three-course meal, not a ten-course tasting menu” (although there is also a five-course option available).

The sun is beaming through The Little Chartroom’s front windows, casting thick shadows across the restaurant and kitchen. We’ve somehow picked the hottest day of the year to come to Bonnington, but as far as Edinburgh goes, this is a pretty good spot - this easy-going quarter of Leith has become a hotspot of great bars and restaurants, and just five minutes down the road, the Water of Leith drifts lazily out into the Firth of Forth, diligently patrolled by seagulls.

Unlike the tourist traps of George and Princes Street, this charming Leith-based bistro is filled with locals – always a good sign. The set lunch menu is a steal at £19 for three courses and features dishes such as cucumber gazpacho topped with white asparagus, apple and grapes, followed by stuffed lamb saddle with smoked yoghurt and almonds. It also serves Sunday brunch, where beef bavette crumpets (followed by orange curd doughnuts) is the order of the day.

Cream wooden clad walls make The Little Chart Room feel almost nautical, and with little else to distract you the focus falls fully to the food. Expect cheffy creations like rainbow carrots, goat’s cheese, cumin, buckwheat, hazelnuts and alexanders, and lamb rump, sweetbreads, labneh, anchovies, sweetheart cabbage and pink fir apple potatoes. Maximum capacity: 14 Cuisine: European Cost indicator: Room charge of £200, mains from £20

And so to Gulp Ramen halfway up the Walk, as us Leithers refer to the Edinburgh thoroughfare that since the Little Chartroom opened along the same stretch three years ago has turned into something of a foodie destination. It has been a fitful start for the tiny Japanese fusion restaurant, which the owners, Elizabeth Elliott and Sharif Gergis, opened last year. But word of mouth is spreading, and people keep telling me I must go.

Chef Roberta Hall-McCarron’s Chartroom embodies Edinburgh’s new wave. Once best known for relatively traditional high-end dining, the city is now abuzz with chefs making clever, creative use of Scottish produce in hip, convivial restaurants. Chartroom dishes of mackerel, kohlrabi broth, hazelnut, apple and lovage; or cod, BBQ maitake mushroom, pea, lettuce, shrimp and nori butter, reflect that thirst for new ideas.

The Little Chartroom is a Leith-based neighbourhood restaurant, aiming to bring high quality dishes to everyone. The restaurant is available both for lunch and dinner, restaurant owner Chef Roberta Hall has also appeared on BBC’s Great British Menu to showcase her cooking. While you’re there, go for the Fresh cheese and sweetcorn manti with globe artichoke, leek, hazelnut, truffle and St Andrews Cheddar sauce.

The Little Chartroom is Roberta Hall-McCarron’s paean to proper, honest cooking. This bijou bistro might be a fine-dining enterprise (with fine-dining prices) but it’s all exceptionally done and delivered with a refreshing forthrightness. The seasonal menu never fails to impress, making the most of local produce with dishes that span from traditional Scottish fare to plates that have more global influences.

It's a testament to the cooking at The Little Chartroom that diners and critics make the journey to this ramshackle area of Leith about halfway to the docks and the stars of the waterfront. For this neighborhood, "up and coming" is an aspirational description. Yet people do come, and booking is essential because this tiny place seats only 18—four of them at a bar counter that doubles as a food prep area.

Just south of Leith sandwiched between Abbeyhill and Bonnington, lies a quaint and cozy bistro known as The Little Chartroom. With only a handful of tables and a few stools at the bar, it’s known as a “small restaurant with a huge reputation” and an absolute find for foodies. Though their menu is simple, they specialize in French, British, Scottish and European cuisine and are famous for their wine list.

Roberta Hall-McCarron’s renowned foodie hotspot The Little Chartroom enters into the Top 50 at number 49 for “flavours just sing and they are so good with textures and deft seasoning” and numerous best meals of the year being reported there. The Radford family’s converted Victorian warehouse Timberyard sits at 62 having built a strong culinary reputation since it opened 11 years ago.

Opened in 2020 by husband-wife duo Roberta Hall-McCarron (formerly Castle Terrace and The Kitchin) and Shaun McCarron, The Little Chartroom is a lovely neighbourhood restaurant located in the up-and-coming area of Leith. Interiors are cosy, food is creative and flavoursome, and it’s perfectly located for Fringe events at the top of Edinburgh’s Leith Walk. thelittlechartroom.com

Another charmingly teeny contemporary restaurant is The Little Chartroom. As its name suggests, there’s a nautical theme going on, with striking blues contrasting with crisp white rustic walls, tongue and groove and wooden furniture. Ahead of the lunchtime session, brunch seekers can pop in for some divine Puddledub bacon, a mimosa or a Rwandan batch brew coffee.

Roberta Hall McCarron is a great friend and she knows she’s no island. She always surrounds herself with very good people, but she really has the Midas’ touch, and her food is delicious. She comes from a really good pedigree of kitchen and, during Covid, she had a little food truck on Portobello Beach and everything that came out of that was delicious, too.

From chef Roberta Hall, the Little Chartroom serves up Scottish dishes with modern flair. Both lunch and dinner serve a three- or five-course exquisite meal. The menu changes regularly but expect to see something like duck breast paired with apricot chutney, zucchini flower stuffed with goat curd and black olives, and a strawberry and basil tart.

Edinburgh is home to two massively adored electronic music festivals. Terminal V is rapidly making a name for itself as one of the most important techno music festivals in the world, with some massive names on its lineups. And FLY Open Air has the best in techno, house, and other electronic acts, and it all goes down at Edinburgh Castle.

With its rampant popularity all but necessitating a relocation to larger premises, this Leith upstart has matured into its new, grown-up home with grace, becoming an altogether more polished proposition as a restaurant. Carrying o… Read more. 14 Bonnington Road, Edinburgh, Lothians EH6 5JD

It might look like a cosy local, but with ex-Castle Terrace chef Roberta Hall-McCarron in the kitchen, you can be sure the food here punches well above its easy-going appearance. Short seasonal menus guarantee freshness and thoughtfulness, while staff are friendly.

It almost goes without saying that The Little Chartroom should be on your must-visit list too – chef Roberta Hall-McCarron is one of Scotland’s rising culinary stars, unfortunately unless you’re very organised the waiting list for a table is a few months long.

One of the pricier restaurants on list, The Little Chartroom is an intimate little spot (18 covers btw - * that * little) to grab a delicious meal. Based on Leith Walk – one of Edinburgh’s recent hotspots for bars, cafes and restaurants, it’s a must-see area.

The Little Chartroom offers fine dining in Edinburgh close to the water. Situated in Leith, it’s a laid-back eatery showcasing locally produced ingredients. I’d suggest making time for a drink at the bar before lunch or dinner if you can.

Fine dining and fine wine is the order at The Little Chartroom. I wept tears of joy upon eating my main course - it was easily some of the best food I have ever eaten. All three courses were magic and the service was beyond exceptional.

Palmerston, Ondine Oyster and Grill, Little Chartroom and Aizle were all recognised as the Top 100 Restaurants throughout the UK and the highest ranking in the capital at The National Restaurant Awards 2022 last night.

The Little Chartroom – simple menu and laid back décor bely how super this brunch spot on Leith walk is. The menu is creative – have you ever tried sausage rolls with haggis, served with turnip ketchup?!

Roberta Hall-McCarron’s cosy Bonnington bistro is apparently the "perfect neighbourhood restaurant" and provides a homely, comforting and always welcoming atmosphere.

Discussing the restaurant owned by Stuart Ralston, Mark said the food was "so tasty" and added that he'd "be surprised if Stuart didn’t get a star soon.