Child-friendly restaurants
After a hard day watching shows the last thing you need is to be given the evil eye from a waitress when you ask for the children's menu. Kid's Editor and mum of two Caroline Black shares her personal choices.
Floods of Fire with Electric Fields & the ASO
Review: Time Machine
Review: Antigone in the Amazon
Review: I Hide in Bathrooms
Centotre
103 George Street, EH2 3ES
Centotre's a special place, my favourite. It's such a gorgeous restaurant that you don’t expect them to be quite so welcoming to, and prepared for, children; but they are. Each child gets their very own little drawing and games bag when they sit down and have a different menu to choose their breakfast, lunch or dinner from. The menu is everything you’d expect from a high end authentic Italian; this is a grown up restaurant that treats kids as customers, not an afterthought.
Urban Angel
121 Hanover Street, EH2 1DJ
This is one of those places that just has a naturally good vibe, the sort of place you wished you lived near to make it your local. You can have all day brunch, lunch and now dinner in their Forth Street restaurant. Expect tasty sharing plates, juicy organic burgers, homemade soups with freshly baked breads and imaginative vegetarian specials; no specific kids menu but it’s the kind of place that you can happily pick and share across the table.
Browns
131-133 George Street, EH2 3ES
Browns is a busy nationwide bistro chain that welcomes everyone through its doors, and kids are no exception. Expect a vibrant and fast atmosphere, which is great fun for slightly older children but you might find it a bit full on with small babies. They have a well priced and good value set menu offering, amongst other things, flatbreads, fish and chips and a rather hopeful house salad; an ideal place for a pre-show pit stop.
Looking Glass
36 Simpson Loan, EH3 9GG
0131 229 2902
Technically a bookshop but it does have a child friendly café. Based in the new, rather fancy and laidback, Quartermile area of the city, it’s very close to The Meadows where children can run free or play at the gigantic play park. This is the place to go when you need to escape the chaotic city centre, sit on a big sofa, eat home baking and feel like a local.
S. Luca
16 Morningside Road, EH10 4DB
The family behind S. Luca's have been making ice-cream in Edinburgh since 1908 and their traditional café serves light snacks like paninis, pizza and lasagne alongside old school sundaes. Although there’s a rather steep spiral staircase to negotiate, you’ll find plenty of space to leave your buggy downstairs. This is a straight forward dining experience where the star of the show is undoubtedly the ice cream, but children love it. Go on, when was the last time you had a Knickerbocker Glory?