One Square — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Just visited for your Sunday lunch service, which we had booked as a special occasion to celebrate my mother’s birthday.

Our reservation was for 2:00pm, and our full party was seated by 2:10pm. After ordering a bottle of wine and some coffees, we took a moment to catch up before heading to the buffet. The starters were varied and enjoyable, and at that point, we were looking forward to the rest of the meal.

Unfortunately, by around 2:45pm, when the first person in our group went up for a main course, we were told that no more hot food would be served. The remaining options were extremely limited: the last two roast potatoes (which were cold), congealed gravy (containing a hair), and a small selection of cold vegetables. Only plain boiled potatoes were available—no mash or other alternatives. When we asked if more food would be brought out, we were told no, and that what was on offer was all that would be served.

We were not the only diners expressing disappointment—others around us seemed equally surprised by the early end to hot food service. One chef did kindly crisp some boiled potatoes in the air fryer, which we appreciated, but it was no substitute for a properly stocked carvery.

At the same time, we were told dessert options would also not be replenished, prompting us to rush to get puddings before we’d even had a chance to eat mains. This added stress and pressure to what should have been a relaxed and celebratory afternoon.

I asked to speak with a manager and explained how upsetting the experience had been. While she offered to remove the wine from our bill, her tone felt dismissive. The interaction felt more combative than conciliatory, and it did nothing to alleviate our concerns. I was left feeling anxious and uncomfortable.

In the end, we ate very little of the main course, which was cold and lacking in both flavour and variety. Given the significantly increased price compared to previous years and the much reduced food offering and service window, we left feeling thoroughly disappointed.

Sadly, we won’t be returning, and we will be advising our wider family and friends to make other plans...

Our reservation for afternoon tea was at 13.30, it was not busy at all, our teas arrived pretty promptly and we were advised that the sparkling tea will be aerved in between savoury and sweet dishes as palet cleanser, after over 30 min of no food arriving there was a fire alarm (not their fault) we were evacuated and when we returned we waited additional 15 or so min, we had to enquire about our food order as our tea was cold and we were start getting hungry. The savoury part eventually came, and it was very average, the best part was a potato tart, that was great, all the rest were very meh, the sandwich was cream cheese and avocado and there was far too much lemon, the bacon roll (not sure where that fits in an afternoon tea) was very dry. Food aside, once we finish we advised the staff that we were ready for the next part, 20+ min after nothing, I had to ask 2 separate people to see where is the rest of our afternoon tea (the sweet part), obviously no sign of our sparkling tea in between. Eventually our sweets arrived, once they arrived I had to asked about the sparkling tea. Unfortunately, the service was really not good and it seems they just had forgotten about us and noone came to apologise or explain why or what happened, one member of staff just said " I usually work at the dinner time I was just asked to come in". Very dissapointinf service from such establishment. Our afternoon tea experience was truly ruined,...

What a lovely spot for lunch or an evening meal. The bar is gaining a reputation for its extensive selection of gins, and rightly so - there are 52 to choose from. They also do a brilliant gin tasting deal as well where you can try different ones with matching tonics for £18.

Once seated in the dining room which has a wide-screen view of Edinburgh castle and great for people watching in Festival Square, we set about making selections.

There are some exciting Scottish inspired modern dishes so making a decision is that bit trickier. I opted for the pan fried crab cake with avocado purée, spicy pepper dressing & cashew nuts which was really tasty. It's a huge crab cake stuffed full with crabmeat. My friend had the breakfast style dish of Macsween haggis (£9), with woodland mushrooms & a runny sunshine-yolked duck egg. Others around the table went for the Salmon fish cakes, spinach, soft poached egg & grain mustard sauce (14) and the seriously huge Burger which caused some severe food envy!

One Square really is worth a visit. We are going to head back on an evening soon to try the wonderful sounding dishes including Lamb Wellington, with spiced carrot purée and burnt leeks (£19) and Highland venison with kale, parsnip, cocoa nibs and damsons (£23) and the Scottish langoustines, grilled with garlic...