Papilio — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

I've never been to a more disappointing Italian restaurant, expensive with small portions and mediocre food, and then to top it off an additional 10% service charge added to the bill which appears to be because we were non locals. I was expecting a crisp authentic Italian pizza, I received a soft pan pizza of similar style and quality to a kebab shop, the salad was less than a handful of rocket with a miniscule amount of cheese, Garlic bread was expensive and small for the price, tiramasu was also small and expensive for what was served and certainly one of the worst I've had. No choice of Italian beers (its Peroni or nothing) no branded beer glasses for the beer or cold glasses, just an old odd glass that your nan would keep in her kitchen cupboard.

From the outside this restaurant has the look of an authentic family Italian; old waiter wandering around and several other Italians waiters in an old buulding but something has gone wrong here, they are probably doing well off the one time visitors from the tourist trade and it has created there own bubble, they are serving the absolute minimum quantity of food at the minimum standard, I left slightly hungry and felt disappointed for what we had paid, I've been to Italians all over the UK and Europe and always try to visit and support independents. I am baffled by some of the good reviews for this place, some people are either living a very sheltered life with low standards or have very low expectations.

it's no exaggeration that there are many other Italian restaurants with food one hundred times better...

Hands down our worst meal in Scotland. This is including a takeout pizza from a caravan park. We were uncomfortable from the moment we arrived, the young lady was being trained apparently for service. The owner or manager was berating her constantly during service. I have to say that she was the only bright point of our meal! The gentleman was aggressive and abrasive. The food… ok the salad was quite tasty! We thought maybe there was a chance. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. I will preface this with the fact that we are not local. This may have been a factor.

We are traveling through Scotland for a few weeks and have eaten at many restaurants surrounding this one. I can say we were at another Italian restaurant near bye three nights ago that was amazing. I know it can be done… it isn’t a local taste that we are out of sync with. My daughter ordered pasta bolognese… wife ordered pasta with spicy sausage and I ordered a beef special. None of us finished. It was poor all the way around. We finished politely and left tipping the nice girl in training.

If you are passing through, keep on walking. I am shocked by the reviews honestly being so high… maybe they...

I visited the Papilio with my mother for her birthday meal. We’d not been here for a while, but were delighted to see that it was just as we remembered it. We started with a bottle of the house red wine which was very good and shared a portion of olives and fresh bread which was very enjoyable. For main courses we both had tagliatelle dishes and they were both excellent. They were light but full of flavour and we were both very satisfied without feeling completely stuffed. We finished off with coffee and a liqueur for my mother and a Laphroaig for me. The staff here are superb. They are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and add to lively but relaxed atmosphere, which along with excellent food, is the hallmark of a good Italian restaurant. Highly recommended and we will...