The Witchery — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

On Sunday me and my husband went on a spontaneous early dinner at The Witchery - The interior is gorgeous and we were very happy getting a table even though we never booked one in the first place. We were seated and a young man asked us for drinks while I told him I was pregnant which he congratulated us and gave me recommendations for a mocktail, which I also later ordered. After this, everything fell flat and me and my husband had a very bad experience.

A different older server took our order but we were never asked if we had any dietary requirements so I was clear when I requested that my main (I had the dear for main) needs to be fully cooked through due to me being pregnant. The server started to mumble a bit while shaking his head and telling us it should be cooked medium rare and he would ask if the chefs could cook it longer but he will make a note of it, basically not assure us it will be cooked through.

The thing is - I would have loved having a medium rare dear stake for dinner and having the dish served exactly as the chefs had made it but being pregnant comes with boundaries to a lot of things that you just cannot do or eat. Sadly so. I get it. But honestly - asking to cook a stake fully through is not a massive request. I am sure The Witchery have served loads of pregnant people before and I am sure this request have been asked in this facility many many times. And by us asking is being a massive inconvenience for the server to make sure the chefs cooks my main longer because of a safety hazard to my unborn child, I do not understand! - Especially if this is a 5-star hotel and restaurant and because of the price you pay for eating here I expect to request what ever I want.

The next thing that happened when me and my husband discussed the treatment we received by the server, we began to wonder how the dear was killed. We wanted to know if the animal had been hunted and shot and would like to know due to lead being found in a lot of food products and also something you should avoid as a pregnant person. We asked another sever about this, and no harm to this person as he didn't understand what our question was at first due to the language barrier between us. But when we were discussing this with the new server the server from before came up behind my husband and eavesdrop on their conversation regarding the way the animal was killed. After he had listened for a minute he shacked is head, gave a "sigh" and left. AGAIN - This is not an extraordinary question especially for a restaurant with the 5-stars and high prices. As a guest in a restaurant we should be able to ask where the products come from; if it is fish that was harvested from a farm or wild caught, if the meat is local, how it was killed, etc.

This behaviour really stressed both me and my husband which also made me cry while waiting for my food. I didn't feel heard, taken care of or welcomed. I was being treated like an inconvenience to the whole staff especially due to one server in particular. I did not enjoy my food and neither did my husband. We wanted to get away as quickly as we could and leave. I had to call my midwife because of the stress to ensure the food I had eaten was safe and tell me if everything is fine or not and if we need to keep an extra eye on my baby.

I put 2 stars only because the first server was very nice and friendly and they gave us a table even with no booking - Though I now wish they had said they were fully booked so we would have never had to...

Overhyped Experience at The Witchery – The Biggest Tourist Trap

A while ago, when my husband and I first visited Edinburgh, we had hoped to dine at The Witchery. The restaurant is heavily promoted as one of the must-visit spots in the city, known for its dramatic atmosphere, gothic charm, and luxurious 16th-century appeal. Unsurprisingly, with just a weekend in town, we couldn’t get a reservation on short notice.

Months later, I returned to Edinburgh with my daughter and planned well in advance to finally experience what we thought would be something special. Even then, the only available reservation was at 10 PM, and not in the main dining room but in the annexed section of the restaurant.

To be clear, the food was overall very good. The beef tartare was excellent, the duck was rich and flavorful, and the dessert was beautifully done. Only the fish I ordered was disappointing—it was dry and lacked finesse. But our main issue wasn’t with the kitchen. It was with the overwhelming sense of misalignment between the restaurant’s online image and the actual experience.

The website promises elegance, opulence, and historical grandeur. What we encountered felt completely different. The interior was dim, tired, and lacked any of the charm the photos suggested. We were seated in a rather lifeless room with very little atmosphere. Even the glassware was surprisingly poor in quality. When we mentioned this to the manager, he insisted everything was of the highest standard and went so far as to tap the wine glass with his finger, claiming it was crystal. We looked it up right at the table—those glasses retail for around four pounds and are the same kind you’d expect in a basic pub. It was emblematic of the entire experience: trying hard to appear luxurious, without actually being so.

There were also some disappointing surprises on the bill. We were charged for filtered tap water, for bread and butter that is usually complimentary in high-end dining, and for a donation to the Prince’s Trust that was marked as optional but was added without anyone asking us. It felt presumptive and out of place in what should have been a refined, customer-focused experience.

We weren’t the only ones who were unhappy. Guests at the table next to ours also expressed dissatisfaction and raised concerns with the staff.

To be absolutely clear, we are very familiar with fine dining and often spend significantly more on a meal without issue. This was not about cost. It was about value and honesty. The Witchery positions itself as a destination restaurant, a place where the experience should be as rich as the reputation. Unfortunately, it simply didn’t deliver.

The one truly positive part of our evening was our waiter, a kind Italian gentleman with a moustache, who was warm, attentive, and gave us a wonderful whisky recommendation. His kindness stood in sharp contrast to the rest of the evening.

If you’re looking for something truly special in Edinburgh, I strongly recommend Rhubarb at Prestonfield House instead. It is everything The Witchery tries to be—genuinely elegant, atmospheric, and memorable in every way. Our dinner at Rhubarb was one of the most beautiful dining experiences we’ve had in years.

Ironically, The Witchery serves our family’s wine, and we left wondering whether the experience would have been different if we had booked under my...

The Witchery hotel is an experience in itself – and one that both couples need to be into to make it work. Unfortunately my other half was not into it and so we struggled a bit with this hotel.

We were in the guard room, which is in a building separated from the main hotel and across the street. Maybe this made the experience of the hotel a bit weird? Unsure. It was literally the old apartment to the castle guards that had been converted to this hotel. I'm not sure there is a reception desk to the main hotel. For sure there is no lobby to the hotel – none that we saw. We got our keys from the person who seemed to be manning the dinner reservations.

Forget about driving your car to the hotel – virtually impossible. We took the hotel's advice to park the car in their sister hotel outside of town and arranged a cab to get to the Witchery. Its really the only way to access the Witchery. The Witchery is literally 20 feet from the castle and this means the area outside the hotel is constantly overrun with tourists. I must say its exhausting.

The room itself is like staying in an antique store. While all of these quint and quirky props/decorations help to sell the experience of the room, they also seem to attract a lot of dust. Some of the old furniture that you sit on was dirty and tacky to touch. The small settee in the living room part was uncomfortable and dirty. However, the big bed you have to climb into, to get in was very comfortable. The room had over 25 small decorative pillows that made getting around in the suite tough. I finally took about 15 of them and piled them up in the outer seating room. They serve no function other than as decorations. The staff eventually removed them from the suite. The bathroom was up-to-date, but far from luxury for the priced paid. I fell off the oblong shaped toilet twice.

You can eat the included breakfast in their restaurant or have it delivered to the room in a basket. We opted for this, although it included no hot foods. I must stress that the staff were very helpful and whenever we needed something they were always on hand and quick to attend. We had no way to charge our phones in the bedroom and the staff was quick to find a solution of a plug-in option which did work.

The Witchery does not do much to help its guests obtain food in their restaurant. If you did not make reservations ahead of time, then forget about eating here. It was disappointing that the hotel did not give some deference to their own guests. So we never saw this supposed historic dining room.

Would we stay here again – the answer is no. But its not to say that hotel is bad. It just was not for us. We decided we like modern conveniences, modern decor, and less...