Vinette

Broughton Street and the Wine Bar Resurgence

The wine bar format has made a quiet but determined comeback across British cities over the past decade, and Edinburgh's contribution to that shift sits at 36 Broughton Street. Vinette belongs to a category that has largely replaced the wine-bar-as-afterthought model: somewhere with a genuinely considered bottle list, cooking that earns attention on its own terms, and a room that people return to weekly rather than occasionally. The street-level space has the character of a place that has already settled into itself, with the kind of atmosphere that feels lively without performing at it.

What Edinburgh's wine bar scene has borrowed from Paris is not nostalgia for checked tablecloths but something more structural: the idea that a shorter, more focused menu paired with an interesting list is a legitimate format for a serious night out, not a compromise. Vinette operates in that register. The cooking draws from French bistro logic, but the produce is Scottish, and there are Mediterranean inflections throughout, which is a combination that reflects how Edinburgh's food scene has matured rather than trying to import a template wholesale.

The Regulars' Geometry

The people who come back to Vinette repeatedly are not returning for novelty. They are returning because the format has settled into a rhythm that suits them. The set lunch, which includes wine, has become a fixture for a certain kind of Edinburgh professional who has worked out that a midday meal with a glass at this price point is not easily matched in the neighbourhood. Lunchtime at Vinette carries a different energy from dinner, more business-like in pacing, slightly less crowded in atmosphere, and better value by a clear margin. If there is an insider logic to the address, it is this: come at lunch first, then decide whether dinner is the follow-up.

Stuart Ralston's track record in Edinburgh gives the address a particular weight. Across his portfolio, the approach has been consistent: Scottish ingredients treated with technique rather than over-complication, rooms that work as rooms rather than as concepts, and menus that have something for both the adventurous and the reliable. Vinette sits at the more accessible end of that portfolio in terms of format and price register, which does not make it the lesser entry, it makes it the one that works hardest to be genuinely useful to its neighbourhood.

Vinette operates in a different register entirely, and that is not a limitation, it is a different proposition.

What the Kitchen Does

The chicken roulade is the dish most cited in assessments of the menu, and it is instructive for understanding the kitchen's priorities. A roulade is not a showstopper in presentation terms. It does not arrive with theatrical garnish or require explanation. What it demonstrates is control: the kind of precise, unbothered cooking that produces a properly seasoned, properly textured piece of protein without hiding behind complexity. That is bistro logic applied seriously, and it is harder to execute consistently than tasting-menu theatrics at venues such as Moor Hall or L'Enclume sometimes suggest.

The French-Scottish register that runs through the menu is not a gimmick. French technique applied to Scottish produce is a legitimate culinary logic with real depth, it is the same argument that informs some of the more considered cooking at places like Gidleigh Park or Hand and Flowers, where classical method and regional sourcing are treated as complementary rather than competing instincts. At Vinette, the Mediterranean touches add a third layer without muddying the logic, lighter acids, different herb registers, occasional structural departures from the bistro baseline.

Vivien: The Floor Below

Downstairs from Vinette is Vivien, a cocktail bar that shares an address and a team but reads as a distinct proposition: Vinette is for a meal, Vivien is for a longer evening built around drinks. The combination gives the building on Broughton Street a flexibility that most single-concept addresses cannot offer.

Planning a Visit

Vinette is at 36 Broughton Street, within walking distance of the New Town and easily reachable from the city centre. The set lunch menu, which includes wine, is the format most recommended for a first visit, it delivers the kitchen's strengths in a condensed format and at a price point that makes the decision uncomplicated. Dinner allows for a broader exploration of the list and menu, and the room carries more atmosphere in the evening. Booking ahead is sensible given the address's reputation, particularly at weekends. For comparison with the international wine bar and bistro format at its most refined, addresses such as Le Bernardin in New York and Emeril's in New Orleans show where the French-technique tradition extends at scale.