Daniel's Bistro

About Daniel's Bistro

• Food: 5

  Ambience: 5

  Service: 5

  Value: 5

  Despite the restaurant being very busy ( even on a Monday night!), the servers were very attentive, the table d'hote menu had a good choice of dishes and the food was excellent.

  Linda Hislop - dined in restaurant 23/05/2011
• Food: 5

  Ambience: 5

  Service: 5

  Value: 5

  Isles flotant were the highlight for the mother-in-law but all the food was excellent

  Lawrence Clark - dined in restaurant 21/01/2010

Taking its name from its owner Daniel Vencker, Daniel’s Bistro has been cheerily serving hearty French food since 1996. A well loved fixture of Edinburgh’s Leith landscape, Daniel’s was one of the first to set up on Commercial Quay, the strip of converted warehouses now known as Edinburgh’s restaurant row. A large glass conservatory looks across to the Scottish Executive and helps customers feel as though they are seeing some sunshine on even the greyest of winter days. A good proportion of the menu has a similarly warming effect.

Daniel’s takes its culinary cue from its owners Alsatian origins. The restaurant may be in the heart of Leith’s redeveloped docklands but the kitchen’s heart belongs to the area around Strasbourg. Plates of charcuterie, raclettes and rib-sticking casseroles of cheese, potatoes and pork could have come straight from the ski slopes but there is plenty to satisfy less robust appetites. The seared sea trout in a dill sauce, mussels in white wine and Daniel’s Provencal style fish soup all pack plenty of flavour but aren’t quite as filling as, say, the beef Bourguignon. A wide variety of menus mean that Daniel’s can keep most people smiling whether they want a cup of coffee and a cake or a multi-course feast that would set a man up for a week spent climbing in the mountains. Or, more likely, tackling the Princes Street sales.