Rendezvous Restaurant And Takeaway

Rendezvous has been feeding Edinburgh since 1956, which makes it not merely a long-running restaurant but something closer to a civic institution. The dining room on Queensferry Street, just off the western end of Princes Street, holds 140 covers across tables that have been repainted more often than redesigned — a deliberate conservation of the original feel rather than an oversight.

The kitchen works in Peking and Cantonese registers. Crispy aromatic duck is the dish most veterans order on arrival, followed by courses from a menu that runs to hot-and-sour soup, salt and pepper squid with Szechuan pepper, deep-fried shredded beef, and beef in black bean sauce. Lemon chicken, Kung Po chicken and flash-fried king prawns with chilli are all well-supported regulars. Toffee apple rounds off the Peking-style banquet. The takeaway operation runs alongside the restaurant, serving the same menu for collection.

The entrance is easy to miss — look for the door on Queensferry Street rather than the Princes Street frontage. Parking is limited in this part of the New Town, but the location is well served by buses running along Princes Street and Shandwick Place. Both restaurant and takeaway are open for lunch and dinner, with the kitchen running later on Friday and Saturday evenings.