La Lanterna Ristorante

Top tip: 3 course lunch menu for £6! I think this is a must know when coming to this adorable establishment. It’s a bit hard to find and is nestled in a picturesque area that was below street level.
Run by an Italian family, this place does classic recipes to a perfect T and has incredibly enthusiastic staff to top off the experience. With the lunch menu there’s is a generous starter, any choice of pasta and pizza, and finally dessert/​coffee.
A lot of their pastas are in cream sauces but having tried two of their dishes both with cream sauce, I can vouch they were both of unique tastes and textures.
Dessert was bomb as in bomb-​tastic! Tiramisu is a must have and with their traditional recipe it tastes incredibly light and delicious.
Overall, very understated place that does beautiful Italian. I feel like compared to large chains (such as Bella Italia) this brings a bit of Italian spirit to Edinburgh.

This is a cute, small, wonderful, little Italian restaurant. The food is great, and the atmosphere makes you feel like you are in Italy. The prices are decent and it is well worth trying.

Walking around Edinburgh on a sunny afternoon (so rare!) to find a nice place to have lunch outside, we stumbled upon two tables at La Lanterna Ristorante.
We couldn’t really believe our eyes, but they do a 3 course lunch meal for £5. How?! That can’t be good, surely? But it was very tasty!
The choice of food was limited for this deal of course, but we could still have plenty of the mains (just no seafood). I had the doughballs for a starter, which were very nice. And then I had the salmon pasta, which was delicious. My partner’s potato skins and lasagne were also very good. Desert was amaretto cheesecake and just delicious! We left the place with a small bill and a very happy tummy.
It would have been a four star review if it weren’t for this faux pas though…
We were served by a friendly guy, yes it was a bit slow, but we weren’t too bothered. The place was full inside, it was a saturday afternoon, what can you expect. This couldn’t be said by our neighbour, who complained about the slow service to another waiter. He only sat down a few minutes after us and his food arrived a bit after ours — I don’t think he had much to complain about, but hey, opinions differ.
But, here is the faux pas, that waiter replied to this complaint with «Ah yes he is very slow, he doesn’t understand anything, he’s an idiot. I’ll get it sorted.» Said ‘idiot’ colleague came back 2 minutes later with the food.
There is no excuse for this, you don’t slag off a colleague, even if he or she is making lots of mistakes or is being an idiot. Apologise for it, and get it sorted, but don’t slag off. Ok, rant over.
Anyway, there you go, a three star review. All because I didn’t feel like it was that nice a place to work for the staff. The food is great, the deal is amazing, but you do feel like the staff just isn’t having a good time working here.

Went into town christmas shopping and decided to pop down hanover street to see if we could find any good deals for lunch. La lanterna had a 3 course lunch meal for a very good price.
We had doughballs for a started and pizza and pasta for our mains. We halved each to try both options. The pepperoni on the pizza was underneath the cheese, so it was cooked but not burnt, never thought of cooking it this way before but it made a big difference.
The staff were very attentive and it was a lovely little quiet restaurant. Would thoroughly recommend if you’re in town looking for a good meal. Only reason they have gotten 4 stars is because they only had tiramasu or coffee for the dessert option, and I don’t like coffee so I was a bit stuck!

We were walking up Hanover with our suitcases, tired and hungry. A waiter invited us in and offered to carry our luggage. Normaly I’m skeptical about come-​ons but the staff seemed really friendly and it smelled delicious. All through the meal, the staff was friendly, attentive (even though the place was busy, everyone acted like they were our waiter), and joked around with us. Nico made sure I had gluten-​free options and double-​checked everything with ‘Chef’. What about the food? I had the best risotto I can recall (including in Italy). My wife had the lobster raviolli and said it was fantastic. We don’t normally get dessert but she had a great serving of tiramisu and I had a fabulous crème caramel. We left in a great mood!

Really great place. Lovely homely feel with honest, simple meals. I had the mussels in a garlic and tomato broth… oh. that broth, nom nom nom… and the spag carbonara for main.
I still like La Piazza (
) for pasta in Edinburgh, however La Lanterna’s past was good — but in a different way. It reminds me more of what you’d have at your Italian neighbour’s house — simple, hearty, filling — Like a big warm hug™.

Apart from the manager lady who seemed like a massive control freak, the food was really good. I had the prawn cocktail and gnocchi, both were delicious. I just happened to be sitting in the worst part of the restaurant, right at the back where I could hear all the conversation between staff…

We absolutely loved this restaurant. It was in a city book and the price seemed right so we thought we would give it a go. We are so glad that we did. It’s below street level and what we could tell had about 40 seats. We started out with garlic cheese bread which was delicious. I had the lasagna and my daughter had the spaghetti bolognese. My lasagna was fantastic. It was cooked right in the little bowl and was the perfect size. My daughter’s dish was just as good. We both were sighing as we ate. We then had dessert. My daughter had tiramisu which she said was fantastic. I had Pavlova which melted in my mouth and was one of the best desserts I have ever had.
Now let me talk about the owners. Our waitress talked with us when we were done eating and she is the daughter of Tina, the owner. Tina and her family came over from Italy to Edinburgh and her grandpa owned a restaurant on the street. Tina worked in the restaurant for years. Not because she wanted to, but because it was a requirement. She then opened the current restaurant with her husband. Tina is there all the time from before they open until they close at night. She has over 42 years in the industry. The place is very small, but super clean. The food was made with all fresh ingredients and you could tell they care about the business. If I lived in Edinburgh, this would be a regular place for me. Seemed like a regular location for the locals as there was a group of women in the window seat drinking over lunch and when they left Tina came over and gave them all hugs.
If you are in Edinburgh, look this place up for a fresh Italian meal at a great price.

Loved this place. The family run restaurant instantly set us at ease. It was rainy and windy out and this place became our sanctuary from the unforgiving elements.
We started out with a lovely garlic bread bruchetta. The bread was homemade goodness and the tomatoes vine ripe perfection. My only issue was that I had wished I wasn’t sharing it because I wanted those two pieces of love into my mouth.
Next I had the breaded chicken which came with a very traditional side of spaghetti with marinara sauce. Now let me say something, normally when I go to Italian restaurants I don’t go for pasta dishes unless I know they are homemade pasta and absolutely glorious bits of food. Otherwise in my mind I feel like its a waste of money to order something I can easily enough make at home myself. So after having said that I wasn’t thrilled to have received the side of pasta with marinara sauce BUT (yes this is a very big BUT) I LOVED IT. Once I tried it I couldn’t stop eating it til it was all gone, and after it had all gone into my belly I wished there were more of it. The sauce was perfection, fresh tasty vegetable love. I was sad until I took a bite of the truly glorious breaded chicken. WOW! That was amazing. I love deep fried food, but am very fussy cause I don’t like it to be stodgy or too greasy. This was golden and juicy and just fried enough to make my mouth water and want to bite into it again and again and again, til it too was all gone. And I wanted more. But thank god after a few seconds my brain finally received the «i’m nice’n full» signals and I sat back with a big smile on my face feeling like I had just eaten some food that was going to do my body some good.
Absolutely delighted with this place. Defo coming back.

Family run Italian, at the heart of Hanover Street’s array of restaurants, La Lanterna is something of an Edinburgh institution.
Overall, we said: «La Lanterna served our needs incredibly well. It offers a warm welcome, friendly service, hearty dishes full of satisfyingly home-​spun gutsiness, and an atmosphere guaranteed to put you at your ease. Next time you need a little comfort and joy, pop along to La Lanterna and let them feed you. You’ll leave feeling fully refreshed, deeply nourished, and fit to face the world anew.»

a family run restaurant, and i gotta tell ya, they are a warm family :) great hospitality, they are all friendly and the mom will hover from table to table making lil conversations to make you feel like you r home!
food had real italian taste, delicious and lovely, portions are good and the over all ambiance was really laid back and relaxed .
we had a good time and will definately go back, both for the hospitality and the food

I like the staff — friendly and efficient — and love their food. I highly recommend the spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and chilli. And their minestrone is reportedly (by the husband) to die for.

After having reviewed this place during previous management last year, I was invited back to try the food again under it’s original owner and proprietor.
I had a completely different experience this time, the atmosphere was warm and cosy, the staff friendly, food fresh and tasty and there was an extensive wine list from which we had a very nice bottle of red.
The food is very traditional Italian, although pizza lovers beware, it’s not on the menu. The veal parmagiana was excellent, as were the calamari as a starter. I would have loved to try desert, but quite honestly, couldn’t fit another bite in!
I will definitely be returning here.

Fantastic little family restaurant in an area swamped in average Italians. The pastas are cheap but they are filling and full of rich flavour, which you wouldn’t expect for what you pay. Forget frankie and bennys or any other kind of chain and head here for some real good Italian food.