1925 at The Pompadour

Dean Banks took the Pompadour dining room in 2021, and in July 2025 he retired the tasting menu for an a la carte card built around his signature lobster thermidor. The room first opened in 1925, which is where the new name comes from. Starters run from £15, mains from £26, and a three-course lunch is £39.50 under the gilded ceiling of the Caledonian on Princes Street. It is the grandest dining room in Edinburgh, and now one of the easier great ones to get into.

Dean Banks trained under Tom Kitchin and reached the final of MasterChef: The Professionals in 2018 before opening Haar in St Andrews and taking over the Pompadour at the Caledonian, now part of Hilton's Curio Collection, on Princes Street. His cooking is Scottish seafood first: Orkney hand-dived scallops with vadouvan carrot, Champagne-baked market fish, and the lobster thermidor that anchors the menu and has followed him since the tasting-menu years. The July 2025 relaunch as 1925 swapped the fixed multi-course format for a la carte, with starters from £15, mains from £26 and a three-course lunch at £39.50. The kitchen leans on day-boat landings from the east coast and the supplier relationships Banks built at Haar. The Michelin Guide lists the room, and the cooking is precise without the ceremony the old tasting menu demanded. Pastry holds up, and the cheese trolley is Scottish and serious.

The Pompadour dining room is the most ornate in Edinburgh: a first-floor salon modelled on Versailles, with hand-painted French panelling, a balustraded mezzanine and windows that look across Princes Street to the Castle. Tables are generous and well spaced, the sound level stays conversation-easy even when the room is full, and the lighting is low and flattering after dark. Roughly sixty covers. Dress is smart; jackets are common but not required. Ask for a window table when you book for the Castle view.

Book this room to impress a client because the address does half the work, the a la carte format keeps the meal to a controllable ninety minutes, and the Castle view from the window tables gives the table something to talk about before business starts. The £39.50 three-course lunch is the move for a daytime meeting that needs to look generous without running long; the lobster thermidor and a Scottish white carry a dinner that needs to land. As an example, a Friday lunch closing works well: window table booked, two courses and coffee, out by two.