Scotland’s restaurant scene has welcomed an impressive collection of new arrivals over the past few months – and September brings more openings worth your attention.
Some of the country’s best-known chefs have launched new ventures, while Glasgow and Edinburgh have welcomed everything from Basque-inspired cooking to contemporary Indian food.
There are also openings to seek out beyond the two biggest cities, including an ambitious tasting-menu restaurant in Royal Deeside, Mediterranean cooking in St Andrews and a new showcase for Aberdeenshire produce.
Here are 9 great new Scottish restaurants to try this September.
Falls by Orry Shand, Banchory
One of Scotland’s most anticipated restaurant openings of 2026 can be found in a beautiful riverside setting at the Bridge of Feugh near Banchory.
Falls is the first independent restaurant from Orry Shand, the former Scottish National Chef of the Year who represented Scotland on BBC’s Great British Menu this year and had his dish selected for the show’s banquet.
Shand opened the restaurant on 15 July following a £500,000 transformation of the former Falls of Feugh restaurant.
With only around 30 covers, this is the most ambitious fine-dining proposition on our list. Instead of choosing from an à la carte menu, diners are taken through a seasonal tasting menu of up to 12 to 15 servings.
Scottish ingredients are at the heart of the experience, combined with Nordic influences and classical French techniques.
The location is another part of the attraction, with the restaurant overlooking the Water of Feugh in Royal Deeside.
Bridge Of Feugh, Banchory AB31 6LH
Bar Dani, Glasgow
Finnieston’s newest wine bar and restaurant takes its inspiration from the pintxo bars of the Basque Country.
Dani has opened on Argyle Street with extensive bar seating and communal tables designed to encourage the informal combination of eating and drinking associated with northern Spain.
The menu is packed with dishes you could order alongside a glass of wine before inevitably deciding to stay for dinner.
There’s tortilla, gildas, sobrasada toast with hot honey, clams with txistorra, lamb belly skewers and Ganbara-style mushrooms.
Larger appetites are catered for with bavette steak and frites. Wine is a major part of the proposition, alongside vermouth, sherry and cocktails, making this one of the more distinctive additions to an already crowded Finnieston food scene.
1126 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8TD
Kalinga, Glasgow
Chef Sagar Massey has followed the success of Michelin Bib Gourmand-winning Angeethi with an ambitious new restaurant in Glasgow city centre.
Kalinga is a contemporary Indian restaurant designed to explore the different cuisines, ingredients and traditions found across India.
Massey, who reached the final of MasterChef: The Professionals in 2022, has built the restaurant around traditional techniques presented with a more contemporary approach.
The result is intended to go beyond the familiar curry-house repertoire and explore India’s enormous regional diversity.
Kalinga is now open on West Regent Street, with a menu including dishes such as aloo tikki chaat and Kalinga lamb chops.
It is one of the most interesting new restaurants to arrive in Glasgow city centre this summer – particularly for anyone who has already experienced Massey’s cooking at Angeethi.
142 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 2RQ
Amber, St Andrews
Chef Dean Banks has expanded his growing Scottish restaurant portfolio with a more relaxed Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in St Andrews.
Amber opened on South Street in August, a short distance from Banks’ established fine-dining restaurant Haar.
The inspiration is deliberately different.
The menu draws on the food Banks enjoys eating around Greece, Italy, Portugal and southern France while retaining the emphasis on quality Scottish ingredients associated with his other restaurants.
Sharing dishes include scallops served in the shell with morcilla and red pepper sauce, filo-wrapped feta with honey and sesame and patatas bravas with spiced tomato and roasted garlic aioli.
It makes Amber an interesting alternative to some of St Andrews’ more traditional restaurants – and one of the town’s most significant new openings of the summer.
159 South Street, St Andrews KY16 9UP
Celentano’s, Glasgow
One of Glasgow’s best-regarded restaurants has started a new chapter in the city centre.
Celentano’s originally opened at Cathedral House beside Glasgow Cathedral in 2021, where husband-and-wife team Dean and Anna Parker developed a formidable reputation for relaxed, Italian-inspired cooking.
The restaurant earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand before closing at Cathedral House at the end of 2025.
It has now reopened inside Arthouse on Bath Street in a considerably larger 60-cover restaurant.
Dean Parker’s cooking remains seasonal and produce-led, with fermentation, preservation and low-waste techniques central to the kitchen.
Fresh pasta, bread, cultured butter, charcuterie and gelato are among the things made in-house, while favourites including Celentano’s smoked cod doughnuts and sourdough have survived the move.
The new surroundings and expanded operation make Celentano’s one of Glasgow’s most important restaurant arrivals of the summer.
Whirlybird, Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s Victoria Street may be one of the most photographed streets in Scotland, but its newest restaurant offers a good reason to look beyond the colourful shopfronts.
Whirlybird opened in May as a café, bar and restaurant designed to work from daytime coffee through to dinner and late-night drinks.
The restaurant occupies a historic building in the heart of the Old Town but takes a contemporary approach to both its food and drinks.
The kitchen is led by Lucia Gregusova, whose CV includes Hawksmoor, while the wider team brings experience from some highly regarded Edinburgh hospitality businesses.
The result is closer to a modern tavern than a conventional tourist-district restaurant, with a menu built around generous, approachable dishes rather than elaborate fine dining.
There is an equally serious approach to drinks, with cocktails developed in-house alongside wine and beer.
For anyone looking for somewhere new during a day in Edinburgh’s Old Town, Whirlybird is one of this summer’s most interesting additions.
36-38 Victoria Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2JW
Kin by Gary Maclean, Edinburgh
Scotland’s former National Chef has opened a restaurant dedicated to modern Scottish cooking inside The Roseate Edinburgh.
Kin by Gary Maclean launched on 8 June as a 42-cover restaurant showcasing produce from Scotland’s farms, seas and larder.
Maclean is best known nationally as the winner of MasterChef: The Professionals in 2016 and subsequently served as Scotland’s first National Chef.
At Kin, the emphasis is on recognisably Scottish food presented in a contemporary way.
The opening menu included Cullen skink made with kiln-smoked haddock, dulse and burnt onion; hand-dived scallop with brown crab, barley and shellfish emulsion; and cranachan cheesecake.
Maclean describes the idea behind Kin as being about connection between diners, producers and the people cooking the food.
Its location inside a Victorian townhouse hotel on Edinburgh’s West Coates gives the restaurant a rather different atmosphere from the city’s busier centre.
The Roseate Edinburgh, 4 West Coates, Haymarket, Edinburgh, EH12 5JQ
Hendersons, Glasgow
One of Edinburgh’s most famous vegetarian restaurant names has opened its first permanent Glasgow restaurant on Pollokshaws Road in Strathbungo this summer, bringing more than six decades of family history with it.
The connection with Glasgow actually goes back much further.
Janet Henderson, who founded the original Hendersons in Edinburgh in 1962, was born in Glasgow. Her grandson Barrie Henderson now runs the business and has brought the family name back to the city.
The Southside restaurant serves brunch during the day before switching to a seasonal vegetarian and vegan à la carte menu in the evening.
There is also a plant-based take on Sunday lunch.
721 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, G41 2AA
Seton’s, Oldmeldrum
One of September’s most interesting new openings can be found in the Aberdeenshire countryside.
Seton’s opens at Meldrum House Country Hotel in Oldmeldrum on 3 September with a menu designed to celebrate the produce of the north-east.
The restaurant takes its name from the Seton family, whose history forms part of the story of the centuries-old Meldrum House estate.
Head chef Ross Bott is building the menu around ingredients from Aberdeenshire and across Scotland, working with local farmers, fishermen, growers and producers.
Peterhead haddock, Scottish shellfish and Aberdeen Angus beef are among the ingredients being highlighted, while sharing pies will take familiar Scottish recipes and turn them into centrepieces for the table.
Bott says growing up around farms gave him an appreciation for local produce and the people responsible for producing it.
Rather than attempting to reinvent Scottish food, the restaurant says its intention is to take familiar dishes and elevate them through produce, technique and presentation.
With lunch, dinner and Sunday lunch all planned, Seton’s should be one of the north-east’s most interesting new restaurants to watch as it opens its doors this September.
Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, AB51 0AE