The Balmoral

Outstanding. Quiet, clean, comfortable, beautiful hotel, excellent service . Cater to customer .

I found the staff of the hotel extremely helpful and welcoming. My room was excellent. Overall, I found my visit a good experience Dining in the Number One restaurant was memorable the ambience, the food and the staff were exceptional One of the features of my stay many years ago was a pleasant room on the ground floor where I could sit and read in comfort. It now seems to be a whisky lounge and has been replaced by a basement room,a disappointment. I booked a meal in the Princes Brasserie. As an aperitif I ordered a spicy Virgin Mary. When it arrived, I found it seemed just to be slightly watered down tomato juice and certainly not spicy. I pointed this out and it was replaced by another which was spicy but ungarnished in contrast to the way the same drink was presented in the bar. I ordered a Confit Duck but what arrived seemed more like an overcooked chicken leg on Cassoulet I complained and was offered a pudding in recompense which I declined as I don't actually eat puddings. I may or may not have been charged for the meal but this was beside the point which was I hoped to have had a meal at least approaching the standard of Number One. The cost was not the issue but an evening's experience spoiled Another slight annoyance was that one evening when I was sitting in my room reading I noticed a slip had been pushed under the door which said that the staff had been unable to perform the turn down service because I had put a do not disturb notice on the door. This was a notice I had never used in my entire stay and of course I was in the room These are all,except the dining experience, slight annoyance I enjoyed my stay at the Balmoral and would thoroughly recommend it to any Edinburgh visitors

60th Birthday celabrstions , We booked the Balmoral for an overnight in Jan 26 to kick start my 60th Birthday celabrations and to say we were delighted with our experience just isn't enough , the staff were amazing made us feel so welcome , we were given a room upgrade on arrival which was beautiful & it was all thd little touches that made our stay such an unforgettable experience , thankyou to all the staff at the Balmoral we throughly enjoyed the opulence and luxury during our stay at the wonderful Balmoral Hotel Edinburgh , if your thinking of booking , what are you waiting for just do it

Wow wow wow EXCEPTIONAL ! Service,Rooms and food incredible for 3 days in Edinburgh.

My wife and I stayed at the Balmoral during 8 nights, for Christmas. About $1K USD a night which for a 5 star luxury hotel is the starting point. Hotel is a beautiful historic building, location is perfect, room well decorated and housekeeping does good work keeping it clean. Unfortunately, that’s where the good stops. From the 8 nights there (which included Christmas Day) one of the only two elevators were broken 4 days and we were on the sixth floor. The staff was inconsistent, some would welcome you, others would just ignore you. Breakfast at the Prince was below average (they manage to ruined tea in UK by over heating every single time). In a normal 3-4 star hotel all this I assume is acceptable, but not in a 5 star hotel. But what really spoiled the whole stay was the Christmas dinner they promoted as a grand experience. They offered the same menu at two event rooms (that were fully booked) and at the hotel Prince restaurant. We paid $700 USD for one of the worst meals, service and ambience we had in a very long time. Instead of promoting an experience, they went for the cheap tourist trap: they packed the space with all the people they could legally fit (tables were placed an arm’s length, I could touch the next table), hired teenagers to serve, our table was between two babies and a child the screamed throughout the whole dinner, in a manner I could not hear my wife. The food was so badly prepared that we couldn’t finish it (noticed the two tables by us also didn’t). We prepaid the dinner (fixed price) to find out when checking out, the added 20% VAT on top of the informed price (absolutely no restaurant in Edinburgh charges VAT separately, is in the price). Again, tourist trap tactics that I wasn’t expecting from this establishment. We normally stay at reputable 5 star hotels in vacations and my recommendation is avoid it (if you must, go see the building but stay elsewhere). The night before (Christmas Eve) we had dinner at the 1925 at the Pompadour, tasting fixed menu, the price was exactly the same ($700 USD) but the experience was worth every cent: service was impeccable, ambience perfect (superb style and tables placed far enough for privacy) and the food was perfectly prepared and dishes balanced. It’s not the money, is being taken advantage because you are a tourist, shouldn’t happen in a supposedly luxury place. Very disappointing and I’m sure they don’t care we never come back, they are aiming at rotating new tourists (unfortunately like you see in Venice and other places recently).