0131 496 0732
58 The Shore, Leith, Edinburgh
OsteriaThe Shore, Leith
lucciola, noun, Italian: a firefly
Pasta rolled in the window every afternoon, a wood fire for the secondi, and a long table for whoever walks in. On The Shore since 2019.
Tuesday to Sunday · from 17:30, lunch Friday to Sunday
Pasta rolled at 15:00 Fire lit at 16:00 42 seats
Come in
La sala
A former ship chandler’s on the Water of Leith, stone walls kept, window kept.
42
seats, a bar of eight, and La Cantina downstairs for twelve.
The pasta was rolled at three. The fire was lit at four. The table by the window is yours if you book it, and the bar is kept for anyone who walks past and smells the ragù.
La famiglia
Marta and Luca Benassi grew up above their grandmother’s trattoria in the hills outside Modena. In 2019 they took an old ship chandler’s on The Shore, kept the stone walls, and started rolling pasta in the front window where the whole street could watch.
The recipes came with them: ragù that cooks for six hours, tortellini folded around a fingertip, tiramisù from the big dish. The rest is Scottish. Beef and venison from Perthshire, squid from Scrabster, mussels from Shetland, brambles from the Pentlands, and whatever the day boats bring into Eyemouth.
See what is on tonightStasera
Four courses, the way they leave the kitchen. Have them all, or a pasta and a glass of wine at the bar. Both are a proper dinner here.
To start, to share
Order two or three for the middle of the table. That is how we eat at home.
The pasta course
Every pasta comes in two sizes. A half is a proper Italian primo.
From the fire
Cooked over beech and oak, lit at four and burned down to embers by six.
Something sweet
And a small glass of something from the amari shelf, if you are not driving.
Focaccia e olio vg £4.50
This morning’s focaccia, Ligurian olive oil
Olive vggf £4.50
Warm Castelvetrano olives, orange zest
Gnocco fritto £9
Fried dough pillows, Parma ham aged 24 months
Burrata vgf £13
Roast datterini tomatoes, aged balsamic
Vitello tonnato gf £12
Cold rose veal, tuna and caper sauce, celery leaf
Carne cruda gf £14
Hand-cut Scotch beef, hazelnut, Parmigiano, lemon
Fritto misto £13
Scrabster squid, courgette and sage, lemon mayonnaise
Zucca vgf £11
Roast delica pumpkin, whipped ricotta, brown butter, seeds
Arancini £9
Saffron rice, ’nduja and fontina, three
Tagliatelle al ragù £12 / £19
Six-hour ragù of beef shin and pork, Parmigiano
Tortelli di zucca v £13 / £20
Pumpkin, mostarda and amaretti, butter and sage
Pappardelle alla lepre £14 / £22
Slow-cooked Perthshire hare, juniper
Tortellini in brodo £13 / £20
Pork and mortadella tortellini in a capon broth
Cacio e pepe v £11 / £17
Tonnarelli, Pecorino Romano, toasted black pepper
Spaghettoni alle cozze £14 / £21
Shetland mussels, ’nduja, parsley, toasted crumbs
Tagliolini al tartufo v £38
White Alba truffle shaved at the table, butter, Parmigiano · October to December, while the truffles last
Bistecca per due gf £78
35-day aged Scotch beef rib on the bone, about 1 kg, rosemary potatoes · For two
Porchetta gf £26
Ayrshire pork belly rolled with fennel and garlic, apple mostarda
Pesce del giorno gf from £28
Whole day-boat fish from Eyemouth over the embers, salsa verde
Agnello gf £28
Lamb neck, cannellini beans, rosemary, salsa verde
Cervo gf £32
Perthshire venison loin, chestnuts, braised radicchio
Melanzane alla parmigiana v £19
Aubergine, San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, basil
Contorni £5.50: rosemary potatoes · cavolo nero, garlic and chilli · bitter leaves, pear and walnut · fried courgette
Tiramisù v £9
Savoiardi, espresso, mascarpone, as Marta’s nonna made it
Panna cotta vgf £8
Vanilla panna cotta, Scottish brambles
Torta caprese vgf £9
Chocolate and almond cake, crème fraîche
Affogato vgf £7
Fior di latte gelato, espresso · with amaretto £10
Formaggi v £13
Three Italian cheeses, chestnut honey, crackers
£24 two courses
£29 three courses
Friday and Saturday, 12:00 to 14:30. Bread and olives on the table, and a glass of house wine for £6.
Burrata, roast tomatoes (v) · Arancini, two · Zucca, whipped ricotta (v)
Tagliatelle al ragù · Cacio e pepe (v) · Pesce del giorno, salsa verde (+£4)
Tiramisù · Panna cotta, brambles · Affogato
£38 per person
£15 under twelves
Il pranzo della domenica: the whole table eats from the same dishes, the way Sunday works in Emilia. Served 12:30 to 18:00. Add a magnum of the house Sangiovese for £48.
Focaccia, gnocco fritto with Parma ham, burrata, warm olives
Tagliatelle al ragù or tortelli di zucca, in big bowls to pass round
Porchetta with roast potatoes and greens, or the day’s fish
Tiramisù, from the big dish
One hundred and twenty bottles, mostly from growers with fewer than ten hectares. Ask for the full list at the table; Luca will happily talk you through it.
Glass, 150 mlBottle
La pasta
Every afternoon at three, Marta rolls the night’s pasta at the table in the front window: four kilos of flour, sixty egg yolks from a farm in Fife, and a rolling pin longer than she is tall. People stop on the pavement to watch. You are welcome to come in and do the same with a glass of Lambrusco.
Nothing is made the day before and nothing is dried. When it runs out, the dish comes off the board, which on a Saturday usually means the tortelli by nine.
60 yolks in every batch of dough
Tagliatelle
Under the ragù
Tortelli
Filled with pumpkin
Pappardelle
With the hare
Tortellini
Floating in brodo
Garganelli
Rolled on a comb
Tonnarelli
For cacio e pepe
Il fuoco
The fire at the back of the room burns beech and oak from a woodland in Fife. It takes two hours to burn down to the embers the secondi are cooked on, so it is lit while the pasta is still being rolled.
Bistecca per due £78
A rib of Scotch beef, aged 35 days on the bone, about a kilo. Cooked over the embers, rested, carved at the table, with rosemary potatoes and a bowl of bitter leaves. Order it when you sit down: it takes forty minutes, and it is worth them.
Una sera
Ospiti
4.8 from 612 Google reviews
We booked for a birthday and stayed until they were stacking the chairs. The tortelli di zucca is the best thing I have eaten this year.
Fiona · Trinity
Sat in the window with a Negroni and watched the pasta being rolled. A proper osteria: nothing fussy, everything right.
Callum · Portobello
The bistecca for two is enormous and worth every penny. They knew every bottle on the list and found us a Barbera under fifty pounds.
Priya · Stockbridge
They made gluten-free tagliatelle for my daughter, cooked separately, without any fuss at all. That is rare.
Jo · Musselburgh
Sunday lunch is the best value in Leith. Bring the family and do not plan anything for the afternoon.
Euan · Leith
Prenota
Tables for up to six, up to two weeks ahead. We hold every table for fifteen minutes, and the bar is always kept for walk-ins.
Confermato
Grazie, there.
Your table is booked.
A confirmation is on its way.
This is a demonstration site: nothing was sent and no table was held.
La Cantina
The old cellar under the restaurant, vaulted in stone, with one long table and the wine racks along the wall. Birthdays, rehearsal dinners, the office Christmas you actually want to go to.
Regali
Choose an amount or a meal, write a line for the card, and we will email it within the hour or post a printed card in a wax-sealed envelope. Vouchers last two years.
Lucciola · Osteria
£75
to spend at Lucciola
“Happy birthday, the pasta is on me.”
For youwith love
58 The Shore, Leith · valid two years · no. LC-G-0421
Dove siamo
0131 496 0732 tavola@lucciola.co.uk
Tuesday to Sunday
| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 17:30–22:00 |
| Wednesday | 17:30–22:00 |
| Thursday | 17:30–22:00 |
| Friday | 12:00–14:30 · 17:00–22:30 |
| Saturday | 12:00–14:30 · 17:00–22:30 |
| Sunday | 12:30–20:00 |
The kitchen takes last orders thirty minutes before we close.
Domande
Anything else, ring us after three, when the pasta is drying and someone has a hand free.
Yes. We never book the eight seats at the bar or the table in the window, so there is usually room for two if you walk in. On Friday and Saturday evenings, booking is the safer bet.
Yes. Gluten-free pasta is made in its own batch on Tuesdays and Fridays and cooked in fresh water; tell us when you book and we will keep some for you. The fryer is shared, so the fritto misto is not gluten free. For every other allergy, tell us when you book and again when you order, and the kitchen will go through each dish with you.
About half the menu is vegetarian, marked (v). Dishes marked (vg) are vegan, and three of the pastas can be made without egg or butter if you mention it when you book.
Very. We have high chairs, any pasta comes as a half portion, and the kitchen will always make plain tagliatelle with butter and Parmigiano for small people who know what they like.
Up to six can book online. For seven to twelve, ask about La Cantina or the long table by the fire: call us or send an email and we will put a menu together with you.
Not for tables of up to six. Please give us 24 hours’ notice so we can offer the table to the waiting list. La Cantina takes a £10 per person deposit, returned in full with seven days’ notice.
We do not add a service charge. If you would like to leave a tip, every penny of it is shared between the kitchen and the floor.
On Saturdays, from the counter, from noon until it runs out: tagliatelle at £8 for 500 g and tortelli di zucca at £10 a dozen. Ring before 11 to keep some aside.
