The Rutland Hotel
Style Stately stones in dove-grey tones
Setting Princely Princes Street
Be king of the castle and stay at the Rutland Hotel, which overlooks the city’s citadel and boasts a plum location, bold decor and majestic wining and dining. This boutique hotel’s listed building sits pretty on Edinburgh’s arterial Princes Street, with the city’s best shops, sights, eateries and drinkeries on your doorstep. Nocturnal types will love the hotel's basement club, the One Below, which hosts top DJs and live acts.
Need to know
- Rooms 12, including three suites. There's also a two-bedroom apartment available for longer-term lets and short stays.
- Rates Double rooms from $143.38 (£91), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
- More details Breakfast, from £10.
- Facilities Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: HD plasma TV, iPod dock, minibar, free bottled water, Korres toiletries, GHD hair straighteners, Ian Rankin novel (other titles in reception).
- Check-out 11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
- Children Children are welcome. Cots are provided free of charge, extra beds cost £50 and there is babysitting service for £10.50 an hour (book a day in advance). Little ‘uns can eat in the restaurant, which has a children’s menu.
- Also Smoking and pets are not allowed.
Food and drink at The Rutland Hotel
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Hotel restaurant
The Restaurant at the Rutland is a bold lipstick-red and coffee-black space, with floor-to-ceiling windows. Mirrored columns in the centre of the room add extra sparkle and the small tables scattered around the area make for romantic meals à deux. Expect locally sourced Scottish produce, but if there's nothing that tickles your palate, there are dozens of dining options nearby. The clumsy beware; low-hanging squashed glass globes loop down from the ceiling.
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Dress code
It’s a relaxed dining den, so you’ll feel equally at home in fancy frock and crisp shirt or casual comfy cool. -
Top table
Rally the troops and assemble by the window, around a huge circular table in the curved front of the building. A centrally hung black desk lamp will light up the castle views; come Hogmanay, these tables are prime dining real estate. -
Last orders
The restaurant is open from 11.30am–5.30pm for lunch and 5.30pm–10pm for dinner (10.30pm Fri and Sat). The bar serves up fruity and fabulous tipples from 8am until 1am and for the early birds, breakfast is served from 8am¬–11.30am. -
Room service
Room service is available 7am–10pm, with options taken from the restaurant menu. -
Hotel bar
The gastropub-style bar is equally suited to work (exploit the wireless facilities) or pleasure. Pull up some cow-hide-covered swivel chairs with friends, spot the flatscreen TVs disguised by gilt frames and watch the locals coming and going; set a prize for the first person to spy Ian Rankin, a Rutland regular. If you want to continue the night at the hotel's One Below Club (which stays lively until 3am), sip a Songbird: a fruity muddle of Bombay Sapphire, pomegranate liqueur, lychee juice and lemon.
The Rutland Hotel The Rutland Hotel 1-3 Rutland Street , Edinburgh, EH1 2AE
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Smith extra at The Rutland Hotel
A cocktail each, of your choice
In the know
Our favourite rooms
Go with the flow (of the building’s curved front) and book up number 4 or 10, both set in the swoop of the front-facing wall overlooking Princes Street. Room 4 is decorated in winey shades of magenta and blood-red with charcoal accents and 10 offers a contemporary twist on Scottish design, with its blown-up thistle-print wallpaper – tartan, shmartan. The executive doubles both have super king-sized beds and rain showers. Romantics and history buffs will love the castle vistas offered up by rooms 5 and 11. In contrast to 11’s milky white expanse, 5 is kitted out like a dark chocolate and orange crème, in spicy black, amber and gold tones. The heavy floral-print curtains, antique-effect armchairs and sculpted regal bed create a suitably majestic effect. Room 12 is also a popular choice with its tiny window in the eaves overlooking the Castle. To make sure you don't hear a peep from the One Below, request a top-floor room.
Packing tips
Mrs Smiths, leave your tress-tamers at home, all rooms are kitted out with GHD straighteners. Bring some casual chic for The One Below and a chunky scarf to combat the windy city’s Gulf Stream breeze.
Also
Feeling frisky? Find your quirky do-not-disturb sign and turn it to the ‘cock-a-doodle-don’t’ side.
From the Guestbook…
From the outside, the hotel is unassuming and shuns the corporate grandeur of the Caledonian Hotel next door. Once checked in, with trusty complimentary cocktail vouchers in hand, ...
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