Overview

A friendly and accessible restaurant with a youthful vibe, Ishka is in Morrison Street, almost opposite the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, and well worth a visit. The kind friends who invited us out for evening there had sussed the place out and established that it was wheelchair friendly, and so it proved.

Transport & Parking

Can't comment on the parking. Ishka is a short wheel/walk from Haymarket (at one end of Morrison Street), which is well served by buses, trains and trams, and Lothian Road, at the other end, also well served by buses. Lothian Buses no. 2 service goes along Morrison Street, with stops near the restaurant.

Access

One small step at the (inward opening) door, but should be no challenge to a solo manual wheelchair user. A helpful staff member spotted us and had the door open very quickly. Good circulating spaces inside. We were offered a choice of two tables, both of which were easily accessible.

Toilets

There's a well-equipped accessible loo with good grab rails, plenty of space and an alarm cord that stretches almost to the floor.

Staff

Friendly and helpful - attentive, but no sense of rush. As quick to help with the door at the end of our evening as at the beginning.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Accompanist and wheelchair user both felt that they lowered the average age of the clientele by a decade or three. This place has a youthful vibe, but the late middle-aged are also made very welcome. We enjoyed sampling cocktails - the list includes a dozen which have been devised by Ishka staff, and the Accompanist particularly relished his "Cry Wolf" with its imaginative use of Glenfarclas. If you aren't into cocktails, there's a very good wine list, including reasonably-priced by-the-glass options. The food is excellent and attractively-presented, and we loved their post-modern take on traditional desserts. We'll definitely be back. They do lunches too, and their Market Menu looks appealing and very reasonably priced. Note to the Edinburgh City Council: a traffic-light controlled pedestrian crossing at the Morrison Street end of Gardner's Crescent, and some drop downs on the various alleys and wynds that punctuate the pavement on the southern side of Morrison Street would help a lot.