The Blue Parrot Cantina

Small Stockbridge basement cantina serving a large selection of Mexican dishes since 1993.

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Whitney Houston was topping the charts with ‘I Will Always Love You’ when Fiona MacRae opened her cosy little Blue Parrot Cantina down some steps in St Stephen’s Street, Stockbridge. It's an Edinburgh institution, in an iconic Edinburgh street, since 1993. Yes 1993 – that’s a long time in Edinburgh restaurant land. But the Blue Parrot is definitely alive and serving up its time-honoured menu of traditional Mexican favourites from its tiny kitchen to locals – who will always love it. To start, there’s chorizo-dotted nachos spilling over a strangely small serving plate, or a prawn and tomato taco de Cameron deep-fried flour tortilla. For mains, there are burritos, chimichangas, enchiladas, fajitas – including a vegetable version with squash, sugar snaps, asparagus and baby corn – or the more adventurous, if not especially successful, pescado Baja – haddock in jalapeño and coriander sauce with a lime breadcrumb topping. Several desserts include homemade nieve, a Mexican-style mango sorbet, or the pink parrot, a concoction of vanilla ice-cream, Tequila Rose liqueur and strawberries sprinkled with sugar.