Trattoria, Stockbridge, since 2015

Ortiga

Pasta made every morning, a wood-topped counter, and a table for as long as you like.

Open Tuesday to Sunday

The dining room at Ortiga, early evening.

The story

How Ortiga came to be

Ortiga opened in the spring of 2015 in a former dairy shop beside the Water of Leith. Isabel Ortiga, whose father came from Galicia and whose mother grew up near Alba, wanted one room where a plate of pasta and a glass of something cold could be the whole evening. The first menu had eight dishes. Seven of them are still on it in some form.

The name is the word for nettle in Spanish and Portuguese. Nettles grew behind the shop and went into the first batch of gnocchi, which is still the dish we are asked about most. The two-stroke leaf in our mark is that nettle leaf.

The pasta team starts at six each morning. Tagliatelle, tortelli and gnocchi are made, cut and cooked the same day, and anything left at close goes to staff supper rather than the next service. Sauces are slow and plain: a ragù that cooks for five hours, a brown butter that takes five minutes. The wine list is short on purpose and every bottle on it is one the team would drink at home.

Tables here are not turned quickly. Come at half past five and the room is quiet and the light is good. Come at eight and it is loud in the way a good Italian dinner should be.

Open since
2015
Cooking
Italian
Price
££
A cook's floury hand drawing ribbons of fresh pasta from a rolling machine.

The room

Where you will sit

The people

Who looks after you

Marta Ferrante

Head chef

Marta trained in Turin and cooked in Edinburgh for nine years before taking over the Ortiga kitchen in 2019. She writes the pasta list every Monday, when the restaurant is shut and the kitchen is quiet.

Callum Reid

General manager

Callum has run the floor at Ortiga since 2017. He chooses the wines, knows which table suits which party, and will tell you honestly when a dish is better than the one you were about to order.

Visit

Hours and address

Ortiga
9 Cranston Wynd
Stockbridge
Edinburgh EH3 5PD
+1 555 010 1421
ortiga@dine.phoenixcodes.org
Opening hours atOrtiga
Monday Closed
Tuesday to Saturday Lunch 12:00 to 15:00, dinner 17:30 to 23:00
Sunday 12:30 to 20:00

Getting in

  • Step-free entrance from Cranston Wynd and a step-free route to every table on the ground floor.
  • An accessible toilet on the ground floor.
  • Menus in large print on request, and a printable menu on this website.
  • Assistance dogs are welcome.
A ten minute walk from Princes Street, across the Water of Leith.

Reservations

Book Ortiga

We hold about a third of the room for walk-ins at dinner. Parties of 9 or more should send a private dining enquiry.

Tables at Ortiga