Edinburgh Old Town seafood and shellfish institution, Ondine Oyster & Grill, has announced plans to relocate to a brand new venue in Edinburgh city centre.
Owner Chef Roy Brett admitted that the restaurant’s current site on George IV Bridge was being ‘hampered’ by the ongoing works to the façade of the building it occupies part of – and with no end in sight to those works, the decision had been made to move.
At the same time, the brand will be opening a second venue at the Seaton House Hotel in St Andrews.
Opened by Brett in 2009, Ondine has enjoyed what he described as ‘15 very successful years’ in its current premises – but with a longstanding cloak of scaffolding surrounding the George IV Bridge building, delivering a superior dining experience to its loyal customers had become problematic.
“It is with mixed emotions that we share the news that after 15 years, Ondine will close its doors on George IV Bridge at the end of this year,” said Brett.
“In 2021, Ondine transformed the entire look and feel of the restaurant to emulate a ship at sea with a very clever window display. Due to unforeseen circumstances out of our control, the restaurant’s exterior was completely covered in scaffolding, forcing Ondine to change its entire appearance.
“Our landlord has advised works will now be ongoing for much longer than previously anticipated. This being the case we have reached the point where we feel our amazing team and loyal customers deserve better.
“So, after 15 fantastic years, we have decided that our time here must come to an end, and our final service will be our Hogmanay Celebration on December 31st,” he confirmed.
“This is not a decision we have made lightly,” stressed Brett. “Ondine means so much to many, not only to myself and my family but also to our customers, who have almost become family over the years.
“However, we are not going away, we will be moving to brand new premises within the city centre very soon and today we announce the exciting news that we will also be opening our first ever restaurant outside of Edinburgh in the Spring of next year.
“Thanks to our long-standing partnership with our great friends at Valor Hospitality, we are proud to be opening Ondine Oyster & Grill in Seaton House, St Andrews – their new luxury 5-star hotel overlooking the West Sands and the famous Old Course itself. It’s shaping up to be a fantastic year and we can’t wait to get started!”
Brett took the opportunity to say that it had been ‘a true pleasure to work with so many passionate and talented individuals in Ondine over the last 15 years’.
“Without their hard work and selfless dedication, I know we wouldn’t be where we are today. I salute you.
“Our success is also down to our loyal and incredible customer base. I want to extend a heartfelt personal thank you to every single one of you who has dined with us.
“Your support means everything to us, and I hope to welcome back to Ondine as many of you as is possible over the next seven weeks. Let’s go out with a bang!”
But it isn’t only Brett who has run out of patience with the works dominating the site. Council chiefs are reportedly angry that continued delays to the work on the G&V Hotel occupying the corner of the Royal Mile and the bridge has left a scaffolding ‘eyesore’ at the heart of the Old Town for years.
Council leader Cammy Day has branded the prolonged project ‘a blight on the local historic environment’ and calling for Radisson Hotels, the group behind the project, to be charged for the overrun.
Councillor Day said: “I hope this will be a great refurbished hotel. However, I’m told it has been under scaffolding for over five years. It is a prime site in the city’s heritage centre, so I do not want to see prolonged building works and scaffolding unless it’s absolutely necessary.
“The city has had to put up with this eyesore for five years now and we need to push the developer to get a move on with it – and at the very least we want the public footway returned to the city as quickly as possible.”
