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At Edinburgh’s Lyla, Stuart Ralston Extends Hospitality Upstairs

The Michelin-starred restaurant now comes with four rooms overhead, renovated to match the same measured, detail-driven approach.

Stuart Ralston never imagined he would become a hotelier. In fact, the Scottish chef had no concrete plans for his career, beyond owning his own restaurant one day. “Everything else has come up by chance or organically grown into what it is,” Ralston tells Observer, speaking from his one Michelin-starred restaurant, Lyla, in Edinburgh in late March. “When I started as a chef, I didn’t know anything.”

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Ralston opened his first restaurant, Aizle, in Edinburgh in 2014. Since then, he has launched a succession of eateries around the city, including Noto in 2019, Tipo and Lyla in 2023, and Vinette in 2025. Earlier this year, he added a hotel component to Lyla. The four bedrooms, located above Lyla in a historic townhouse close to Edinburgh’s city center, were previously run by someone else. Ralston had the opportunity to take them over last year and subsequently enlisted design firm Scarnish Studio to renovate the rooms and bring them in line with Lyla’s contemporary, elegant decor. 

Scarnish Studio initially designed Lyla’s dining room, as well as Ralston’s restaurants Vinette and Vivian. “I wanted the rooms to feel as high-end as the restaurant, and I wanted them to feel individually designed, so they’re not all the same,” says Ralston, 42. “I don’t like the idea of having a cookie-cutter process. Each of them has different features, so it makes more sense to work around those features.”

Ralston drew on his own travel experiences to ensure each room felt comfortable and well-appointed. “I’ve seen a lot of hotels,” he says. “I wanted something where you would feel it’s a bit like a home, and you’ve got things that you need. Music, homemade cocktails—those sorts of things.” The minibar even includes Kaviari caviar for £50 and a bottle of Krug Grand Cuvee MV for £350. 

“I work with caviar a lot,” Ralston explains. “So to have something that really ties in with the restaurant and what we do in the restaurant felt important. It’s a bougie thing to put in there, as well, to keep it feeling high-end and elegant. There are a lot of places where you get absolute rubbish.”

In the morning, an included breakfast is delivered to the room in a chic picnic basket. Originally, Ralston considered serving it in the restaurant downstairs, but the space seemed too grand for only a few hotel guests. He took inspiration........

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