An Edinburgh Fringe Veteran on His Favorite Spots Around the Festival

Comedian Phil Wang tells us where to eat and drink throughout Fringe this year—plus the best shows you can still book.Navigating Edinburgh Fringe is no mean feat. Squeezing in a quick lunch between shows, elbowing your way through crowds in Underbelly, Assembly, and Pleasance for a decent drink, and knowing which shows are actually worth your while is easier said than done. Many comedians have their secret tricks and hacks, but fewer have greater insights than Phil Wang. The stand-up comedian and writer has been coming to the Fringe for more than a decade, and in doing so, racked up a trusty list of top restaurants, bars and venues to visit—the places he visits every year without fail.“I must’ve been to the Fringe about 14 times in total. There’s nothing like it; it’s so special,” Wang says. “It’s so beautiful. I love how the old town is separated into two levels, with Cowgate beneath you. It feels medieval—like a big Hogwarts city. I love how many nooks and crannies it has.” Here, find Phil Wang’s tried-and-tested favorites to visit during the Edinburgh Fringe.Phil Wang in his favorite restaurant, Noodles and Dumplings The best restaurants to visit during Edinburgh FringeNoodles and DumplingsAddress: 23 S Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9JDEdinburgh's amazing for food, especially Chinese food. It's one of the best Chinese food cities in the UK. Every year I visit and there's a new Chinese place and more East Asian places. In 2017, I went to one of these new openings called Noodles and Dumplings, on South Clerk Street. I had one of the best wonton noodle soups I've ever had in my life.All the noodles are handmade, hand pulled, hand cut, and all the wontons are made there in the shop. You can buy these little cold platters of nuts and pickles for around £1 before you order.I posted about it on social media and then decided to start reviewing East Asian restaurants in Edinburgh that year. I gave everything marks out of five and then awarded one as the winner for the year. People saw my posts and started going to Noodles and Dumplings, and now it's one of the comedians' must-see places.Mosque KitchenAddress: 31-33 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh EH8 9BXCloser to the city centre is Mosque Kitchen. It’s an institution, and always so busy during the Fringe. It feels more like a cafeteria or a canteen than a restaurant, because so many comedians go, so you’ll always bump into people. You pick up a disposable plate, spoon some rice and tasty curry onto it. They'll slop whatever you want on there; it’s big portions, and it’s pretty cheap. And you can get spinach and nans and pakoras.There's a big tub of yogurt raita that you just ladle onto your plate yourself. The tables are massive, so you just perch on other people's tables and start chatting. It becomes a real lifeline if you're in the city all month. So you can be running from show to show and get a quick, tasty, nutritious and filling meal.Macau KitchenAddress: 93 St. Leonard's St, Edinburgh EH8 9QYMacau Kitchen is apparently the only Macanese restaurant—as in food from Macau—in the UK. It's a cute little restaurant run by a married couple, Kei and Hoeyyn. In 2019, when they’d only just opened, I was still reviewing restaurants on Twitter, and I visited the restaurant, and ended up announcing them the winner for that year.I got to know them because someone told me they’d printed out and framed my award (which was nothing more than a tweet), alongside a picture of me, and put it on the wall of the restaurant. Since then, they’ve won real awards, but mine was first and it’s still there in the corner. They’ve always been very sweet to me.It's a beautiful little restaurant. It feels like you've come into someone's living room. They have such an enthusiasm for their food. But it's quite hard to get in. It's a small restaurant and they're popular, so you might have to book quite far in advance. It is just an amazing place, with unusual food—a combination of Malaysian, Macanese, Chinese, Portuguese. Order the sour pork curry.Pleasance Courtyard, one of the buzziest spaces at the Fringe The best places to drink during Edinburgh FringePleasance CourtyardAddress: 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJOf all the main bar areas at the Fringe, the Pleasance Courtyard is probably the one that's most accessible and the most consistently buzzy. It's a bit basic for a comedian to say that, but it still has an unmatched energy. It’s outdoors, and all the signposts point to the different venues, and there are loads of comedians milling about. One year, Tina Fey might walk past, or Charlie Brooker might smile at you. For me, it is the physical manifestation of the Fringe’s spirit and energy. People grab a drink between shows before running off to their next one.My first few shows were at the Pleasance Courtyard. The sold-out board would be right by the door and everyone would get so excited if they made it to the board. Even if you sell out like an hour before your show, some hungover teenager would have to write your name in chalk on the board, and you’d get a massive rush of excitement. I still have a picture somewhere of my first one. A lot of fun memories from the Courtyard.The Royal Dick, a pub at Summer Hall Ross Fraser McLean / StudioRoRoSummer HallAddress: Summerhall, Edinburgh EH9 1PLI think people sleep on Summer Hall – old medical school lecture halls, but there’s a beautiful courtyard in the middle, with a pub called the Royal Dick. There are lots of weird curiosities dotted around, like little bones and microscopes—they're running with the whole medical lab theme. But it's actually a cosy little pub. You can get cocktails or a beer, and sit out on the terrace. Not many people go because it's a bit out of the centre, and it’s almost hidden—if you didn’t know it was there, you would miss it.Pints at The Royal Dick Ross Fraser McLean / StudioRoRoBrass MonkeyAddress: 14 Drummond St, Edinburgh EH8 9TUWebsite: brassmonkeyedinburgh.co.ukThe third one I wanted to mention is Brass Monkey. It’s a beautiful pub, with lots of little nooks and crannies. In the second room, they’ve got all these cushions on the floor—I can’t ever really tell if it’s comfortable or not, but it’s a nice atmosphere and feels cosy. If you can find a corner of the cushioned area, you can hide away with a gang for hours. I’d actually love to go on a date there—I’m calling it now, this is the best date spot in Edinburgh.Monkey Barrel Comedy, where Wang performs this year The best venues at Edinburgh FringeMonkey Barrel ComedyAddress: 9-12 Blair Street, Edinburgh EH1 1QRI'm not just saying this because this is where I'm performing, but Monkey Barrel 3 is a fantastic standup room. Monkey Barrel is a group of venues that are relative newcomers to the Fringe; they've only been around for a few years. But they've found the Goldilocks point between the old established venues, like Pleasance, Underbelly Assembly and the Free Fringe, the more underground Fringe. It’s really professionally done, and they tended to show weirder acts, or newer acts, at the start, but now they’re so prestigious, so I think it’s harder for newer acts to get in. They’ve got a good range of rooms—on Blair Street, that cobbled street that takes you down into Cowgate. I’ve only done guest spots there before. I've never done a full show at the Monkey Barrel before, only guest spots, so I'm excited.Pleasance BeneathWebsite: 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ.The Pleasance Beneath, in the Pleasance Courtyard, is a room that I've always had very good experiences with. It's one of the few rooms that Pleasance had where it's not really hot. It always has really exciting shows there. I think my favorite Fringe run ever was doing a show in Pleasance Beneath. You just feel a bit sequestered from the heat and from the crowds, and it feels like you're all in a little secret together. And that's what makes a good venue.The best things to do at Edinburgh FringeMuseum of ScotlandAddress: Chambers St, Edinburgh EH1 1JFThe Museum of Scotland is great, and it's right in the middle of town. I'm a big museum fan, and this one has one of my favorite items in any UK museum. It's a piece of scrimshaw, which is an object like a whale bone, with carvings on it. This one is a big whale's jawbone, from Indonesia. A British crew went on this journey in the 19th century and, because the return voyage was so long and so boring, they passed the time by making scrimshaw. They would carve pictures in the whale bone. It's a really beautiful image. Every time I go to Edinburgh, I’ll make a point of visiting the museum and looking at the whale bone.The view from Calton Hill Calton HillCalton Hill is a bit of a classic, but it's just so pretty, with beautiful views of the city. And it’s actually not as busy and not as much of a hike as Arthur's Seat.Dean Village's pretty fairytale skyline Angelina Ishmukhametova/Getty ImagesDean VillageThe village of Dean is like something from a fairytale. It feels like you've travelled 10 hours from the city, but it's basically a little village. It's so pretty. I only went once for a doctor's appointment. I was about to do Drunk History, and I had to get a medical to confirm that I could handle that much alcohol. I did that in the village of Dean, and was completely taken aback by how beautiful it is. It’s definitely one of the coolest places I’ve been. I need to go back.The best shows to see at Edinburgh Fringe 2026Ed Night: We'll Be Alright, DarlingMonkey Barrel 1 I’m really excited to see Ed Night this year. He's recently hurt his leg, so he's going to be in crutches the whole month, but if anyone can make it work, it's Ed. He's just extremely clever. I don't know how you'd describe his style—I think he's described himself as a Gen Z Sylvia Plath. I wish I'd read Sylvia Plath because I don't know what that means, but that's how clever he is. He’s very insightful, but also silly. He just has a hunch of what’s going to work, and it always does. If you want to see something that's both wise and silly, book tickets for this.Buy tickets for Ed Night here: edfringe.comBella Hull: Mad Cow DiseaseMonkey Barrel 1 Bella has been up and coming for a while, but she is getting big now. She's just been a writer on SNL UK, and she’s really, really funny. She comes up with amazing titles—her last Edinburgh show was called Doctors Hate Her, that was her real breakout show. This one's called Mad Cow Disease. I think she's in a really good groove right now. She's mad and hilarious and self-deprecating in a sort of hysterical way. It’s brilliant.Buy tickets for Bella Hull here: edfringe.comJoseph Morpurgo, one of Wang's top comedians to see in 2026 Michael JulingsJoseph Morpurgo: Highlander 70Forth at Pleasance Courtyard I don't know Joe very well; everyone is very excited about his return to the Fringe because he hasn’t been in more than 10 years. He did these brilliant, obscure shows about a single random object like a record collection or a photo album. Every time, he manages to make a brilliant, really hilarious show from a collection of things he's found, usually with old pictures of people, who he’d turn into characters in their own right throughout the show. He builds a weird, hilarious world around these things he's found. It's really, really good content and I’m intrigued to see how he's been after all these years.Buy tickets for Joe Morpurgo here: edfringe.comPierre Novellie: Okay, One More Then BedtimeMonkey Barrel 3 Pierre Novellie is an old friend of mine, and he has never done a bad show. He goes to the Fringe every year and makes another fantastic show of observational comedy. I guess I’d call it highbrow observational comedy. It's like if Michael McIntyre had a PhD. He never panders to the audience. He's very good at introducing complex, obscure ideas and somehow using them as a jumping-off point for just really brilliant observational routines about everyday life, about society and politics. It's really good nourishing stuff, but I’ve also laughed a lot.Buy tickets for Pierre Novellie here: edfringe.comPhil Wang’s new standup show, Uh Oh, runs across the UK from September 11, 2026 until May 2027. A version of this article originally appeared on Condé Nast Traveller UK.Olivia Morelli is Condé Nast Traveller's senior digital writer. After starting her career at Suitcase Magazine, she moved to Condé Nast Traveller in 2020, where her work varies from reporting on the latest wellness and lifestyle trends and travel news stories to uncovering the latest must-visit destinations and expanding CNT's ... Read More