This place is great--easy to get an appointment, great selection of frames at a nice price and they…read moreare even fairly upscale. They order contact lenses for you to try on before you buy too, and everything comes in really fast. Steven is really nice and always there to help you with whatever you need! I even got a discount on my cool new frames for Black Friday a few months ago so I am extra-pleased.

At 58 years of age I needed advice about my changing eyesight. I've been wearing specs for short…read moresightedness for years but am now also experiencing problems reading small print, a real nuisance when shopping when I had to take my specs off to read price labels etc.! Friends and family had recommended varifocals but I had reservations. I was so grateful for the objective and professional advice I was given by the optician at Marchmont, which enabled me to weigh up the advantages of different lenses before making my own decision. I did not feel pressured and was reassured that I would be given full and sympathetic follow-up care after buying my varifocals. There was an impressive selection of fashionable frames to choose from at my leisure and I was delighted to be able to choose a second pair of glasses free!

Always really helpful. I don't even live here and this is where I come to. Can't recommend enough.read more

20 20 Opticians is a very friendly, helpful and professional business. I'm here in Edinburgh on…read morevacation, visiting from Texas, when my eye glasses completely broke. I was in a panic because my optician is back in the US. I went to 20 20 Opticians after finding it via a google search. Nik in particular was very helpful and fixed my glasses for me free of charge, basically saving my vacation from ruin. Thank you so much, Nik. And thank you, 20 20 Opticians. I really appreciate the help at the late hour in the day and without an appointment. I highly recommend this store. Also, as I was waiting, I was looking at the selection of womens' eyewear. Had I not just bought some in the US. I would've bought another pair because they had some really nice choices. If you have any eye care needs, 20 20 Opticians is the place to go. Thank you!

This is a wonderful practice with a lovely caring atmosphere and totally dependable professional…read moreservice in every aspect of eyecare. The needs of every generation are met and the most up to date equipment is used in the examining and dispensing stages of appointments. The cosmetic side of things is fully catered for too with lots of fashionable frames to choose from.

The high point of this practice in addition to their excellent range of frames is the staff's…read moreprofessional, warm and friendly approach to each individual customer. They will go out of their way to find the best solution for you whether it's specialist lenses or a frame repair. Have recommended to all my friends and family.

Always found them pretty good. Lovely frames though at expensive end. And very good lenses.read more

#yelpmission My…read moreeyesight is BAD! I'm very near-sighted with astigmatism in both eyes. I had to get contacts at 13 because glasses couldn't correct my eyesight; and of course hard (gas permeable) lenses are my only option if I want good vision. I have moved quite a bit since I was 13 and in every new location, finding a good optician is more important than finding a hairdresser - hair grows back! I have often found that some opticians have a bit of an ego and want to try new things or see if they can get a better fit than my existing lenses. They rarely do. So, I don't want to go to a high street chain and see a different optician every time I go. When I moved to Falkirk, I couldn't find a contact lens specialist so I looked further afield and came across RC Cunning: long established, only 2 doctors in the practice and listed contact lens fitting as their speciality. That was over 10 years ago and I still won't go anywhere else although now it's handier since I've moved to Edinburgh. In all that time I have only seen 3 different opticians (Mr Cunnings has semi-retired) and they have all been friendly, efficient, thorough and excellent at explaining everything they are doing and all my options. At one point, I was given a free pair of the 'new' torque lenses to try - soft lenses that are thicker in places to accommodate an astigmatism. Great to give them a free trial as I found out they didn't work for me - but the optician was happy for me to have a go and just as happy to admit that my current fit for the hard lenses is great without making any unnecessary changes. The biggest challenge though has been my eye glass prescription. Glasses just don't give me good vision and they have been so diligent in trying to get me the best possible solution. Hard contact lenses apparently flatten down the eye, but when I wear glasses, the eye eventually goes back to normal (well, somewhat). They realised that popping out my lenses before my eye test would mean I would get a prescription for my 'flattened' eye surface, but after a few hours, the vision from the glasses wouldn't be as good. My existing glasses weren't good enough to wear every day for a week, so again, I got a free pair of soft lenses to wear for 7 days before going back and redoing the eye test for glasses. Seemed to work as they managed to get my best glasses prescription ever. So what does this level of service and dedication cost? Surprisingly not much. The eye test for glasses was covered by the NHS and I pay around £22 a month for my lenses (I get a new pair posted to my house every year after my prescription is rechecked and updated) - I've never been asked to pay any extra. Their glasses are expensive as they only carry high end frames so I just have them print out my prescription and I head over to a high street chain that offers multi-pair deals.

This place provides a vital service in eye-care which I rate highly but my review is based on the…read morebuilding mainly and how dated and run down it has become. The interior of this building is literally stuck in the 80's that I'm surprised the lifts still work. It's quite shocking to me that it has been left and been neglected for so long to be in such a sad state, I really hope things change and gets a major refurbishment.

The Eye Pavillion is a slightly strange place to review, simply because, obviously, the only reason…read moreyou're likely to come here is if you have a problem with your eyes, in which case you won't have much choice in the matter and are unlikely to be persuaded or dissuaded by a Yelp review! And, if your eyes are healthy, no matter how much I rave about this place, I'm not sure you'll really be inclined to pay it a visit. Anyway, here I am reviewing it regardless. My eyes are a bit dodgy, so I have to come here about twice a year, and while it's very fashionable to complain about the NHS, I've actually always been pretty impressed, as they're efficient and friendly here, I have a nice doctor, and, because it's a specialist hospital, there isn't quite the same overpowering atmosphere of dying and depression here that is in other medical institutions. My only complaint concerns the name, which I think implies some sort of gracious, royally-endowed pagoda-like building, perhaps with some peacocks outside, or at the very least some bunting. The Eye Pavillion is nothing like this at all. It's an ugly structure made out of concrete. Perhaps the people who built it assumed that everyone who came here would be too blind to notice.

This store is the antithesis of Optical Express, where I got my first ever pair of glasses (cue…read moredoom and gloom music). It's relatively small, APPEARS to be independently owned, and the range of frames available, which is significantly smaller than at Optical Express, would have saved me over an hour of agonizing over which ones to get. The luxury of choice brings out ugly indecisiveness in me! It's in Marchmont, a quaint and quiet residential area in central south Edinburgh, and has a believable air of "expertise" about it.

Been going here for years. Lyndsay Brown herself was fantastic and since she handed over to Mrs…read moreNolan, it's just as professional, careful and fair as ever. Won't go anywhere else.

It only took me ten years, but I finally took the plunge and registered with an optician in…read moreEdinburgh. I chose 20 20 because 1. it's over the road from my flat, and 2. the chain, as a whole, gets pretty good Yelp reviews, so it seemed like a solid choice. And it was! I popped by, registered, made an appointment for a couple of days' time, and that was that. All super easy. When my appointment came, I was seen by optician Alan, who's very friendly, and put me at ease. He answered a couple of questions I had about why I have a tendency to close one eye, and gave me a few exercises to try at home. After the test, I was handed over to one of the women front of house who very patiently helped me sift through lots of very similar looking frames til I found 'the ones'. She explained the prices available, and I set up a monthly subscription that covers various costs and gives me a pretty heft discount on frames (sweet). I've also been in for new contact lenses, which I was dismayed to realise won't be a perfect fit in my right eye due to my excessively wonkily astigmatic eyes, but they're doing the best they can. Hurray! All in all, I've been pleased with the service I've received from 20 20. They're not the cheapest opticians by any stretch of the imagination, but they are friendly and I do now own a very swanky pair of purple specs so overall I'm pretty pleased!

I've never bought glasses from here but they are the closest opticians to home.. which means I've…read morepopped in on a couple of occasions when I've needed adjustments made to my specs. They have always been more than eager to help out and have never charged me to make adjustments and even give my glasses a good proper clean. Last time I stopped in they had a stack of cleaning cloths on the counter and seemed happy for people to help themselves. When my next eye check is due, I think I'll be paying them a visit!

I'm a bit disappointed by their service: for 3 weeks I heard nothing back, in regards to my frame…read morewhere one lens had cracked. I am working close by so I decided to pop in to ask what's happening and ask them to chase their central offices, only to find out that my frame had actually arrived the very same day I decided to pop in. Quite a surprise! So the lens was replaced with a new one, but I have not been very pleased by the experience.