Breakfast
When it comes to breakfast, Edinburgh doesn’t mess around and it’s important to note the key - delicious - differences between a Full English and its Scottish counterpart; namely black pudding, tattie scones and yes, even haggis. Try The Edinburgh Larder for its locally sourced offering or grab a pillowy morning roll to go from legendary local Snax. If brunch is more your thing, try and snag a table at Urban Angel which has been serving up some of the city’s best benedicts for 15 years, or grab a bus up to Morningside for ‘lost bread’, aka French toast at Salt Café, made with homemade brioche and doused in maple syrup.
Lunch
One of the best value lunches in town can be found at The Palmerston, the restaurant and bakery from Lloyd Morse and James Snowdon, where you can enjoy three courses for just £19. The menu changes daily, but expect the likes of homemade mafalda with pork and fennel ragù, mince on dripping toast and blood orange polenta cake - all best enjoyed with a glass (or two) from the restaurant’s extensive by-the-glass selection. Be sure to grab a pastry for the road, too - they’re baked in house by Darcie Maher using Wildfarmed flour and Edinburgh Butter Co. cultured butter, and have included smoked dauphinois danishes and chocolate, coffee and mascarpone croissant cups.
The best things between bread come in the form of The Banh Mi Bar’s Vietnamese namesakes, Alby’s Big Hot Sandwiches and Bross’s cult Montreal-style bagels - our pick is the Big Apple on an everything bagel with pastrami, melted jack cheese, dill pickles and mustard.
Dinner
Edinburgh isn’t short of tasting menus so if you’re so inclined, wander down to Leith for contemporary Scottish cooking at Borough, where you’ll be treated to a (very) generous four-course set menu for £40. On the higher end of the budget sits the award-winning Fhior, where chef Scott Smith serves up innovative eight and ten-course tasting menus using vegetables from its own Fhior Garden.
Our picks for sharing plates are Bodega, the pastel-lovers dream serving up superior tacos and pineapple ceviche in Leith, and Ka Pao, situated in St James Quarter. Don’t be put off by its shopping centre location - the fried chicken with spicy caramel and the white crab, calamansi and shrimp crackers are some of the cleverest dishes we’ve tried in a long time.
Drinks
Our favourite wine bar in town is the über chic Spry, whose extensive list of natural, world wines by the glass starts at a very palatable fiver - try the Mas Candí Segunyola, a crisp sparkling from Catalunya, and browse the shelves for a bottle to go. Mistral and Smith & Gertrude are also brilliant spots for pre or post-prandials, while top 50 hotspot Bramble Bar and Lounge is the city’s go-to for cocktails.
