48 hours in Edinburgh

If you’ve never visited Edinburgh before you may feel as though you’ve been transported into the pages of a Harry Potter book. The medieval Old Town’s dark, winding alleys, Gothic spires and dramatic castle-topped skyline evoke a sense of spooky wonder (it’s no coincidence that JK Rowling is one of Edinburgh’s most famous residents). Scratch beneath the olde-worlde surface, though, and you’ll find a cosmopolitan city with a quiet sense of self-worth and vibrant cultural scene.

The city’s residents have a reputation for being somewhat prim, but you’d never guess if you visit in August, when the world’s biggest arts jamboree, the annual Edinburgh Festival, hits town. The entire city dives headlong into a full-on feast of music, comedy, drama, dance and opera. Every day of the Festival brings fresh excitement and anticipation while the crowds and the colour, the shows and the late nights scoop you up and carry you along. Even a normally tiresome experience, such as a slow-moving ticket queue, can be fun, sparking off conversations between strangers about what’s hot or not.

And you’ll never go underfed or be left bereft of a pint or two for long. The local food and drink scene fuels the festival fun by providing alcohol, caffeine and calories to propel audiences from one venue to another – but it can do so much more. The range of bars and restaurants is second only to London as far as the UK is concerned. This handy guide will show you how to get the best food-and-drink experience in a short, intense burst – provided you have the stamina.

Leith harbourside

Best breakfast
Before you even think about tackling the expansive programmes for the posho Edinburgh International Festival or the more anarchic Edinburgh Festival Fringe, you need early morning sustenance. In the city centre, either branch of Urban Angel is a good bet (121 Hanover Street, 0131 225 6215; 1 Forth Street, 0131 556 6323). Using largely local, organic and seasonal ingredients, these are bright, breezy establishments. It’s fun to construct a bespoke breakfast from the ‘add-ons’ list, which includes free-range bacon, Stornoway black pudding and organic smoked salmon. At lunchtimes and evenings, the Urban Angels double up as decent café-restaurants too.

Best place for brunch
On your second day in the city, blow away the cobwebs with some sea air and head for Roseleaf (23-24 Sandport Place; 0131 476 5268) in Leith. It’s really a gastropub but the brunch menu kicks in from 10am. After a full-on night out, the Big One breakfast or vegetarian Leafer are worth the jaunt on their own.

Best coffee stop
If all you can face is black coffee, however, Artisan Roast (57 Broughton Street; 07590 590667) is a bohemian stopover where the staff won’t faint if you ask for a cup of Gethumbwini Peaberry.

Best value for lunch
Respectable culture vultures who get up in time for breakfast at their hotel will get the munchies by lunchtime, and one of the city’s more agreeable trends has been for informal, value-for-money eats. In 2008, restaurateur David Ramsden opened The Dogs (110 Hanover Street; 0131 220 1208). In this modern-British venue you can lunch on pork pie with poached egg and pea sauce for around a fiver. The formula was so successful, Ramsden opened an Italian version in 2009 (Amore Dogs, 104 Hanover Street; 0131 220 5155). Then, this year he got the hat-trick with the seafood and vegetarian Seadogs (43 Rose Street; 0131 225 8028). They’re central, fun and popular.

Tony’s Table (58a North Castle Street; 0131 226 6743) is a good alternative – distinguished old premises whose capable new owner, Tony Singh, has added a veneer of funkiness. A decent lunchtime mug of lobster bisque, followed by some pea and broad bean risotto, comes to just over a tenner.

Honeymoon slices, Harvey Nicks

Best bars

For cocktails…
Having done the typical Festival thing – fitted in a morning show, a gallery, some street performers and lunch – your energy will be flagging by mid-afternoon, so it will be time to think about a drink. Harvey Nicks (30-34 St Andrew Square; 0131 524 8388) has a discreet cocktail bar, the Forth Floor… on the fourth floor. There’s also a food hall, an excellent restaurant, a brasserie and a Yo! Sushi. But the city’s best cocktail bar is Bramble (16a Queen Street; 0131 226 6343), a basement with a casually hip sensibility and staff who really care.

For whisky…
If you find yourself protesting, “But I’m north of the border, I must try a wee dram!” the Bow Bar (80 West Bow; 0131 226 7667) is small with a traditional look and has one of the most interesting whisky selections in Scotland, let alone Edinburgh. Catch it when it’s quiet and the staff offer good advice. For the enthusiast, membership of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (28 Queen Street; 0131 220 2044) is a gateway to a cornucopia of rare single-cask malt whiskies and a handy restaurant in a revamped Georgian townhouse.

A wee dram... or three

Best dinner hotspots

The shows at the Festival carry on late into the evening, so you need a good dinner to keep your strength up. There’s a range of excellent, affordable eateries, from fantastically atmospheric Franco-Scots establishments like The Witchery (352 Castlehill; 0131 225 5613) to brilliant, casual Indian diners such as Mother India’s Café (3-5 Infirmary Street; 0131 524 9801).

A couple of places that take their food sourcing seriously are Iglu (2b Jamaica Street; 0131 476 5333) and Ondine (2 George IV Bridge; 0131 226 1888). The former is a small bistro above a pub, specialising in local, organic and wild produce – Loch Duart salmon niçoise might be a choice.

It also has a bargain pre-theatre menu from 6pm to 7pm. Ondine is a slick seafood restaurant and crustacean bar, accredited by the Marine Stewardship Council. Enjoy half a dozen Scottish rock oysters, simple but delicious fish and chips or sea bass with brown shrimps and capers.

Inside 21212

Best for five-star dining

Edinburgh has the UK’s highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants outside London. The following (all excellent) have one each…

21212
3 Royal Terrace; 0845 222 1212.
Paul Kitching has the nerve to put sea bass, dates, capers and soy sauce in one dish, but has the talent to make it work.

The Kitchin
78 Commercial Quay, Leith; 0131 555 1755.
Tom Kitchin can make a deft terrine or velouté, but there’s pig’s head and ox tongue on the menu too.

Number One
The Balmoral, 1 Princes Street; 0131 557 6727.
The flagship dining room of Edinburgh’s most iconic hotel – classically French under the stewardship of Jeff Bland and Craig Sandle.

Plumed Horse
50-54 Henderson Street, Leith; 0131 554 5556.
Tony Borthwick runs perhaps the most homely of Edinburgh’s top-tier restaurants: small but beautifully formed.

Restaurant Martin Wishart
54 The Shore, Leith; 0131 553 3557.
Slick, confident, modern French-style cooking with the best front of house in the city.

Martin Wishart

Best places to stay

Top dollar: 21212
3 Royal Terrace; 0845 222 1212.
When Paul Kitching and partner Katie O’Brien opened 21212 restaurant (see five-star dining round-up, opposite), they decided it should have some luxury rooms upstairs. There are only four: two facing the rear garden, two facing out over the city. Plush, lush and perfect if you don’t want to go anywhere after dinner.

Better value: Malmaison
1 Tower Place, Leith; 0131 468 5000.
The original Malmaison (it opened in 1994) has the trademark raffish rooms and a cool bar. It’s still the best place to stay in Leith, the docklands area that’s foodie central when it comes to Michelin-starred restaurants. There are three of them in walking distance as well as a number of other decent eateries.