Edinburgh

Leith docks in Edinburgh's north

When I was growing up in Edinburgh, food was always tasty, but plain and wholesome – ‘nothing fancy’ was the key phrase. The notion of eating out was almost unthinkable, apart from fish suppers or tea and scones in Jenners, the traditional Princes Street department store.

My, how times have changed. Now, when anyone asks my advice on where to eat or food-shop in my city, I’m spoilt for choice.

Service with a smile at Porto & Fi

Breakfast

Instead of my usual breakfast of porridge (with salt, never sugar), I sometimes wrap up warm and meet friends for breakfast or brunch. One of my favourite places – a brisk 10-minute walk from my home in the north of the city – is Porto & Fi, a café/deli with fabulous views over the River Forth. It serves excellent coffee and brunch dishes, such as scrambled eggs with Parma ham, and it also has terrific home baking. One of my favourites is its Honeymoon Slice, a ridiculously decadent confection of coconut, caramel and chocolate. Lunch here might be a richly indulgent quiche, or a hearty soup of the day with great hunks of locally-baked bread.

Just north of Princes Street is another favourite for brunch, Urban Angel, which focuses on Fairtrade and organic produce. My choice  there is either ‘proper’ porridge with heather honey, or eggs benedict with smoked haddock – or both!

Feast your eyes

Next stop is one of the city’s art galleries. The Royal Scottish Academy on Princes Street and the National Gallery on The Mound are joined by an underground link, so you can spend all day inside, viewing such masterpieces as Titian’s Venus Anadyomene. Be sure to include coffee, lunch or a glass of wine in the Gallery Restaurant or Café.

Another favourite art/food venue of mine is the National Portrait Gallery Café. Here, you can enjoy some of the city’s best home-baking (scones, date slice, millionaire’s shortbread) or lunch on filled ciabattas, soup or Scottish cheese with oatcakes, after viewing sculptures and portraits of notable Scots such as Robert Burns.

The National Gallery of Modern Art is worth a visit, too, not only to see the Scottish Colourists, but to have one of the most delicious – and inexpensive – lunches in town at The Gallery Café, from fabulous soups, salads and filled baguettes to traybakes and cakes.

Food shopping

Food shops now abound in Edinburgh and one of the oldest, Valvona & Crolla (founded in 1934), remains one of the best. It’s a fantastic place to go for a packet of risotto rice, a Macsween haggis or a bottle of wine – from their award-winning Italian range to other European and New World wines, and even reds from China.

Cheesemonger Iain J. Mellis, meanwhile, has the best range of British and Irish cheeses in Scotland – and we’re lucky enough to have four branches in different areas of the city, so it’s easy to drop in for some Lanark Blue or Mull Cheddar, while sampling cheeses you might never have tasted or even heard of.

Coffee and cakes

With the sightseeing and shopping done, it’s time for a coffee, and I am always very excited about new places in the city that boast a good brew as well as great baking. Only last year Peter’s Yard opened up very near my old school in George Square. This Swedish bakery and café sells excellent bread, from Swedish rye, fig or lemon loaves to crusty, slow-proven baguettes. It also stocks organic flour, crispbreads and unusual jams, from peach melba to raspberry and chocolate. While you’re there, try a Swedish cardamom bun or indulge in the best Valrhona chocolate muffins you will ever taste – light and cakey outside, dense and rich inside.

When I’m in the university area, south of the centre, I like to walk along George IV Bridge, past the new National Museum on the right, with its fabulous collection of Scottish and international treasures, and past The Elephant House on the left. It’s best known as the birthplace of Harry Potter, for this is one of the cafés where, accompanied by her baby daughter, JK Rowling wrote the first of her wizard books.

On George Street there are many places to duck in from the crowds, but to a chocoholic like me, there’s nowhere better than Centotre, a buzzy, family-run restaurant that serves the best hot chocolate anywhere – rich, dark and so thick your spoon stands up in it.

Good doggy: The Dogs on Hanover Street

Dinner

Stay on at Centotre for dinner, too – there’s an emphasis on fresh Italian produce and the food is wonderful. I love their agnoletti, fresh pasta parcels filled with spinach and Loch Arthur ricotta, and the fritto misto.

There’s a big Italian community in Edinburgh, and another place for proper Italian pasta is VinCaffè, and the rigatoni with slow-cooked tomato sugo and fennel Fonteluna sausage is memorable.

Also highly recommended is The Dogs, Edinburgh’s first proper gastropub, where you can indulge in garlicky mushroom barley risotto, then marmalade bread and butter pudding, at any time of day.

The city also has plenty of sophisticated upmarket restaurants these days, but for a special-occasion dinner, I’d recommend Kitchin in Leith, run by Tom Kitchin, Scotland’s youngest Michelin-starred chef. I love his foie gras with haggis, and turbot with Perthshire sea kale. And in the city centre is Harvey Nichols’ Forth Floor, a restaurant with some of the best views in Edinburgh. Here you might try home-cured salmon with Loch Etive oysters or Highland venison with oxtail tortelloni. I enjoy sitting at a window table looking over to the castle or over the River Forth to the north.

Head to Circus Wine Bar & Grill for great steaks or – my favourite – fish and chips served with truffle-flavoured mushy peas. I reckon this is one of the best-value venues in town, and the charming staff always guide me ably through the comprehensive wine list.

Incredible desserts at Forth Floor, Harvey Nichols

Drinks

There are plenty of great places to raise a glass in Edinburgh. Back again at Centotre, I suggest you try one of its Prosecco mixes such as the George Street Irn Bru, an outrageously orange cocktail made from Prosecco and Aperol, a rhubarb-orange Italian aperitif.

But it’s Tigerlily, just along the street, that is Edinburgh’s real cocktail nirvana. In this busy, hip hotel there are two long bars with expert and friendly staff, who’ll pour you a cool glass of pink Champagne or shake you up some of the most delicious cocktails, such as a whisky-based Old Fashioned or White Reindeer Nights.

Finally, I’d always advise you to leave a little room for that famous Scottish combo, ‘dram and shortie’ – whisky and shortbread, to the Sassenachs. It is the most improbable, and yet the most perfect nightcap!

Sue enjoys a glass of rosé champagne at Tigerlily

Edinburgh at a glance

When to go Hogmanay and New Year are the focus of huge celebrations. The Edinburgh Festival, in August, is also extremely popular.

How to get there British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and many more airlines fly to Edinburgh from airports across the UK and Europe. Trains run regularly from stations across the UK – journeys from London take around 4½ hours, or 3½ hours from Manchester. Coach travel is a cheaper option – see National Express for details.  

Where to stay Tigerlily 125 George Street. Tel: 0131 225 5005. For more details on other accommodation options and tourist information, click here. 

Food Markets Edinburgh Farmers’ Market Castle Terrace beneath Edinburgh Castle - every Saturday 9am-2pm. Tel: 0131 652 5940

Where to Eat

£ – cheap and cheerful
££ – mid-range
£££ – splash out

Centotre ££
103 George Street
Tel: 0131 225 1550

Circus Wine Bar and Grill ££
58a North Castle Street
Tel: 0131 226 6743

The Elephant House £
21 George IV Bridge
Tel: 0131 220 5355 

Harvey Nichols Forth Floor £££
30-34 St Andrew Square
Tel: 0131 524 8350

The Gallery Cafés £
The National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 75 Belford Road.
Tel: 0131 624 6200 

Porto & Fi £
47 Newhaven Main Street
Tel: 0131 551 1900

The Dogs ££
110 Hanover Street
Tel: 0131 220 1208 

Kitchin £££
78 Commercial Quay, Leith
Tel: 0131 555 1755

Urban Angel £
21 Hanover Street
Tel: 0131 225 6215

VinCaffè ££
11 Multrees Walk
Tel: 0131 557 0088

Shopping

Iain J. Mellis
Cheesemonger (four Edinburgh locations)
Tel: 0131 661 9955

Peter’s Yard
Quartermile, 27 Simpson Loan
Tel: 0131 228 5876 

Valvona & Crolla
19 Elm Row
Tel: 0131 556 6066

Photographs: Andrew Montgomery