Where to eat in Edinburgh: Top tables worth booking

While Edinburgh’s picturesque spires and cobblestoned walkways take you back through time, its diverse food scene takes you across the world. Here are our top picks:

1. Kim’s Mini Meals

Small cafés form the backbone of Edinburgh’s restaurant trade, partly because the city hosts about 45,000 university students. For a quickin-and-out with no fuss, it’s hard to look beyond Kim’s Mini Meals. Cosy, compact and family-run, the menu is a single laminated sheet of Korean basics — with main dishes from a bibimbap to jjigae.

2. Makars Mash

At Makars Mash, as the name suggests, the humble potato takes centre stage. For that local feel, the homemade haggis comes as a starter with mashedneeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) or as a main course; the vegan version features carrots and chestnuts. The place even grows its own mushrooms.

3. L’Escargot Bleu

Retro-style Belle Epoque posters and the waft of vin rouge-powered stews hit you when you walk in; inside, servers with strong accents bring the chalkboard menu to your table. L’Escargot’s tagline is ‘Scottish ingredients, French twist’ — the vegetables and herbs come from a garden on the city outskirts. The menu is an engaging mix of the almost-French and what you’d expect in Lyon and greater France; the buttered cabbage with beans is a tasty bonus. For dessert, old favourites include crème brûlée and prunes in Armagnac.

4. Café Calton

From Café Calton you can take in the city’s turrets to the west, water to the east, the ancient Kingdom of Fife to the north and the (extinct) volcano that is Arthur’s Seat to the south. Even on a dreich (drab) day, this place is worth a visit. At brunch, the Scottish mushrooms on toast comes with a perfectly cooked poached egg and hollandaise sauce that packs a good vinegar kick, while another strong order is the Café Calton breakfast .