Edinburgh's restaurant scene clusters in three main areas, each with a distinct character. The Old Town, tumbling down the Royal Mile from the castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, has seen the greatest improvement in food quality over the past decade. The Canongate — the lower section of the Royal Mile — now has genuinely excellent restaurants alongside its tourist-oriented neighbors: Cannonball restaurant in a 16th-century townhouse at the castle end serves exceptional Scottish produce; The Kitchin (Tom Kitchin's flagship on Commercial Quay in Leith) has influenced an entire generation of Scottish cooking from its waterfront kitchen.
The New Town, stretching north from Princes Street across the Georgian grid of Charlotte Square and Great King Street, is Edinburgh's most livable and perhaps its most underrated food neighborhood. Thistle Street and Rose Street have excellent gastropubs and wine bars; St. Andrew Square has become a destination in itself with Harvey Nichols' fourth-floor brasserie and The Ivy in the square; and the back streets of the New Town hide some of the city's best kept restaurant secrets, including Contini in George Street (outstanding Scottish-Italian) and The Witchery by the Castle for theatrical Scottish fine dining.
Leith, the port district 2km north of the city center, is the most exciting food neighborhood in Scotland. This is Tom Kitchin country — his flagship restaurant on Commercial Quay helped establish Leith as a destination, and Martin Wishart (another Michelin star) operates in the area. But Leith is also about the Shore, the old harbor street lined with seafood restaurants and gastropubs that serve whatever came off the boats that morning. Fishers in Leith (on the Shore) and The Ship on the Shore are the classic choices; the surrounding streets have excellent bistros and wine bars that cater to the neighborhood's resident food obsessives.
Scottish food is at a historic peak of confidence. The country's larder — Aberdeen Angus beef, Orkney and Shetland seafood, game from the Highland estates, soft fruit from Perthshire, heather honey from Aberdeenshire, and Stornoway black pudding — is being cooked with a precision and creativity that matches anything in Europe. The Edinburgh Food Festival (summer, in the gardens below the castle) and the Edinburgh International Food and Drink Festival provide concentrated access to producers and chefs that's hard to replicate year-round.
Whisky is Edinburgh's fourth food group. The Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile offers an educational entry point, but the real engagement happens at whisky bars: Cadenhead's Whisky Bar (original, unpretentious, extraordinary selection), The Devil's Advocate (basement bar with 300+ single malts), and The Bon Vivant in Thistle Street are where the city's whisky community actually drinks. A pre-dinner dram is not a luxury in Edinburgh — it's a protocol.
