4 Best Restaurants in Leith, Edinburgh and the Lothians

For fine dining with a touch of theater, it's hard to beat this superb open-kitchen restaurant, where you can sit at the bar and watch the skilled chefs prepare and assemble each course. The three- and five-course menus have a small choice of starters, mains, and desserts, all abounding with delicate but interesting flavors, in dishes such as dressed crab with peas, grapefruit and socca flatbread, or hake with fregola and courgette flower. A three-course meal with set you back £65, the five-course £80 without drinks.

Despite its large interior with acres of seating, this bakery-café still regularly has lines out the door. The reason is simple: it bakes the best cakes in Edinburgh, using everything from Oreos to Reese's Pieces to strawberries and cream. It also serves great breakfasts, all-day brunches (with dishes like black pudding eggs Benedict and five-bean chili), and an excellent afternoon tea. From the exceptional food to the fun decor, the friendly service to the reasonable prices, this is a must-try dining experience.

A perennially popular high-end dining option, Tom Kitchin's Michelin-starred venture packs in the crowds. Kitchin, who trained in France, runs a tight ship, and his passion for using seasonal and locally sourced produce to his own creative ends shows no sign of waning. Unfashionable ingredients such as ox tongue, tripe, and pig's head emerge heroic after Kitchin's alchemy, and he works his magic equally dexterously on more familiar elements such as seafood and venison. To sample this rarified culinary world on a (relative) budget, try the three-course set lunch for £58.

This gastro-pub at The Shore in Leith combines a beautiful historic setting with great quality food and a wide selection of Scottish gins. At lunchtime, the dark-wood bar does a roaring trade in simple fare such as gourmet burgers, fish cakes, and haggis (traditional or vegetarian), but in the evening, the kitchen ups the ante with a chalkboard menu of locally caught seafood specialties, from hake to monkfish. Exposed stone walls attest to the building's 15th-century origins. Come on Sunday and choose from the legendary brunch and roast dinner menus.