Food & drink

The best places to eat breakfast in Glasgow and Edinburgh

We select the best cafes for the most important meal of the day

22 Mar 2010

What did you have for breakfast this morning? A thin slice of processed white toast, smattered with vegetable oil-laced spreadable butter? A dry cereal bar, full of shrivelled fruit and bound together with sugary glue? Worst still, a Sausage and Egg…

Top five Michelin-starred restaurants in Edinburgh

The Kitchin, Martin Wishart, The Plumed Horse, Number One and 21212

16 Feb 2011

1: The Kitchin The menu here reflects chef/owner Tom Kitchin’s passion for locally-sourced Scottish produce with French interpretations. One of Edinburgh’s A-list restaurants, it won its accolade just six months after opening in the summer of 2006…

A guide to some of the best restaurants in Edinburgh

The Scottish capital has some of the best restaurants for Scottish cuisine

16 Feb 2011

Some visitors may come to Scotland with a sense of dread that they’ll be force-fed salty porridge or be obliged to eat everything deep fried in fat. It’s true that the more adventurous may well encounter food here they’re unlikely to find elsewhere…

Cuts of meat: where your beef comes from

1 May 2009

Scotch Beef has a great reputation, but there’s little point in swooning over the prime cuts and ignoring the rest. Here butcher Jonathan Honeyman teams up with chef John Webber for a guided tour of a side of beef.

The best places for barbeques in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Barbecue recipe alternatives to burgers and sausages

27 May 2011

For the more discerning al fresco cooks and diners, here's The List's lowdown on how to spark up your barbecue summer.

The best free and cheap things to do in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Visit a library, go for a walk, bake a cake or see some cheap theatre

21 Jan 2011

Beat the January blues with these guaranteed pick-me-ups, suggested by our writers and some friends of The List. They’re all free, or cost just a few quid, so you’ll come out of winter with your bank balance intact and a smile on your face

The best restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow for cheap eating in January

Dining out options that won't break the bank

9 Jan 2012

EDINBURGH The Mosque Kitchen Now relocated from its former al fresco spot outside Edinburgh’s mosque, the café-style Mosque Kitchen still serves a fine range of halal meat and vegetable curries in no-fuss polystyrene dishes for under £5 including…

The Scottish vineyard making its own wine

Pioneering Scottish viticulturist Christopher Trotter on course for grape harvest

13 Dec 2011

In the spring of 2011, Christopher Trotter planted a 2.4-hectare vineyard on his Upper Largo estate on the southern coast of Fife. Facing his first winter as a pioneering Scottish viticulturist, Trotter, who's Fife’s official ‘Food Ambassador’, isn’t at…

The quest for the best cup of coffee in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Delivering the verdict on quality coffee dispensers in Scotland

8 Oct 2010

Coffee drinking has become a serious business, with roasters, baristas and drinkers all equally concerned at the quality of the product. Shiny espresso makers with their levers and dials and steamy bits are a familiar sight, but they remain intriguingly…

Top beer gardens in Edinburgh and Glasgow

16 Sep 2010

Edinburgh The Outhouse Tucked into a corner off Broughton Street, theOuthouse boasts a cosy beer garden serving a wide selection of worldbeers. Like other bars in the Broughton area, the Outhouse creates arelaxed vibe. Weekend nights see the…

Entrading café

5 Feb 2009

Situated in the heart of the busy business district of Glasgow is a café and shop that some might find a bit of a surprise. Entrading is a combined high street eco-store and café. Like high street shops, drinking and eating in our city centres have…

The best breakfasts in Edinburgh

The finest cafes, bistros and restaurants in the capital for a morning meal

29 Mar 2012

Broughton Delicatessen 7 Barony Street, 558 7111, broughton-deli.co.uk Breakfast served: Mon–Sat 8am–3pm; Sun 11am–3pm. What does this place not do well? A great deli, healthy lunches and superb, made-from-scratch breakfasts from morning until 3pm…

Bar Crawls: Glasgow - The Subcrawl

A truncated version of Glasgow’s infamous subway circuit

18 Nov 2011

The Subcrawl – a circular navigation of pubs nearest the 15 stops of Glasgow’s underground – is an institution not strictly for all. Many stations on the route of the city’s beloved Clockwork Orange, particularly south of the Clyde, emerge in locations…

Neighbourhood Watch: Broughton Street, Edinburgh

A guide to Edinburgh's hip gay hub

9 Jan 2012

What’s it like? A street full of bars, restaurants and delightful eateries nestled underneath old tenement flats. Ideal for stuffing your face full of food and hitting a pub with friends just a stone’s throw from the centre of the city. Where’s it…

Bar Crawls: Glasgow - The Sauchiehall Street Saunter

Making the most of Glasgow city centre drinking

18 Nov 2011

Both ‘pub crawl’ and ‘Sauchiehall Street’ can evoke images of large groups of revellers staggering from one ropey watering hole to the next, the night hurtling towards a climax of kebab sauce and lost cloakroom tickets. Well this route aims to redress…

Glasgow Subcrawl – directions to the bars

Maps and walking directions to help you find all the bars on our List-endorsed Subcrawl

16 Nov 2011

So you're off on our (shorter) Subcrawl? We realise that you might need some clear directions (especially as the night wears on), so here are directions and maps showing the routes from the subway stations to all of our listed bars. Enjoy.

Taste Test - Take-away margherita pizzas

19 Jun 2008

The Italian Kitchen •••• 64 Ingram Street, Glasgow, 0141 572 1472, www.italian-kitchen.co.uk Takeaway only. Pizza Margherita £6.95 Pizza is a simple thing, so getting the basics right is important. This one has a nicely chewy but crusty thin base…

Edinburgh's Atrium closes its doors and Hawke & Hunter opens a new dining room

Scottish food news February 2011

17 Feb 2011

Surprise and sadness fell over the Edinburgh restaurant scene last week with the news of the closure of Andrew and Lisa Radford’s Atrium and blue restaurants in Saltire Court, above the Traverse Theatre. From stylish, avant-garde beginnings 18 years ago…

The best Scottish cheeses

17 Sep 2010

It’s perfectly possible to fill your cheese board with Scottish artisan cheeses. The Larder has teamed up with Pierre Leger of respected cheese retailer and wholesaler Clarks Speciality Foods to assemble some of the country’s prime cuts.

The best things to do in Glasgow

22 Apr 2010

Where to … … take a walk Dumbarton Road is Mecca for enthusiastic charity shoppers (tip: start off at the Salvation Army near Byres Road) – make a day of it by wandering round the junk and vintage shops of nearby Ruthven Lane first. (Kirstin…

The best soup and sandwich places in Edinburgh

Where to find a quick, fresh and tasty lunch in the Scottish capital

3 Aug 2011

Making the most of a small space, Appetite Direct is a deli kitchen serving soups and salads alongside their speciality range of hot takeaway dishes, including fish pie, Vietnamese flavoured mince with rice and home-made hamburgers. Broughton…

Taste Test - Edible flowers

10 Sep 2009

Nasturtium With their brilliant sunset colours and distinct peppery flavour, these are probably the most popular edible flower. They’re very easy to grow from seed and are common on the fringes of veg patches or hanging baskets. The flowers have a…

Sourcing local Scottish butter

In search of a product that really melts in your mouth

1 May 2009

It’s not too hard to track down Scotland’s many fine local cheeses, but uncovering farm-made butter can be a challenge. Why? According to Brenda Leddy at Stichill near Kelso, who has been making butter, cheese and clotted cream from her small herd of…

Taste Test - Meat Pies

17 Jul 2008

Gregg’s Scotch Pie Gregg’s, various outlets, Scotland wide 70p We couldn’t do a meat pie test without saying ‘aye’ tae a pie – a traditional Scottish mutton pie, that is. The hot water crust pastry is crunchier and more robust than the flakier…

Steak, Edinburgh's new meat-loving eaterie

The brash new restaurant makes no claims of subtlety with full-on flavours and pumping music

26 Mar 2012

‘Where beauty meats the beast’ is the strap-line for brash new arrival Steak, archly attached to publicity shots of ladies, puckering their lips in readiness under dangling raw t-bones – although ‘where beauties eat the beast’ might be just as apt.