Restaurants, Bar & pub food

Bar Soba on Hanover Street is the Edinburgh outpost of a successful Glasgow chain, born of the unusual idea that a pan-Asian noodle kitchen might fit nicely in a busy pre-club venue. Upstairs is the bar, with graffitied walls, trendy DJs and omnipresent…

The stylish City Centre branch of Bar Soba attracts a cosmopolitan mix of shoppers sipping wine, pre-clubbers enjoying unusual cocktails and diners looking for contemporary Asian food. All rub shoulders with ease as the bar area, with subdued lighting…

Other than the elk antlers adorning one wall and a few intriguingly flavoured Scandinavian ciders in the fridge, there are few obvious signs that this bar takes its inspiration from Sweden, even though it has since spawned a veritable Viking invasion of…

The industrial metal interior is suitably on trend for the Edinburgh outpost of this headline-grabbing brewery. More radical though is the proud proclamation of ‘no football, shots or Stella’. A bar that sees serving good beer as its primary function is…

Zinc tables, novelty spirits behind the bar, walls papered with banknotes and postcards from around the globe: at first glance Brutti Ma Buoni has all the trappings of a travellers’ bar rather than a traditional bistro. But it would be a shame to miss…

For such grand subterranean dimensions, Bunker does an impressive job of always feeling busy. Even during quiet afternoons a healthy young crowd fills the bright, airy space. When lights go down and the indie/chart music gets louder, it’s busier still…

Combining Old Town cellar with deliberately worn industrial touches, this is one of the city centre’s better looking bars. Coombed stones walls and low lighting make for an atmospherically louche hangout slightly at odds with the pumping bass on the…

Despite being festooned with an abundance of fairy lights and flickering candles and boasting a burnished golden ceiling, the dining room of this converted church has an intimate, relaxed feel. Chef Jonathon Macfarlane (formerly Ubiquitous Chip) is a…

Half old traditional Partick café, half hipster hangout, The Criterion is slightly more bar-oriented than its next door neighbour and sister establishment Velvet Elvis. But it's just as eccentric in terms of fixtures and fittings, with its shelves…

An Edinburgh cultural institution, this independent cinema gem incorporates a popular cafe-bar, which enjoys the pleasant ebb and flow of cineastes, or those just out for a quick bite with friends or colleagues. Fast-moving and often busy, this is…

Ideally positioned for much of Edinburgh’s student population, the Greenmantle is a busy Southside local. Offering a meeting place for university societies, as well as hosting their own quiz nights, live music, poker and Spanish nights, this bar always…

Fashionable Indigo Yard in Edinburgh’s West End packs in crowds of after-work drinkers in power suits and clean city Barbours, unwinding over cocktails, champagne, chilled pints and wines in showy shaped glasses. Food-wise, there's a customer-pulling…

The Magnum is a cosy pub in the New Town, complete with fairy lights adorning the windows, which makes it feel like Christmas all year round. With regulars mixing with tourists who have headed in to sample Scottish produce, there is an option to mix and…

Candles, soft lighting and a piano player give this neighbourhood brasserie something of a posh hotel lobby atmosphere. The service is warm and informal though, and a mainly local and family clientele mean the place is actually quite relaxed. The menu…

The mercurial Lewis family were ticking all the boxes long before the boxes themselves became fashionable, offering a boutique hotel hideaway in an 18th-century rural farmhouse and steadings, farming their own land and cultivating a proper kitchen…

Situated on a corner of Bath St, Moskito has watched neighbours come and go for 13 years while managing to retain its customer base of twenty-somethings. Subtle changes have taken place over the years – expanding in size, while obtaining a late licence…

Two-for-one burgers and pizzas all day every day are the main draw of this Finnieston bar-kitchen. Boxy and bright, Neighbourhood is not an immediately obvious choice for a low-key meal, though a side dining room offers a little more privacy. Cocktails…

Sleazy’s, as the city’s hipsters so fondly call it, is a Glasgow institution as far as music/arts venues go, and among those rarities with a 3am licence all week. The interior may feel like a well-worn leather jacket, dragged through the bowels of…