Scotch Beef Club, Outdoor dining

Of course, you can melt the credit card with the tasting or seasonal menus at this ultra-slick Leith restaurant, but Tom Kitchin has also brought his Michelin-starred brand of fine dining to a refreshingly wide audience of food lovers. A set lunch menu…

Although its star has occasionally waned over 40-odd years of serving the West End’s finest, the Chip still holds its own amid the crowded glare and shifting fashions of Ashton Lane, carving a hard-won niche for quality food and metropolitan chic.

Small proves to be beautiful in this cosy bistro at the bottom of Byres Road where a restrained number of covers allows the chef to concentrate on detail, style and flavour. Personal touches like tiny fresh flowers, homemade rolls, and soft lighting…

Dining at the Grill Room at the Square is certainly an elegant experience. Housed in the same building as 29 Private Member’s Club, this upmarket steak specialist overlooks the twinkling lights of Royal Exchange Square and has a distinct air of…

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…

Entering Rogano – one of Glasgow’s best-known restaurants – is like stepping onto a Cunard liner circa 1930. This 80-year-old institution and its Art Deco stylings are well documented but there’s nowhere else in the city remotely like it. The experience…

Established in 1988, City Merchant's reputation as one of the best fish restaurants in Glasgow is as much down to owners who pride themselves on the freshness of their seafood as it is to the resulting cuisine that is undeniably impressive. A decadent…

A cosy dining room and convivial environment make the Inn at Kippen well worth a detour. While the food verges towards the finer end of the scale, owner Gordon Wright has made a conscious effort not to get too carried away, keeping the atmosphere, and…

The Caddy Mann restaurant at Mounthooly near Jedburgh resembles an old-fashioned cottage tearoom, adorned with antique curios for sale, a stove and an old piano – ideal for a civilised lunch or cosy, intimate dinner. The interesting and surprising menu…

Overseen by Albert Roux, the most influential restaurant chef in the UK in the last 30 years, dining at this attractive East Lothian Edwardian country house was always going to be an unrushed experience, and rightly so. A drink beside the fire in the…

Fish just tastes better when you eat it by water – a fact The Shore’s branch of Fishers has made the most of for over 20 years. This is a classic bistro: busy, buzzy, not particularly trend-led (and all the better for it). It’s hard to think of an…

Dress up for a night out at this bistro, situated in the luxury Hotel du Vin. A premiere address since it opened in 2006, the atmosphere is as refined and sophisticated as the menu. If you are feeling flash and want to experience the range of skills…

Kyloe (meaning ‘cattle’) is looking to fill a niche in the Edinburgh restaurant scene, and that niche is meat, meat, meat. Cows are everywhere – the statue outside, the paintings on the wall, the cowhide furniture and the board that displays all the raw…

There’s a certain sense of energy and enthusiasm about the Mercat Bar. Staff show impeccable manners, hosting this vibrant venue with an endearing, youthful charm. The pub part of Mercat is on ground level, decked out with luxurious leather sofas and…

The Orangerie Restaurant takes its name from the long south-facing room of the former mansion house that was Balbirnie, with full length windows, trompe l’oeil mirrors and skylight with huge modern chandeliers. During the day it is full of natural light…

Once headquarters of the Bank of England, the restaurant still has a feel of money about it. With original features like wood panels and an Art Deco ceiling offering a diffused soft light. With striking paintings and leather-clad booths, the overall…

Tucked at the heart of Melrose, perhaps the prettiest of the Borders market towns, Burts has location on its side. The Hendersons are the hands-on family behind Burts, running a handy brace of eateries within this 18th-century old dame. The bar offers…