The Scran & Scallie

good quality, good value cooking

Set up by Edinburgh big-hitters Tom and Michaela Kitchin, this Georgian pub in Stockbridge is a neighbourhood resource that manages to feel both dynamically of its city, but also slightly rustic too, as though a country inn had found its way to the bright lights. Mismatched chairs and bare tables are the decorative order, and the menus speak a lightly accented dialect – 'Sit ye doon, yer welcome' – that should orient locals and carpetbaggers alike. There are pub classics on offer, as you would expect, from neeped and tattied haggis to fish and chips with chunky tartare and a stonker of a house steak pie. Even the less obvious crowd-pleasers don't stray too far off-grid: smoked Orkney scallops with cauliflower and raisins is virtually a pub favourite in its own right now. Vegetarians and kids are well looked after, and the dessert menu majors in toffee, chocolate and caramel in the colder months, rather than fruit – unless you count rhubarb as a fruit, giving panna cotta an oxalic kick up the buttermilk. An extensive list of wines by the glass in all sizes is exactly what we want to see, while Champagne comes courtesy of the underrated Philipponnat.

1 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence