Lannan Bakery 
29–35 Hamilton Place
Cult dish: Pain Suisse
It’s easy to panic at the front of the queue here. Fear not, you can’t go wrong with the pain Suisse. The laminated layers of toffee-hued pastry are wrapped around rich coffee custard and caramelised milk chocolate. Best get two.

Shrimpwreck 
47–49 Figgate Lane
Cult dish: Shrimp bun
We do like to be beside the seaside and you can’t get much closer than this nautical-style street-food shack on Porty prom. The menu may change, but the shrimp bun is ever-present, with its plump battered king prawns on brioche, zinging with pickles and retro Marie Rose sauce.

L’Escargot Bleu
56 Broughton Street 
Cult dish: Steak tartare
L’Escargot Bleu has been the go-to for French food in Edinburgh for fifteen years now, and the steak tartare has never been off the menu. Expect hand-chopped steak, prepared table-side, to exactly your specification and heat requirements.

Noto 
47a Thistle Street 
Cult dish: North Sea crab
The sparse menu says ‘North Sea crab, warm butter, sourdough’. We hear ‘the best, most decadent thing that’s ever happened to crab’. It’s a whole crab shell, the crab meat combined with melted cultured butter to scoop, spread and dunk to your heart’s content. Sharing optional.

Skua 
49 St Stephen Street
Cult dish: Fried chicken
There’s fried chicken and then there’s Skua’s fried chicken. Spicy, crunchy coating; tender marinated meat; fermented peach hot sauce running down like molten lava. It’s the fried chicken holy trinity.