Back in what are fondly called the good old days, our knowledge of the eating-out scene wasn’t mediated by Facebook, Instagram, online booking and Tripadvisor. There were the restaurants you knew about because you’d eaten there before or walked past them, and for the rest you got hold of The List’s annual Eating & Drinking Guide. From 1994 through 26 editions, up to the point where covid destructively crashed the party, we tried to cover the developing food and drink scene in Edinburgh and Glasgow with fair-minded, first-hand reviews, thoroughly checked information, and hitlists of top picks and recommendations in different categories.

Some of that history seems quaint now. Peeking into the archive, it wasn’t until the 11th edition (2004) that we included restaurant websites for the first time. Press releases arrived by fax, which I’d pick up from my pigeonhole. It’s not like that now. Not in the office, nor in the restaurant world. But for all that the past is a strange country, it remains a valid question to ask: how do those who eat out obtain their information, from whom, and by what medium?

The digital revolution has provided so many routes for so much information. It’s free, but at what price? We know it can be overwhelming. Noisy. Distracting. Unreliable. I’m fairly convinced that the mass of user-generated restaurant reviews contribute little to the sum of helpful knowledge. So we’re following our parent magazine in returning as a print publication. Next month we’re launching Eat & Drink 365 Edinburgh, to be followed by a Glasgow guide in the autumn. It won’t be the same as the old Eating & Drinking Guide: it’s more compact and focuses principally on TipLists, providing recommendations and suggestions for restaurants, cafés, bars and food options across the city, across different categories and hospitality themes.

We like to think Eat & Drink 365 can be the knowledgeable pal in town who knows the scene pretty well. We’re aiming to keep it objective, insightful, independent, up-to-date and, above all, useful and practical. We’ll try to provide answers to the eating-out questions we’re always being asked (#1: where’s somewhere good to grab a bite near the Queen’s Hall?).

The TipLists will be in print, but also online, because that can be helpful too. And the number? We thought that if we could assemble 365 individual tips, we’d do justice to the wealth of good eating and drinking there is in each city, allowing us to cover not just the centre but diverse neighbourhoods too, the well-known and the hidden, the best and the best of the rest. Places not just for high days and holidays but every day. After all, the choices are out there, so long as you know where to look. 

Eat & Drink 365 Edinburgh is supported by William Grant & Sons and will be available from Thursday 15 May as a free pick-up from all the places you normally find The List magazine; Eat & Drink 365 Glasgow is published in October.