North Bridge Brasserie

Once home to the Scotsman newspaper, this grand baronial property has been converted into a 21st-century boutique hotel, its design combining sheet glass and girders with original walnut panelling, stained-glass windows and a marble staircase, while the brasserie, once the reception hall, brings contemporary style to Victorian architecture. The menus showcase Scotland's abundant larder, so seasonality is to the fore, with a kitchen at home with what it describes as modern Scottish cuisine. This translates into Loch Fyne crab with a matching jelly, and Ayrshire wild boar stovie cake with garlic purée and a fried quail's egg. Among many steaks and grills may be poached Shetland sea trout with sorrel mayonnaise, and flank of lamb with sweetbreads, black pudding and mint hollandaise, with sticky toffee pudding among desserts.