Signature Dishes of Edinburgh

Must-try dishes

Haggis, neeps and tatties

Sheep's offal, oatmeal and onion encased in stomach lining, steamed and served with mashed turnip (neeps) and mashed potato (tatties). Edinburgh's defining plate, eaten year-round and ritually on Burns Night.

History: Haggis is older than the Robert Burns Address to a Haggis of 1786 that fixed it as Scotland's national dish, with versions in cookery books back to the 1430s. The Edinburgh recipe canonised the offal-oatmeal-onion mix in the city's tenements through the nineteenth century, and the Royal Mile chip shops normalised the deep-fried version a hundred years later. Macsween of Edinburgh, founded 1953 in Bruntsfield, became the supplier to most of the city's restaurants and the working butcher reference. Burns Night each 25 January is still the dish's high holy day; the addressing of the haggis is performed in pubs from the Grassmarket to Newington.

Where to try it: The Kitchin, The Scran and Scallie, The Witchery by the Castle, The Dome, Howies

Watch out for: Gluten, Offal

Cullen skink

A thick smoked-haddock soup with potato, onion and milk, named after the Moray village of Cullen. Edinburgh's standard winter-warmer starter; on every Scottish menu in the Old Town.

History: Cullen skink first appears in print in Meg Dods' Cook and Housewife's Manual in 1827, though the dish itself is older fishermen's fare from the Moray Firth. The Edinburgh bistro circuit adopted it as a heritage starter through the 1980s, when Scottish provenance returned as a kitchen marketing pitch. The naturally-smoked Finnan haddie (haddock cured over green wood) is the canonical fish; the soup should be milk-based, never cream-thickened, and the potato is roughly broken rather than blended. The World Championships of Cullen Skink have run since 2010 in Cullen itself, and Edinburgh's bistro versions reliably circulate through the top placings.

Where to try it: Ondine, The Scran and Scallie, The Witchery by the Castle, Fishers in the City, Howies

Watch out for: Fish, Dairy

Scotch pie

Hot-water-crust pastry case filled with seasoned minced mutton or lamb, served from a bakery counter or a football-ground kiosk. Edinburgh's commuter lunch since the late 1800s.

History: The mutton pie was the working-man's lunch of nineteenth-century Edinburgh, made cheap by the offcuts and the hot-water-crust pastry that holds shape without a tin. The double-crust round, eight centimetres across, became the Scottish standard through the early 1900s and survived as the football-ground default into the present. The World Scotch Pie Championships have run since 1999; Edinburgh bakeries place reliably each year. The Royal Mile bakeries still sell them by the tray-load to office-lunch trade.

Where to try it: Howies, The Scran and Scallie, Oink, The Dome, Bross Bagels

Watch out for: Gluten

Scottish smoked salmon

Cold-smoked sides of Scottish salmon, sliced fine and served with capers, lemon and brown bread. The country's defining export plate and a fixture of Edinburgh hotel breakfast service.

History: Scottish salmon smoking goes back to commercial fish-curing of the eighteenth century, originally for preservation during the seasonal landings on the Tay and Tweed. The modern cold-smoke method, oak-smoked at 25C over two days, dates to commercial operations in the 1920s and was carried by the Edinburgh hotel breakfast trade into international export. The major Edinburgh-area smokehouses (Inverawe, Hebridean Smokehouse, Marrbury) supply the city's bistros and supermarkets. The conventional plate runs three or four slices per cover with capers, red onion, lemon and buttered brown bread.

Where to try it: Ondine, Fishers in the City, The Witchery by the Castle, The Dome, Number One at The Balmoral

Watch out for: Fish

Fish and chips

Battered haddock with thick-cut chips, salt and malt vinegar. Edinburgh's chippy default is haddock not cod, and the Old Town counters serve it through the small hours.

History: Fish and chips became an Edinburgh fixture in the late nineteenth century when the rail link to Aberdeen put boxed white fish in the city overnight. Haddock, not cod, became the Scottish default and remains so; The Tailend on Albert Place and L'Alba D'Oro on Henderson Row have served the same fish for decades. The Edinburgh chippy plates the chips first, the fish on top, with salt and brown sauce or vinegar at the customer's choice. The deep-fried Mars bar (Stonehaven, 1995) is not from Edinburgh but appears on every Royal Mile late-night menu as souvenir.

Where to try it: Ondine, Fishers in the City, Bertie's Proper Fish and Chips, L'Alba D'Oro

Watch out for: Gluten, Fish

Scotch broth

A clear-tasting lamb-and-barley soup with leek, carrot, turnip and split peas, simmered for hours. Edinburgh's standard winter starter and the soup of every household kitchen.

History: Scotch broth has been on Scottish kitchen tables since the Middle Ages, originally as a peasant pot-meal of mutton bones, barley and whatever root vegetable was in the larder. Samuel Johnson ate it in Edinburgh in 1773 and pronounced it good; James Boswell teased him for the conversion. The barley-and-lamb version became the standard restaurant offering through the Victorian hotel kitchens. The Edinburgh bistro version today uses a long-simmered lamb-bone stock, pearl barley swelled in the pot, and the vegetable cut diced rather than peasant-rough.

Where to try it: The Scran and Scallie, Howies, The Witchery by the Castle, The Dome, Fishers in the City

Watch out for: Gluten

Stovies

Leftover roast meat slow-cooked with potatoes, onion and stock until everything collapses together. A Sunday-roast next-day plate from Edinburgh's working kitchens.

History: Stovies began as a Sunday-roast leftover in nineteenth-century Edinburgh tenement kitchens, where the cold roast meat got reheated in dripping with onion and potato through Monday lunch. The dish carries no fixed recipe; family arguments over corned beef versus lamb and whether to add carrots are the working tradition. Burns Night suppers still serve stovies as the next-morning hangover plate, and Edinburgh pubs run it as the Sunday-evening special when the kitchen needs to clear down Monday's prep.

Where to try it: The Scran and Scallie, Howies, The Dome, The Caley Picture House

Cranachan

Layered whipped cream, toasted oatmeal, honey, whisky and Scottish raspberries. Edinburgh's standard summer pudding, eaten July to August when the berries are at their peak.

History: Cranachan started as a harvest-festival dessert in Highland farming households where cream, oats, heather honey and the late-summer raspberries all happened at once. The whisky came in at table rather than the kitchen originally; the cook poured a dram into each glass before service. The Edinburgh bistro version codified the layered presentation through the late twentieth century and the city's restaurants run it as their default Burns Night dessert and through the July raspberry season. The Stockbridge Market raspberries from Perthshire growers are the canonical fruit.

Where to try it: The Kitchin, The Witchery by the Castle, The Dome, Howies

Watch out for: Dairy, Gluten

Deep-fried Mars bar

A chocolate-caramel Mars bar dipped in fish-and-chip batter and deep fried. Edinburgh's late-night Royal Mile tourist novelty since 1995; locals roll their eyes and order anyway.

History: The deep-fried Mars bar was invented at The Carron Fish Bar in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire in 1995, and spread south through the Scottish chippy circuit within a decade. Edinburgh's Royal Mile fish bars now carry it as a standing menu item, particularly Clamshell on the High Street and a handful of late-night counters near the Cowgate. The dish is genuinely terrible and genuinely beloved; the chocolate melts inside the crisp batter sheath. The NHS Scotland regional health board issued a formal warning against it in 2007, which only made it more popular.

Where to try it: L'Alba D'Oro, Clamshell

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy

Scottish shortbread

A biscuit of flour, butter and sugar, baked pale and snapped into fingers or wedges. Edinburgh's everyday with-tea bake and the standard tourist gift home from Princes Street.

History: Shortbread descends from medieval Scottish biscuit bread, twice-baked yeast bread that gradually shed its yeast in favour of butter through the 1500s. Mary Queen of Scots is credited (apocryphally) with refining the Edinburgh version into a triangular Petticoat Tail wedge. The Edinburgh confectioners and modern Border Biscuits codified the three-ingredient ratio (one-to-two-to-three by weight) through the early twentieth century. The Edinburgh shortbread tin became the standard Princes Street tourist gift in the 1950s; the buttery snap remains the working baseline.

Where to try it: The Dome, Lovecrumbs, The Witchery by the Castle

Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy