Melrose Restaurant, The

The Roxburghe is one of the old traditional hotels of Edinburgh, set on an imposing corner of Charlotte Square and somehow managing to give the impression that it is keeping a watching eye over the Square and its pleasant gardens.

Like other Macdonald hotels it cleverly manages to retain the best of the past with skilful injections from the present. This quite frequently applies to the restaurant, as it does here. So be braced for a Victorian style and elegant dining room where traditional Scottish dishes have pride of place, combined with SAS-type incursions into new territory producing such delights as scallops with black pudding.

Close attention is paid to presentation and the quality of the service matches. With house wine at £14.75 one may feel it is worth looking at the excellent list with some really rather outstanding vintages tucked away.