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In 1975 Agostino and Gerardo Crolla established their business in Raeburn Place and have prospered. Their prosperity is linked both with the burghers of Edinburgh and their own zeal for ensuring that whatever they did was done to the best of their ability.

Their reputation for producing the best fish and chips and pizzas is well known and as successive refits have come and gone the quality has remained as high as ever. A high point was the award in 1996 in the Best Fish and Chip Shop of the Year title, a keenly contested title honour, resulting in L'Aquila Bianca receiving a Runner-up Award.

Skerries Restaurant at Dunstane House Hotel in West Coates features fresh fish and seafood as well as fine Scottish meats and seasonal game on its modern European menu. Originally a private home, the hotel offers all the comfort and elegance of a Scottish country house with the convenience of being located close to the city centre.

Guests can begin their dinner at Skerries with warm breast of wood pigeon with a prune and balsamic infusion, mussels cooked in a leek, smoked bacon and garlic cream or potato gnocchi with broad beans, spinach and herbs. They can then move on to seared lamb's liver with crispy Parma ham and creamy mashed potatoes, grilled halibut with fennel confit or grilled artichoke and wild mushroom risotto. End the elegant meal with homemade tiramisu, apple and pear crumble or Belgian chocolate mousse. The whisky bar allows guests to sample the best of the distilleries of Scotland in the comfort of an armchair.

This popular and closely designed hotel seems to attract those who love international fusion food. Situated in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, it's just minutes from the financial shopping areas and the Conference Centre. The venue offers easy access to all theatres, tourist amenities and the historic old town. The highly documented Point Restaurant and Monboddo bar offer a relaxed and informal ambience with modern and classic interiors.

Kick off your meal with peat smoked haddock, white crabmeat and petit pois tartlet with horseradish crème fraiche, or truffled duck egg, smoked cheddar polenta, with organic rocket and white truffle oil. For more filling options you can try crispy panko crumbled pork belly, honey and thyme roasted roots, and mustard fruits, or lightly grilled fillet of hake sautéed jersey royals and salsa verde. Warm poppy seed and banana bread, caramelized banana with vanilla ice cream, and dark Belgian chocolate and walnut brownie with bitter chocolate sauce and clotted cream are among the crowd pullers in the pudding section.

Merchants has a long-standing reputation for various forms of catering in Scotland; its handsome and well-respected restaurant at the very heart of Edinburgh Old Town is an important part of the empire. Emphasis is on Scottish ingredients and dishes, but by no means excluding a wider spread on the daily changing menu. An attractively arranged wheel of Angus beef (and when we were there the beef gave every evidence of having been treated properly prior to cooking) comes well-dressed with an Arran mustard coat, or a filo pastry generously filled with guinea fowl and black grapes, and some very good soups all appear regularly amongst the starters. Main courses are comfortable rather than exciting and may include a fillet of Angus beef on a bed of haggis and glazed with a whisky sauce, crown of quail filled with an orange stuffing, served with a smoked bacon and mushroom sauce, or a pan-fried fillet of trout with an anchovy and Provencale sauce. Service can be a touch patchy but when it's on form it's very good, and the overall quality of the operation is never in doubt.