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The attitude of so many hotels to their dining facilities leaves much to be desired, but here is one which cheerfully acknowledges the wealth of restaurants in Edinburgh and has no hesitation in joining in the competition.

Bisque Bar and Brasserie is open from morning until late every day, the stylish bar serves an all day menu, while the brasserie, which has an AA rosette for food and service quality, offers casual gourmet dining at lunch and dinner in this cool and contemporary styled restaurant.

The food is as thoroughly up to date in style as the surroundings, offering such trendy and delicious sounding starters as peppered tempura squid with lemon mayo or leek and goat's cheese tart with balsamic dressing, with mains like slow braised lamb shank, onion gravy, creamed rosemary mash or breast of chicken filled with haggis, whisky cream sauce, swede and carrot mash.

No wonder that the place tends to be busy and buzzing most of the time.

A restaurant within a theatre always seems romantic and in Zucca, at The Royal Lyceum the emphasis is uncompromisingly Italian, so there's even more romance around. The moving spirit behind this enterprise is Richard Glennie, formerly head chef at the Santini Restaurant at Edinburgh's Sheraton Hotel, and Channings Hotel, where his 2 AA rosettes were generally seen as more than well earned, and Giacomo Drago Ferrante, also previously at the Sheraton, where he was Food and Beverage Manager.

Open to theatregoers and more humble mortals alike, the theatrically themed Zucca offers a splendid range of Italian dishes, starting with grilled scallops with pancetta, celeriac puree and gremolata dressing followed by Venetian style sole fillets with local asparagus, raisins and pine nuts. The desserts offer a great selection of interesting choices reflecting seasonality such as marinated strawberries with mascarpone and tarragon cheesecake. The wine list, although strictly Italian offers a good choice of different styles at sensible prices.

The Restaurant at Bonham aims to give stylish cooking amidst gracious surroundings and is certainly in the top ten restaurants in the city. You'll be tempted by distinctively European-inspired food and enticed by provocative wines. Start with a fillet of beef carpaccio with a potato salad, winter black truffle and extra virgin olive oil. Fish is rarely so good as in Scotland and my preference would be for the pave of halibut poached in cabernet sauvignon, parsnip and nutmeg puree and a salmon gravadlax sauce.

You might need to be dragged kicking and screaming from a selection of Iain Mellis cheese but once done would gracefully succumb to the rhubarb and lime cheesecake with Earl Grey crème anglaise and rosemary tuile. The wine list is not over long but there are some quite special items, with eight by the glass starting at £3.50.

'It isn't easy to blend modern furnishings with Victorian Interiors, but the visual tug-of-war works at its best in the Bonham's restaurant, with its airy height, stripped floor and cool colours. Lunch is carefully priced - two courses for £12.50, three for £15 - cheap enough to lure one away from the city centre, but not so cheap that the chef is inhibited. Which, with options of rib eye steak, tiger prawns and red mullet, is clearly not the case.' (Gillian Glover, 13th September 2003, Scotsman Magazine.)