Grand Café

You're settling into a seat with a view of the Old Town chaos below, and immediately you get why this place has stayed relevant on one of Edinburgh's busiest thoroughfares. Grand Café does the unfussy stuff brilliantly—breakfast that doesn't pretend to be anything other than breakfast, lunch that won't bankrupt you, and an evening menu with enough ambition to justify the prices without being annoying about it. It's the kind of place you can take your mum or your mates, and everyone leaves happy. The dining room has that relaxed European brasserie energy; proper tablecloths, decent glassware, staff who actually know what they're doing.