Epicurean In Edinburgh

So Edinburgh was a delight for a foodie. The city was very non-chaotic and not very busy the entire time that I was there, it also seemed like a very safe city even late at night. My last full day there I decided to try out a couple restaurants that I got a recommendation on that were to serve good food. The first was for lunch - a specialty shop named Valvona and Crolla. It was a good thing that I had read about this place, because it was a store in the very front that sold all sorts of delicious and rare looking foods from Italy. I had to wind my way into the back to get to the cafe. It was a small place, maybe seating for 40 people, and luckily I was one of the few there that day. I sat down and ordered a ham panini and a tomato salad. The salad was by far the star of the meal. It was amazingly fresh for being February, and the light dressing that was on top didn't over power the freshness of the lettuce. The panini bread was good as well (obviously freshly made there), but it wasn't anything special unfortunatly, even though the ham was delicious. It wasn't as fatty as normal hams and it was slightly cured, but not too salty. It would have been made better with a slight bit of cheese or something to break the taste of the ham.
After lunch I wandered around for a bit of time, shopping and window shopping. I finally stumbled into a very hippee coffee shop. There was no delineation between the bar and the seating (even the customers were making their own espresso). I ordered a hot chocolate and went to sit in the back and knit. Little known to me, the barista was an artist! The foam in my hot chocolate came back with a beautiful flower design in it. It was amazing and I almost didn't want to drink it. But the delicious smell over powered me, and the dark chocolate with some steamed milk mixture was delicious.
A little while later I went on to go out to dinner. I found a French inspired restaurant that was a little walk from my hotel. This restaurant was the best find ever. The small restaurant (9 tables) filled up quickly while I was there, and the menu (which changes daily) was explained to everyone with painstaking detail by the only waiter, and assistant chef. I started with a glass of white wine (from the Loire Valley) and a squash and roasted red pepper soup. The soup was delicious, and very warming on such a cold night. I then had the halibut which was pan seared with rosemary, and some roasted potatoes. Every table had steamed fresh vegetables served with their meal. I ate all of the vegetables! But the halibut was good too - slightly undercooked, but that is much better than over cooked. Finally I had the toffee pudding cake, which had a caramel syrup over top, and a coffee for dessert.
This meal was the best meal that I had in quite some time!
Peace, Love and Caramel!!