30 Victoria Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2JW
The original 1993 shop of Scotland's best-known cheesemonger, on the curve of Victoria Street, stacked floor to ceiling with farmhouse cheese and smelling exactly as a proper cheese shop should. Iain Mellis founded the business after around fifteen years in the cheese trade, and the shops deal exclusively in farmhouse cheese, much of it from single-herd milk, with the counter staff genuinely able to talk you through a Scottish board: Isle of Mull cheddar, Lanark Blue, Crowdie. There are now six-plus shops including Stockbridge, Glasgow, St Andrews and London, but the Victoria Street original is the one to see.
The Grassmarket's queue-out-the-door gelato and chocolate shop: made fresh every morning, gone when it's gone.
Known for: Hot chocolate float with a scoop of the day's gelato
Hours: Seasonal; winter roughly Wed-Sat 11:00-19:30, Sun 11:00-18:00; check the shop's site or Instagram