Chez Jules - Edinburgh

Set up by long-serving restaurateur Pierre Levicky (founder of the Pierre Victoire brand and its offshoots), Chez Jules is cheap, cheerful and popular, with dripping candles in wine bottles, giant blackboards and strategic red-and-white check tablecloths giving the basement dining room a trademark Gallic feel. Levicky’s earlier ventures all had a reputation for steak, and it appears here in various guises (skirt, rib-eye, fillet, le grande côte) – although you might also fancy coq au vin, rabbit with mustard sauce, bourride, seafood brochettes or another bourgeois, provincial standby, with chocolate mousse, crème brûlée or crêpes Suzette to finish. The place is loud and lively when full, and it’s possible to eat for around a tenner at lunchtime, while the tiny French wine list also keeps its prices in check, with good deals by the glass or carafe.