Number One at Balmoral

Of all the reasons to check in to Edinburgh’s historic Balmoral Hotel, seeing the suite where J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is not even number one. Number one would, in fact, be Number One, the hotel’s richly appointed, wood-paneled fine-dining restaurant, presided over since May 2021 by Edinburgh-born chef Mathew Sherry. Sherry, who previously headed the kitchen at Northcote in Lancashire, shines a light on Scotland’s exceptional natural bounty with a luxurious seven-course tasting menu that might see hand-dived Orkney scallops paired with leek chowder and smoked roe or Scottish beef with white asparagus and morels.