This review appears in the December edition of Bite Magazine, and can be found online here.
We’re sitting at a window table overlooking the Royal Mile, a highway of passing tourists, and those three iconic red telephone boxes. Today’s assignment is Always Sunday. I’m here for lunch with my friend Emily, and her not-quite-yet two years old son, Oscar. This café has been on the go since 2003, and has established itself as a popular option for daytime dining in the old town.
The room is a bright airy space and service operates canteen style, so I queued up for a look at the day’s goodies. Along with two soups, and a mountain of loaves of speciality breads, there are a couple of hot dish options, along with a choice of colourful salads, Scottish Cheeses and home-made pâtés.
I opted for the ‘meat special of the day’, the lasagne (£7.50) and teamed it with a crunchy salad of mange tout, baby corn, fennel, pumpkin seeds and sultanas. The lasagne had a rich tomato sauce, big chunks of mince, but was slightly let down by pasta that was a bit soggy. Emily chose croustade with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes and melted mozzarella (£6.25). With puffy pastry, the meaty fungi and the sweet toms teamed up perfectly as did the accompanying side of roasted Mediterranean vegetables, with a good sprinkling of rosemary.
Kids can be harsh, not to mention unpredictable critics, but we took Oscar’s enthusiastic chomping of the fresh bread and hummus, and fruit salad (both £2.60) as a definite the thumbs up. It’s a family-friendly place, but with a daytime licence and a selection of house wines and local beers, grownups can enjoy a wee tipple with their lunch too!
I admit to having had one distracted eye on the gorgeous looking cakes the moment we stepped in, and we weren’t disappointed with our pick of lemon drizzle cake and carrot cake (£2.95 and £3.60). They say their carrot cake is the best in the city, and I might be inclined to agree! Aromatic with loads of spices, moist from the chunks of pineapple and double layer of cream cheese icing; perfect.
With their well priced home-cooking and friendly team (I noticed most guests turned around to wave goodbye on the way out), this café really has that elusive ‘easy going’ vibe, Sunday or any other day of the week.
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