The Walter Scott Tearoom

My cousin Nicholas, from New Zealand was visiting Edinburgh for the first time today so I took him and my Dad there for coffee.  My Dad’s first comment was “It is a bit upmarket!”

As you would imagine from the name, this is a traditional Scottish tea room on the 2nd floor of Romanes and Patersons on Princes Street.  It is the next shop to Marks and Spencer on the West side so incredibly easy to find, or give directions too, for foreign visitors.  It has the most delightful lift to the 2nd floor; it is the kind that needs a member of staff to come with you to pull across the two sets of metal accordion doors.

Nicholas was amazed at the views, from the table in the bay window; you had the castle out one side, the Walter Scott Monument from the other and facing you Princes Street Gardens.  Its elevation means you can see over all the buses and traffic on the road.  In the sun today it all looked magnificent.

The tearooms themselves were looking very traditional, tartan carpet of course, tartan placemats and very nice draped tartan curtains at the bay window. The walls are a nice deep green at the bottom of the half panelled walls, plain white above.

They take being a tea room very seriously and have 11 speciality teas plus 3 house blends, one of which is Scottish Breakfast, favourite of mine.  They have all the usual coffees cappuccino, espresso etc. and also their 5 speciality coffees served in a cafitiere.

They offer a range of Scottish main meals such as haggis neeps and tatties, Arbroath Smokie fish cakes, stovies and homemade steak pie and also do a Sunday Roast Special for £8.95.  They also do other food such as breakfasts, soup, sandwiches, baked potatoes and of course cakes which I again cannot comment on.  I have had the steak pie, though not today, and it was lovely.

Today my cousin and I both opted for the scones which were great; my fruit scone was served with raspberry jam which I love. Nicholas had a plain scone which he demolished. Dad had a plate of lentil and vegetable soup and said it was so filling he didn’t have room for anything else.  They always serve loose leaf tea and my Scottish breakfast tea was up to its normal excellent standard.

The toilets are a floor above and very clean and spacious.  You could easily get 3 or 4 people in each stall and they have their own windows which is most unusual.

The tea room is quite a large area so it never feels too busy which is quite nice but try to get one of the window tables as the views are stunning.  By accident my friend Joe, who we had not planned to meet was there.  He had the best table but the friendly staff quickly attached two tables together so he could join us. 

The Walter Scott Tearoom

Romanes and Paterson    

62 Princes Street

EDINBURGH  EH2 2DH

Tel. 0131 225 4966

Opening Hours 9am - 5pm 

Kilimanjaro

This is a great cafe up “The Bridges”, Nicholson St to be precise.  I’ve been there many times as it is handy if you need a coffee after mooching round the charity shops and I would pop in there when I was invariably too early for my courses at Edinburgh Uni.

The highlight of this cafe is the soup; they always have about 5 varieties.  Some traditional like pea and ham and others a bit more exciting like red Thai curry.  The nice thing is they have it all day not just at lunch-time which is great if you want a small snack at tea-time.  Unless you are a big eater the small size is fine, you can nearly have a bath in the large serving!

They also have massive scones which are very tasty, fruit, apricot, cherry, cheese or plain, depending on the time of day and the mood of the baker.  They always have homemade jam; I had plum jam the last time which was gorgeous.  I have had a very nice chocolate brownie here but never a proper cake, apologies to those who wanted a cake review.

 

The tea is very good, four or five varieties, Roobios, English Breakfast etc and the coffees are fine.  The cappuccinos are a bit small for my liking, although they come with a very artistic pattern of chocolate on top.

It is easy to find as the exterior is painted red the same as the British Heart Foundation shop next door, together they make a large block of colour, impossible to miss, if you are passing on the road.

It has music playing, but it is not too obtrusive, so you can hear what your friends are saying. It tends to be a student clientele but it is a nice atmosphere.  The staff is really friendly and approachable, they will happily shut the door if you find it too windy etc. They don’t seem to mind if you sit nursing a coffee for hours either, not that I have done it myself. 

There is one couch but the majority of the furniture is old fashioned wooden tables and chairs with the occasional church pew on the side wall.

The toilets are clean, even though they are renovating one of the stalls; they manage to keep the dust out!  Unfortunately I haven’t had a male spy try the Gents, so cannot comment on them.

104 Nicholson St, EH8 9EJ, Tel 0131 662 0135

Opening Hours Mon – Fri 7.45am – 8.30pm, Sat/Sun 8.30am – 8pm

Butternut Squash

I have wanted to try this cafe on Portobello High Street for a while so I took my parents there for lunch.

It advertised a small fish tea for £5.00 so I chose that.  It consisted of half a battered haddock, a small portion of chips, a decent sized salad, tea or coffee and 4 slices of white bread and butter.  The batter was light and crispy which was great as I usually prefer breadcrumbs.  I enjoyed the salad as there was a decent amount of tomato and cucumber which makes a change.  It was a good size not too big and not too small, and I didn’t even eat the bread, Dad did!  The tea was good but as I always take the tea bag out I couldn’t take them up on their offer of more hot water.  They very decently made me a new pot instead!  Dad had the homemade fishcakes which he enjoyed and Mum had soup which she said was on the salty side.  My parents have been trying to cut down on salt so maybe that is why.  They serve filter coffee and you get free refills of that too. They also do cappuccino’s etc.

The owner/waiter Keith was really friendly, if incredibly busy, as the cafe was full of older people.  Perhaps they were taking advantage of the Senior Citizens fish tea for a fiver?  I imagine it is the same as a small fish tea but maybe not?  They do cakes and tray bakes but I wasn’t hungry after lunch and never even looked at them.  (Apologies to those looking for a cake review.)  The whole bill came to £15.50 which was great for 3 people.  The menu was quite extensive for such a wee place and all their fish is from Williamson’s, our great local fishmonger. 

The decor is clean and serviceable, beige embossed wall paper and 2 huge mirrors.  There is a mixture of wooded seats and leather dining chairs.  It only has about 5 or 6 tables as it quite a small place.

Watch!  They do not take credit cards.  We had to walk up to a cash dispenser; there are 3 further up the High Street.  We got caught in a heavy shower, Mum only had an umbrella that kept turning inside out and she got soaked.  Dad, who didn’t have a coat either, ducked into a doorway and stayed there till we returned.  I was okay in my new raincoat.

Butternut Squash’s advertises itself as; “The place to chill” but the day we were there it was too busy for chilling.  It is great place to go for traditional Scottish food with no frills and low cost.  They do takeaways too!

It is opening hours are Mon/Tues 9am – 3pm, Wed - Sat, 9am - 5pm and Sunday 10am - 3pm

78 High Street, Portobello, EH15 1AN. Telephone – 07843013445

The Fruitmarket Gallery Cafe

The Fruitmarket Gallery Cafe

The Fruitmarket Gallery Cafe offers about the best coffee and cake I have had in the centre of town.  I have had the soup too and it’s great.

It is just at the back entrance of Waverley Station, so it is fairly handy.  I have been there twice in as many weeks for that very reason: - A week last Sunday when my friend and I took her little girl to see the Olympic rings and today when I met a fellow struggling freelance to compare notes.

When I was there with Mary and Janey the gallery itself was shut, as it was hanging a new exhibition for the festival.  Consequently, the cafe was quite empty and we had it to ourselves for a few minutes.  The exhibition of Dieter Roth diaries was open by today.

The cafe is quite modern in style with one glass wall and the others white.  It has lots of its old exhibition posters on one wall. (See below.)  On the other is an interesting light mural consisting of circles of florescent tubing in light and dark blue, red, orange and white.  You can see a bit of it in above photo.

It is on the ground floor of the gallery and you walk though the bookshop to get to it.  It is table service which is always nice.  One of its benefits is that you can browse in the bookshop or look upstairs if you have to wait a few minutes for a table.  The service is really good too.

On the Sunday I had delicious carrot and walnut cake.  Janey, who is 5, had a special frog cake (sponge with pink creamy topping, covered in green icing with chocolate drop eyes).  The cakes are always good here and they have a nice selection.   I had a lovely large cappuccino in a traditional cup; some places have mugs or industrial strength cups that are like drinking out of a Belfast sink, I don’t know what’s worse!  Mary had a soda water and lime as she had a headache. This came to £10.45 which is not bad value.

Today‘s scone was extremely dry and crumbly, so avoid them and stick to cake!  Joe had the soup: - cauliflower, cumin and spinach at £4.25 which he liked, but I had already eaten and didn’t try it.  They do hot food too.  Today’s delicious sounding specials cost £8.95. The choice was chunky veg. tagine served on pearl cous cous with toasted almonds and yoghurt or, shredded pork, bean and cheddar burrito served with chips and salad.  Watch out if you go at lunch time as there is a minimum spend per person.  However, it seems to be at the manager’s discretion, as Joe didn’t spend the £7.00 and he didn’t get thrown out!

The clientele is varied but tends to be touristy and it is usually busy because of its position.

The ladies loos are clean and they have the cutest rectangular sinks and streamlined fittings.  Joe checked out the men’s and his comment was: - “Clean and basic”.

You will find it at 45 Market Street, EDINBURGH, EH1 1DF.

The opening hours are Mon – Sat 11 - 5.30pm, Sun 12 - 4.30pm but longer in the festival.  Check http://fruitmarket.co.uk/cafe/ or phone 0131 226 1843 for details, menu’s etc.

INTRODUCTION

This is my first shot at blogging.  I thought I would do a review of every cafe and eatery I was in.  I was under the impression that I always had tea and cake, but since I made the decision to blog, I have only had cake once and that was with a cappuccino.  This blog therefore is badly named but I will persevere.  Please bear with me!

The Beach House, Portobello

THE BEACH HOUSE, PORTOBELLO

On Monday my father took me for my birthday lunch at The Beach House, Portobello.

The Beach House is right on the esplanade at the bottom of Bath Street, so the beach is only 10 feet away.  It is decorated in a New England style, white and pale blue wood with the same colours on the dainty bunting which hangs in the cafe.  It has old wooden tables and comfortable old fashioned dining chairs.  In better weather they sell nice ice cream and put bowls of water out for thirsty dogs!

We both had soup and cheese paninis.  I had goats cheese and roasted red onion which was lovely and Randall had some concoction of mozzarella cheese.  The paninis were oval, and looked more like fat pitta bread which is different from their usual long flat shape.  The soup was chunky leek and potato and I kept getting bits of leek caught in my teeth, I prefer it liquidised!  The garnish was served on the side of the plate which was wonderful for someone who dislikes parsley, coriander and all the green leaves people put in your dinner to make it look posh.

We washed down our dinner with many cups of tea.  The teapot was so big that we were struggling to drink it all but being a real tea jenny I managed! I always take the teabags out of ordinary tea when it is strong enough.  This stops it stewing.  If you don’t do this, you cannot drink the last of it as it tastes horrible. 

The clientele was a mixture of families with children having lunch, folk like ourselves and a granny carrying 3 pairs of kid’s shoes!  I presumed she was in to heat up, it wasn’t warm outside, and the children belonging to the shoes were playing on the beach.  In the family nearest us the Dad was having coke with his lunch, while the kids were having some healthy drink with theirs.  I thought that was quite odd. The kids were quite sweet but they had to sit on their knees to be the right height for the table. There were also 2 old men who never took off their coats while they ate their posh bacon rolls and drank tea.

The service was excellent, the waitress was very attentive and tables were cleared the minute they were vacated.

It cost about £15 for our lunches so it wasn’t bad value for money but not cheap.

The Beach House also has lots of lovely cakes and scones which I have tried before.  However after eating my very tasty lunch I didn’t have room for their generous portions. 

The Beach House is open from 9-5.30pm weekdays and 9-6pm weekends

57 Bath Street, EDINBURGH, EH15 1HE, 0131 657 2636