Elaine's Cuppa Cake

After buying a second hand laptop from my friendly computer man Graeme I walked up to the main road to get my bus.  As usually happens my bus was just leaving the stop.  I was passing what looked like a very nice tearoom so I went in.  I thought I would have something to eat, try my new computer and do some research for my blog.

It was waitress service and offered an all day afternoon tea!  What a wonderful idea, God bless the Duchess of Bedford who invented this marvellous meal. 

Anyway, my tea arrived timeously.  First the waitress put down a tartan table runner on the modern pine table.  Then she placed the knitted tea pot stand and a small pot of tea in a cosy, both were matching and hand knitted.  The cup saucers and plate were all china which is nice when you are drinking tea.  I did notice that the cappuccino’s came in a traditional bowl shaped cup which I approved of.  The two tier cake stand had my choice of sandwiches, a scone with cream and jam, a melting moment and a truffle.  The melting moment reminded me of home economics classes at secondary school years ago, I think it was one of the first things we baked. 

Everything was great, lots of ham in the sandwich and cream on the scone and they were happy to refill my teapot with hot water.  I thought this was a bargain at £4.95 for the lot.

A pregnant couple came in and dumped their many backpacks by the door.  The waitress moved the jacket from the back of their seat over to the old man who owned it.  She then had to help that same old man negotiate the backpacks when he got up to pay for his afternoon tea.  The other customers were a Chinese lady with a little baby in his push chair, and two students behind me that I couldn’t really see.  There were only 5 tables in the cafe.

Elaine’s cuppa cake was decorated in pastel colours, one wall blue, the opposite one purple, and the one behind the counter green.  It sounds really sickly but it was actually very restful.  The window was filled with glass cake stands with delicious looking cakes and tray bakes.  There was a little antique hanging display shelf unit full of tiny decorative tea pots and other teapots in the window.

The only down side I could see was the lack of toilets.  The American man asked for the restroom and he was sent outside.  I didn’t see where he went but as there are a few cafes in a row perhaps they have some sort of arrangement between them that all the customers use the toilets in one of them.

There were other things on the menu such as paninis, sandwiches, soup and coffees, as well as the afternoon tea but I was so impressed by the afternoon tea I forgot to take a note of them.  They do takeaways too and according to their card they will bake cakes for you and do outside catering.

I was quite impressed by this cafe and although it is an area I go only to visit my computer man I will make a point of going in again.

They are open from 8am till 6pm Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm Saturday and 9.30 – 5pm Sunday.

They can be found at 18 South Clerk Street, EDINBURGH, EH8 9PR and phoned on 0131 629 0646.

The Filmhouse Cafe

The Filmhouse’s cafe is on the ground floor behind the box office and has a good central location on Lothian Road.   It is handy for the Traverse, the Lyceum Theatre and the Usher Hall.  The 3 screens of the Filmhouse are, of course, in the same building.

I was there recently as I was going to a play at the Traverse with my Dad and cousin Nicholas. We needed to eat something fairly quickly so I suggested the Filmhouse.

I must say I wasn’t overly impressed.  Between us we had the hummus, falafels and nachos with chilli and found fault with all of them.

The hummus was very bland; it needed more tahini, garlic and lemon!  It was also very dry, badly in need of more sesame oil, so although the portion was generous it was more of a spread than a dip. The pitta bread was cut up into little wedges and was actually quite nice. The salad was quite tasty and the presentation was good but the hummus really let the meal down.

The nachos consisted of a big soup plate full of nachos with a spoon or two of chilli and a tiny dollop of fresh yoghurt.  It all tasted fine but the fillings went too fast and you were left with a bowl of nachos which were too dry to eat on their own.

The falafels were served with a small salad and sweet chilli sauce. They were tasty but there were only 6 or 7 of them plus the bottled sauce and the nice salad.  It wasn’t very filling and not very good value for money.

They serve UHT full cream milk portions as a matter of course.  I think this is so lazy, and shows how much they don’t care about what they are serving.  What gets me is you can actually get fresh milk in these little pots if you are worried about portion control. UHT full cream milk tastes vile because the treatment affects the fat.  In Spain one year with friends, when we couldn’t get fresh milk, we found out that UHT skimmed is okay for most people.

The tea and filter coffee tasted normal once I had asked for fresh milk as they were happy to give me a choice of full cream or semi-skimmed.  I have had a cappuccino here before and it was perfectly acceptable.  Nicholas had a bottled beer and thought it very dear at £4.25 but he said it was good.

All the dishes were from £5 - £6 but they were not good value for money as we all came away unsatisfied.

Fortunately the play we went to see was excellent, so the whole night wasn’t ruined.  “Born to Run” was about a woman who finds out she can avoid epileptic seizures if she goes running the minute she gets a warning aura.  The actress did the whole play on a running machine and she wasn’t even out of breath!  If it ever comes to your area, go and see it!

I would never go the Filmhouse expecting fine dining, it is at best adequate.

According to its website it serves many types of beer, both bottled and draft and 20 types of wine by the glass.  You can also take your drink in with you to the film if you ask for a plastic glass.  This is a good idea and must be why it is always busy!

It is open from 8am – 11.30pm Mon-Thurs, 8am – 12.30am Fri, 10am – 12am Sat and 10am – 11.30pm Sun.

88 Lothian Rd

EDINBURGH

EH3 9BZ

0131 229 5932

cafebar@filmhousecinema.com

Castello Coffee Co

It was a hot and sunny day, and the centre of town had a Mediterranean feel.  My niece Emily and I were out shopping.

It wasn’t a good time to go as it was the last day of the school holidays. Emily needed some last minute items, as did half of the school aged population, so all the shops were busy.



Castello Coffee Co



After an hour or so I really needed a break and we found this cute little coffee shop on the East side of Castle Street with a wonderful atmosphere.  This was mainly because the two staff were very friendly.  It was painted in a very warm colour of light blue with cream and they had orchids in a vase in the corner.  The patio doors were open and they had 6 small tables outside.  When a rather large man was sitting at the table next to us stood up, we could see an entire table that hadn’t been visible before.

I had 2 pots of tea it was so nice.  They serve “For Life” tea which is excellent leaf tea, even their fruit tea actually tastes of fruit.  The guys behind the counter were recommending the white mandarin tea.  I will give that a go next time I am there, as I will definitely go back.

Emily and I shared a very good piece of carrot cake with a slightly ginger tang.  It was too hot to eat much more, a thing I never thought would happen this summer.  As well as tea and cake they also serve soup, sandwiches, cold drinks and of course coffee.

The tables were wooden and the chairs black plastic.  They have large grey parasols, to shade the tables if necessary but they were not up today.

There is only one thing wrong with this place in my eyes and that is their lack of a toilet.  However you can always nip into the ones in Debenhams, just round the corner. (Keep that betwwen ourselves!)

Castello Coffee Co can be found at 7A Castle Street, EDINBURGH, EH2 3AH.  It is open from 7.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 6pm Saturday and 10am to 6pm Sunday.