Queen Street Café

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses: £7
• House wine: £10.50 per bottle

• Hitlisted
• High point: Imaginative food combinations
• Low point: Sharing a table at busy times
• Food served: Mon-Sun noon-2.30pm
• Bar open: Mon-Sun 10am-4.30pm
• Private dining: N
• Open since: 1990
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of menu), Childrens portions, Childrens high chairs, Wheelchair access

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

Full tables and an almost constant queue at the counter are testament to this café's popularity. Visitors to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery itself, nearby workers and escapees from the bustle of Princes Street all seek haven in this impressive gothic building. Both the owner and manager have a genuine passion for food - a fact which resonates throughout the blackboard menu. Everything, apart from the bread, is made from scratch in the Queen Street Café kitchen, including the mouth-watering selection of cakes. But before you indulge in something sweet, the hot savouries are well worth a try. Soups such as courgette and dill or sweet potato and red pepper are suitably hearty, while main dishes such as spinach, ricotta & parmesan tart or salmon fish-cakes with tartar sauce are layered with healthy, tasty ingredients. There's no shortage of imagination in the salads either (two of which accompany your main dish), with sumptuous combinations such as rice, asparagus and peas laced with flavoursome herbs. Outside the lunchtime slot, there are far worse ways to spend an Edinburgh afternoon than indulging in the delicious lemon drizzle cake and rich, smooth coffee.