Embo

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The 2011/12 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2011) edition.

Leith Walk’s Embo is an exemplar local café. Their fruit and veg comes from Tattie Shaws just over the road, their bread from Manna House on Easter Road, and the place is often filled with warm banter among regulars. Hand-crafted wooden furnishings and local art displays create a down-to-earth appeal but it’s owner Mike Marshall’s passion for food that forms Embo’s beating heart. For a made-to-order wrap or sandwich, a choice of six types of bread and nine cheeses is available along with meats, seafood and Belhaven Smokehouse hot-smoked trout. That’s before you even get to the salad counter where abundant, colourful and freshly made super-salads vie for attention, mingling flavours in innovative and dazzling ways. A chunky limey salsa sits beside a purple coleslaw and Middle Eastern options such as baba ganoush and tabouleh. You could get your lunch here for several months without ever repeating a combination. As an alternative try the daily soup – creamy pea and asparagus delivers a satisfying chilli kick and comes sprinkled with seeds. As far from boring as can be.

• High point: Salad and sandwich heaven
• Low point: Open art policy makes for a variable aesthetic