Mediterranean Gate

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Although the Earl of Sandwich has done much for meal-times, variety is the spice of life. Mediterranean Gate has spice, it certainly has variety, and it provides a host of options that might be the best thing since sliced bread. It can be easily overlooked among the busy stramash between takeaways, stylish bars and seemingly perpetual scaffolding on George IV Bridge, but it would be a pity to let outward appearances or unfamiliarity with Middle Eastern cuisine keep you away. The tiny takeaway café boasts an almost impossible number of options. The plethora of choices laid out under the glass counter are all home-made and freshly prepared in this family-run business. Perusal of the blackboard menu reveals pizza, salads, soups and the speciality - falafels. Fill your khobez (naan bread wrap) with falafel, hummus and salad or opt for any number of fillings - Mediterranean or otherwise - to create a healthy, filling (and easily vegetarian) parcel. Coffees, soft drinks and tempting indulgences in the form of baklava round out the lunch trifecta of sustenance, caffeine and treat. It is lucky, however, that falafel is considered fast-food as there are only a few stools and a bench to perch on.

• High point: Healthy and tasty alternative to sandwiches
• Low point: Daunting choice for those unfamiliar with falafel