Espresso Mondo / E Mondo

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £7 (lunch)
   £8 (evening meal)
• House wine: £10.95 per bottle

• High point: The food goes above and beyond . . .
• Low point: . . . but the service lags behind
• Food served: Espresso Mondo: Mon-Sun 8am-5pm. E Mondo: Mon-Sun 5-10.30pm.
• Bar open: Mon-Sun 5-11pm
• Open since: 2005
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of menu), Childrens portions

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

This review is from the 2007 edition.

There is a dearth of Edinburgh venues that combine food, alcohol, coffee and sofas past 7pm. This bistro-style café/bar steps up to fill a niche by morphing from its daytime incarnation of Espresso Mondo into E Mondo, which offers relaxed dining up until 10pm. Providing this simple difference would be enough to set E Mondo apart, but it tries to go one step further. Cocktails, plush sofas and twinkly lights have all been employed with the aim of creating a female-friendly, attractive and relaxed slice of glamour on Edinburgh's less salubrious Lothian Road. Concept aside, the draw is the food. The menu is an abundance of well thought out dishes. Beautifully crafted tapas bites, breads with dipping oils and meat or cheese platters are all plentiful, while being fantastic value for money. Filled bagels, soups and pastas (with freshly made focaccia or ciabatta) round out the more substantial offerings. Even the nachos arrive artfully laid out and perfected with a drizzling of sweet balsamic vinegar. The superior food is reason enough to try out this fairly new addition the city's café scene, which is as it should be.