Café Mazi

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

When this prominent venue on the Canongate section of the Royal Mile was vacated in 2007 by Plaisir du Chocolate (which has subsequently reappeared with a boutique on Thistle Street), it was initially run as French-style café in a faint echo of its eminent former tenant. The concept didn't last, however, and, by spring 2008, owner Huseyin Kulhas, who also runs the Old Town's Glenhas cafés, revised the tenancy as Café Mazi, offering a Greek/Turkish flavour to a fairly mainstream menu aimed at the passing tourist trade. Hints of Parisien décor remain in the small-ish dining area, while a chocolate boutique (selling individual chocolates made by the Cocoa Bean Company from Dumfriesshire) operates in the upper half of the shop. Evening dining is planned, when the Greek and Turkish background of the chefs will be given a more prominent role. [Not open in time for a full review for this edition.]