Carrubbers Café

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

It’s the café wing of Carrubbers Christian Centre, but only the occasional food-related Bible quote on the wall or the menu hints at these origins. Still, it’s worth pondering the notion of Christian charity a little more, because with some of their lunchtime meal deals, Carrubbers are practically giving the food away. With various combinations of soup, filled roll, drink and dessert available to students, seniors and regular customers for between £2 and £5, the place is on to a winner, and it gets exceptionally busy at lunch time. The roll fillings are refreshingly old-school (including generous amounts of ham, cheddar, tuna mayo, coronation chicken and prawn Marie Rose) and can be adapted to baked potatoes and create-your-own salads, while the short panini list includes a more cosmopolitan mozzarella, pesto and sun-dried tomato option. Perhaps most thoroughly recommended, though, is the selection of cakes and tray bakes on offer daily, including an odd but moreish chocolate and custard slice. Like the menu itself, the light-wooded, vaguely ornamented café isn’t the most attention-grabbing space but it does welcome you warmly, particularly in relation to some of the Royal Mile’s pricier, more tourist-orientated establishments.

• High point: The meal deals are excellent
• Low point: The décor’s lost somewhere between rustic and modern