Press Coffee

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2009 – in the shops now or buy online.

Already the owner of the nearby Kilimanjaro Coffee and Wellington Coffee on George Street, Jonathan Sharp of Press describes this latest venture as not being in his business plan when he decided to purchase it. Rather, the former bookshop became available and he just fell in love with the room when he saw it, and quite rightly so: two of the walls are dominated by windows offering an abundance of natural light. Considering much of the regular clientele must be students from the nearby Edinburgh University, the limited selection of food is both agreeably cheap and well made. Home-made soups might include chicken chowder or Moroccan chicken, while a few toasted panini generally include at least one vegetarian option; of these, the chilli chicken and cheddar cheese is surprisingly spicy, although the bacon, mozzarella and grain mustard combination doesn’t benefit from the bitterness of toasted rocket. Cakes, including home-made brownies, scones, flapjacks and Rocky Road, are perhaps the most enticing goodies on a menu which is small but robustly formed. The site of the old Harlequin Café downstairs is also currently being developed by Sharp as a baked potato shop named Rotato.

• High point: A beautiful room for sitting watching the world go by
• Low point: The menu is limited