City Café

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £10 (lunch)
   £10 (evening meal)
• House wine: £9.70 per bottle

• High point: Good diner-style food
• Low point: Service with attitude
• Food served: Mon-Thu 11am-11pm; Fri-Sun 11am-10pm
• Bar open: Mon-Sun 11am-1am
• Private dining: 80 (see ab
• Open since: 1985
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of menu)
• Opening times: Mon-Sun 10.00-1.00am

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

This review is from the 2007 edition.

It feels as though City Café has always been around for Edinburgh's trendier set. There is a laid-back vibe during the day, which hots up for the eclectic crowd eating, drinking and dancing here in the evenings. The décor has remained unchanged in years and the black leather seats, aluminum tables and diner-style booths lined up alongside the pool table are starting to look a little tired. The service is somewhat frosty if you aren't here with the in-crowd, but thankfully the food is good. The menu has a diner feel to it, with breakfasts, an array of all types of sandwiches, burgers, chilli and sides on offer. Don't forget to check out the reverse side for varied main course dishes - the fritatta is a great choice for vegetarians, and meat-eaters should give the sizeable 'hungry'un goulash' with home-made dough balls a go. There are no desserts, but if you are craving something sweet there is always the colourful sweetie counter. As the unnecessary and lengthy disclaimer on the menu shows, this is a place where the customer is definitely not always right and it's a shame that the quality of the food is overshadowed by this sort of arrogance.