Connect Café

The 2012 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the 2011 edition.

TV foodie Nell Nelson has a track record of seeking out passionate local producers and unearthing quality produce. In early 2011, Nelson and her business partner took over Connect Café in Comely Bank to bring this approach to the capital. Also a card and gift shop, the premises seem somewhat muddled at first, but follow the red polka dot tablecloths and soon you’ll find yourself tucking into some wholesome grub. In her series ‘The Woman Who Ate Scotland’ Nelson watched haddock being log-smoked on an Angus beach, and now Connect makes its own Arbroath smokie pâté served with oatcakes. The broccoli and walnut soup is chunky, flavoursome and comes with delicious seeded wholemeal bread. Even the salad dressing has a back story, made from award-winning Ayrshire balsamic and East Lothian rapeseed oil. A fun innovation for the sweet-toothed is the choco-spoon – a wooden spoon encased in chocolate for stirring into hot milk, coming with glitter and marshmallows or in grown-up varieties like white chocolate and cardamom. It’s early days but solid foundations bode well for Connect to establish itself quickly.

• High point: Quality ingredients with clear provenance
• Low point: Sitting among the gifts