The Drill Hall Café

Wholesome, good-value home cooking in one of the city's most beloved community spaces.

The 2018/19 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £7.95 (+p&p).

Social enterprise cafés don’t come much more professional or enticing than the Drill Hall Café. It sits within a former Territorial Army building in Leith which has long been a hub for creative businesses, artists and locals taking part in workshops and classes. The café space is spacious and brightly lit from above, and the daily changing menu is the sort regulars go out of their way for. Breakfast is a simple range of single or double-filled morning rolls (with brie and mushroom or vegetarian sausage available), while the short lunch menu – a choice of three soups and four mains – makes up in interest for what it lacks in breadth. A simple oxtail soup is offset by a curried spinach and potato option, while a rustic French beef stew with new potatoes sits alongside one of this year’s most fashionable dishes, shakshuka stew of egg, peppers and spinach. Otherwise, their coffees and cakes are more than good enough to inspire a quick stop.