the hub


the hub cafe & restaurant at castlehill, just down from the famous castle, is on the ground floor of 'the hub', edinburgh international festival hq and box office. over a million people a year visit edinburgh castle and go past the hub on the royal mile so this cafe gets major exposure.

a converted church that was built in the 1840s to house the general assembly of the church of scotland, it's ground floor now includes quite a large cafe as well as the box office and some show venues.

the interior of the cafe is painted a violent yellow and serves breakfast, soups, sandwiches, mussels, burgers, sharing platters and nibbles. and coffee of course. it's a place of relative calm just up from the royal mile, although probably not in the festival period :)

the menu doesn't include a flat white but i'm pleased to see that the flat white has now finally arrived in edinburgh and so they were happy to whip one up for me. (reminder a flat white is essentially a double shot latte in a normal size tea cup) they do table service which isn't built for speed so you do need to be a little bit patient.

the coffee was too hot but not completely scalding. it tasted like hot, bitter milk with some saving graces of flavour, but not many. it was reasonably strong which was in it's favour but no milk texture and flabby, whipped egg white-like froth popped on top for effect.

i have to admit i expected worse in the epicentre of tourist-ville but it definitely rates as bad coffee. to rest your weary legs when you're on the sightseeing trail though, it's a nice enough spot to relax.

- coolness: amazing building, incredible location
- website: www.thehub-edinburgh.com/cafe