Today was rather sunny and warm, so when lunchtime arrived, a little later than planned, I decided to take a wee stroll and find somewhere new to try. I headed in a Leithward direction, and soon alighted upon CJ’s Takeaway, on Brunswick Street.
Exterior
The place is tiny and rather unassuming. There’s space for one little table, but otherwise it’s completely focussed on takeout fare, pitched towards the greasy spoon end of the market.
It covers a range of basic options (soup, sandwiches, pies, toasties etc), and will happily prepare you a breakfast roll, to order, at any point throughout the day.
Soup
I imagine you’re thinking that none of this sounds too promising, but as the friendly counter man was ladling my soup, and wrapping my pie, I had a nagging suspicion that this was going to turn out to be something memorable. When he charged me the extremely modest sum of £2.10 for the full-to-the-brim sweet potato soup, and nicely heated macaroni pie, I had my first memorable moment.
Once returned to my underground lair, I had my second memorable moment, as the soup proved to be very good indeed. It had a really lovely, thick texture and was packed with warmly spiced flavour. It really was very enjoyable.
Pie
The macaroni pie was served at the perfect temperature, and whilst not the finest pie I’ve ever tasted, it was still very pleasing.
So CJ’s Takeaway is a really good find. One of these days I’ll actually get around to sampling a few breakfast rolls as part of our quests, and when I do CJ’s will definitely be on the list of places to try. For now, I can happily recommend it as a great little spot for a cheap, good quality lunch. I look forward to trying some more of their delicious soup, in the future.
Scores
Blythe scores CJ’s Takeaway
4/5 for food
3/5 for presentation
3/5 for setting
3.5/5 for service
giving an overall 13.5/20
Today’s quester was: Blythe
I ate: spicy sweet potato soup, macaroni pie
I drank: nowt
I wore: stripey suit
Total bill: £2.10
CJ’s Takeaway
99 Brunswick Street
Edinburgh EH7 5HR