At the end of another busy week, I needed to cram in a quick lunch between work appointments, so decided to visit Let Me Eat, on Holyrood Road. I’d spotted it when I’d popped in to Foodies at Holyrood, the other day, and had noted it down.

Exterior

The premises used to house Thyme, a takeout place that had a very good reputation, but one that I never managed to visit. When I spied its new livery, on my previous stroll past, it had a marginally longer queue than at Foodies, so I was optimistic that it might offer a little better quality.

I was in soup and sandwich mood, so from a board of selections I opted for an egg mayonnaise roll, which was freshly made as I waited. I matched this with sweet potato and chickpea soup, from their daily changing range of four options.

Soup

The two counter staff were working flat-out during this busy lunchtime service, but try as they might, they weren’t very successful at managing down the queue. It struck me that they could really use an extra pair of hands, because the pressured environment meant that they had no time for anything other than blasting through orders at high speed.

Once I’d been furnished with my desired items, I hiked back to the office, and sat to devour my comestibles.

The roll was massive and overflowing, with a generous amount of mixed lettuce leaves augmenting the egg filling. As advertised the egg mix had cheddar and onion in it, meaning that the filling was much more in the realm of your classic cheese savoury, rather than a conventional egg mayo. I was pleased with it, as I like both of these fillings, and rather enjoyed this melding of the two. The roll was excellently fresh, too.

Roll

The soup was rather less successful. The broth was rather thin and oily, and the overwhelming flavour was a combination of quite interesting warm spicing and rather overpowering chilli. Curiously, it wasn’t overpoweringly hot chilli, but it dominated, nevertheless. The soup was in desperate need of more salt, for sure, and it seemed rather a waste of two good soupy favourites, in sweet potato and chickpea, which I’d usually expect to be more prominent in the flavour mix.

So overall, Let me Eat was alright, but not much better than that. I’d go back for the rolls, but I’d definitely go elsewhere for soup, which in effect means I’m unlikely to head back there, any time soon. If you do go, you’ll get something pretty fair, but I’d be surprised if it set your heart aflutter.

Scores

Blythe scores Let Me Eat
3.5/5 for food
2.5/5 for presentation
3/5 for service
3/5 for setting
giving an overall 12/20

Today’s quester was: Blythe

I ate: sweet potato and chickpea soup; egg mayo and lettuce roll

I drank: nowt

I wore: blue shirt

Total bill: £4.80

Holyrood Road
Edinburgh