No, I’ve not published the same review twice, by mistake. Although the visits were a few weeks apart, I actually visited branches of Zebra in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, the former for breakfast, the latter for lunch, so I thought I’d publish them as a stripy pair, on consecutive days.
Exterior
Edinburgh’s Zebra is on Bank Street, just near Deacon Brodie’s. Their premises are tidy and new, with room for around ten people round three small tables. Their main business will be takeaway offerings, though, which is what I was after, today.
The first sandwich on their board was called a Mediterranean Mashup, which sounded perfectly agreeable to me. I asked for it to be toasted.
Soup
I enquired about the soup, and was intrigued to hear the words “sweet potato, coconut and tamarind” spoken. Was this a place that stocked Union of Genius soup, which I’d unexpectedly found?
Once returned to my office, I inspected the soup and found that indeed it was. This particular variety has just been awarded two stars from the Great Taste Awards, one of only two places in the UK to receive this accolade, making this the best soup in Scotland. It was a bloody lovely lunchtime treat to stumble upon, and another 5/5 delight!
Sandwich
Sadly, the toasted sandwich was rather flat, sad and dry. Despite comprising usually flavour-packed ingredients like chorizo, feta and pesto, it was curiously muted, and rather a disappointment.
Hopefully, this was just a little new-place blip, as I don’t like to think of really wonderful soup being served in places where the other offerings aren’t quite so accomplished.
So overall, I thought Zebra was rather smart, and has made a very wise choice in their soup stockist. They have some work to do to improve the sandwiches, though, but there’s every reason to think that can be achieved. I look forward to popping in again, soon, to check on progress.
Scores
Blythe scores Zebra
3.5/5 for food
3/5 for presentation
3.5/5 for setting
3.5/5 for service
giving an overall 13.5/20
I ate: sweet potato, coconut and tamarind soup; Mediterranean mash up toasted sandwich
I wore: lilac shirt
Total bill: £6.90
