Old School Cafe

When we were along at the Real Junk Food Project’s event at the Canongate Youth Centre, the other evening, we heard that the venue was open during the day as the Old School Cafe, serving breakfast rolls and lunches between 11 and 3pm. We popped in to give it a try.

With the Real Junk Food’s Donna McArdle at the helm, the cafe has been set up to give young people a chance to build experience within the hospitality and catering industry. The kitchen was a hive of activity when we arrived.

I was joined today by regular guest quester Graham, who was most recently along for the trip to Steak, Cattle and Roll.

As I rather suspected would be the case, when Donna conveyed the specials of the day we were entirely sold, so we both opted to start with an intriguing sounding sweet and sour minestrone (£3) then follow with veal meatballs (£3.95).

The soup was promptly with us looking hearty and bright. It was a soup of a real character with lovely chunks of lightly sweet beetroot in a rustic and flavourful broth. It was a winner of dish and the accompanying bread from Breadshare was very tasty, too.

The meatballs was plentiful and satisfying, although the seasoning could have been just a notch more punchy for me. A nice side salad was studded with tartly sweet redcurrants. I dressed things in a little lemon-infused oil from Gusto.

We rounded things out with espresso (£1.50) from Cutty Sark, then we were left to reflect on what was a very satisfying lunch, although it wasn’t long before Graham ordered a little white chocolate slice (£1.50) to take away for afternoon coffee break.

So overall, the Old School Cafe is serving really enjoyable lunchtime dishes that are highly likely to please. It’s always good to see great ideas executed very well and this is very much the case, here. We’d be happy to recommend it, both for a visit during the August rush, and year round.