I’m conscious that our geographical coverage across Edinburgh isn’t quite what it could be and is driven by where we tend to spend most of our time. Accordingly, when an opportunity for lunch in Polwarth presented itself, I jumped at the chance.

First time quester Vicky had suggested the Piecebox, which sounded good to me. I’d visited the nearby Odds & Ends a while back, and I hear good things about Streat Hawker at the Polwarth Tavern, but this is otherwise fairly unexplored territory for me.

The comfy interior lends itself nicely to relaxing times, so we settled in for a good chunter and chomp. The menu covers breakfast dishes (served until 12) and a good lunch selection which unsurprsingly has “pieces” at its heart.

Vicky settled upon one of these tempting sounding sandwiches, featuring halloumi and chorizo adding an accompanying bowl of soup as part of their keenly priced lunch deal. I opted for separate, full size soup and sandwich, with tomato and basil today’s option and a croqe monsieur my hot sandwich choice.

Items were soon with us looking impressively plentiful. The soup was slightly lukewarm but was very brightly spiced making for warming mouthfuls. It was a very good rendition of this classic combo.

My sandwich was to a similar good standard with the ham of particularly fine quality. A nice salad of leaves, walnuts and raisins was accomplished stuff.

So overall, the Piecebox served our needs very nicely. We were served impressively good, hearty fare. Unusually for this style of place, they are licensed so you can (like we did) have a glass of wine to round things out with one of their tempting desserts or cakes. It’s a place well worth of a visit.

Scores
Blythe scores the Piecebox
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
4/5 for service
4/5 for setting
giving an overall 15.5/20

Today’s questers were: Vicky, Blythe

We ate: tomato and basil soup (2), haloumi and chorizo sandwich, croque monsieur, banoffee pie

We drank: tea, espresso, water, white wine

We wore: brown jumper, blue trousers

Total bill: £31.10