Coffee Stop

It had never really occurred to me that the bus station on St Andrew Square would have an eatery in it, but when visiting briefly the other day I spotted the Coffee Stop and made a mental note to check it out at some point. With time on the tight side it suited me to stop by during a recent lunchtime.

Frontage

A simple counter set-up my expectations were set low and barely met by their dreadful espresso.

However, mention of homemade soup and a panino for £4.95 indicated that more promising things might be in the offing. And so it proved.

Soup and panino

The soup of the day – and I suspect most days – was lentil. To that I added a goat’s cheese and peppers panino. This was toasted to order and soon with me. I took a seat at a nearby shelf stool.

The soup was a really decent dish packed with warming goodness. The toastie packed in profuse sweet peppers and nicely balancing cheese that had a really good tang to it. The bread was squished and cardboardy, but this was otherwise very pleasing stuff.

So overall, as long as you avoid the coffee there’s a decent chance you’ll be pleased with the grub on offer at the Coffee Stop. It’s likely to be in the realms of a stop of necessity rather than choice but I was pleasantly surprised by it, so would be happy to pop in for soup again when pressed for time.

Scores
Blythe scores Coffee Stop
3.5/5 for food
3/5 for presentation
3/5 for setting
3.5/5 for service
giving an overall 13/20

I ate: lentil soup, goat’s cheese panino

I drank: espresso

I wore: pink shirt

Total bill: £6.20

Address: Edinburgh Bus Station, Edinburgh, EH1 3DQ