The Best Cafés and Coffee Shops in Edinburgh

Plants and low-hanging lights make Machina Espresso on Nicolson Street a minimalist’s treat, with most of its creative energy reserved for its brews. This speciality coffee roastery supplies beans to businesses all over the UK. In addition to the Nicolson Street shop, it has a smaller spot just off The Meadows, near Tollcross. Both stock a range of Machina’s own espresso blends, single-origin espressos and filters.

Fieldwork serves coffee from acclaimed North Berwick roaster Steampunk within an interior space that has a very natural feel; logs and plants are perched up on the walls and around the shop window. At £2 a cup of filter coffee (with £1 refills after your first mug), you’ll get value for money here that’s hard to beat.

Down at the bottom of Waverley Arches, you’ll find Baba Budan, a small and friendly coffee shop supporting homegrown roasters. The real pull of this venue is the doughnut selection, which is prepared fresh at its on-site bakery. Its rotating flavours range from pistachio to black cherry and vanilla cream. Baba Budan even serves a tasty breakfast doughnut, which you can learn how to make yourself at one of its doughnut masterclasses.

Across the road from Brew Lab is Black Medicine – a vibrant coffee shop in the heart of Edinburgh. The place is named after a Native American word for coffee that translates as ‘Black Medicine’, with decor (including a carved, wooden totem pole) heavily inspired by this culture. Upstairs is a maze of funky wooden tables and chairs, while downstairs, patrons will find a comfy lounge, most often filled with students.

Tea & Sympathy is one of the smallest (and definitely among the cutest) cafés in Edinburgh. It originally started as a furniture upcycling business back in 2009, with remnants of this past artfully decorating the space. Its focus is, according to the owners, “to move away from throwaway culture”. The shop also has artwork and cards for sale, making it feel like you’re drinking coffee in the actualisation of an Etsy shop.

Castello Coffee boasts a modern interior, evoking feelings of Scandinavia. It’s very clean, very stylish and lies right on the edge of the Bruntsfield Links – giving it a lovely green view on sunny days. The original Castello Coffee is actually on Castle Street (hence the name), but the Bruntsfield branch is recommended as it is a little less hectic. Both have great coffee, using Allpress Espresso on a La Marzocco Strada machine.

Little Fitzroy regularly works with Girls Who Grind Coffee – an all-female roastery in England that focusses on increasing participation and visibility of women in the industry. “[Coffee] is a male-dominated scene,” says owner Cathryn Cripps Clark. “Once you get up the ladder, it’s more of a boy’s club, so I do anything I can to encourage change.” Coffee and equipment line each of the shelves in Little Fitzroy. It’s a small place, with only a few tables for customers, but the cosy set-up only adds to its community feel.

This shop is hidden away in a George Street basement, at the bottom of a stony set of winding stairs. It is a little like walking into an open-plan work lab, which is appropriate given that Lowdown is all about the methodology. The shop uses a manual espresso machine, meaning baristas can control every shot of coffee from grind to extraction. It is particularly hailed for its interesting selection from acclaimed Swedish roasters, Koppi. The table service is a nice touch, too.

The coffee at Kilimanjaro is good, and the brunch is even better. This is no secret, as patrons often have to wait for a seat at one of the venue’s charmingly mismatched tables, especially at weekends. The wait is all worth it when those zucchini fritters arrive, next to feta cheese, poached eggs and beetroot chutney. For more brunch spots, check out our list of the best brunch places in Edinburgh.

A glowing flock of Macbooks illuminates Red Box, located in the heart of student stronghold Marchmont. The big desks and reliable Wi-Fi make it perfect for last-minute essays, soothed by the homely set up of fairy lights and cute dog portraits. Red Box roasts its own coffee and puts a focus on sustainability, with all of the packaging biodegradable or compostable where possible, and the food sourced locally and seasonally.

The Counter takes up tiny quarters inside three converted police boxes across Edinburgh, making them a joy to stumble upon, and serves a bespoke coffee blended specially by Stockbridge’s own Mr Eion. The most unique of the bunch is The Counter on the Canal, which serves brews from a canal boat docked at the town-end of the Union Canal.

You can almost smell the creativity in the air at this arty roastery in Leith – but it might just be the coffee beans. Based in Custom Lane, this brilliant café is not only a roast on-site coffee spot but also a co-working space and exhibition site perched right on the edge of the water. It’s a great place to kick-start your creative juices with a little hit of caffeine as you watch artists in their element.

This pretty café sits in the heart of The Meadows, making it an ideal outdoor coffee stop on sunny days. The coffee comes from Artisan Roast, and the food is all veggie and vegan. Also, in the best of times, the dogs, guitars and good vibes are in no short supply. Not open in winter.