Lovecrumbs - EDINBURGH cake shop

Lovecrumbs

155 West Port

Edinburgh EH3 9DP

http://www.lovecrumbs.co.uk/

Nothing but cake!

I was taking the train from Newcastle to Glasgow and I had a stopover in Edinburgh. After all the raving I'd heard about this place (especially from the lovely Emma), I NEEDED to check it out. And it did not disappoint!

The decor is very cozy, with all tastefully mismatched furniture and little trinkets everywhere.

I was not kidding in my title, they literally only serve cakes, tarts, scones, and drinks! They have a list of all the cakes available on a blackboard and it changes daily. Once they've sold out of something, they cross it off and you just have to pick one of the other delicious options. They may be limited to sweet baking but they really know what they're doing! I had a slice of lavender and blueberry cake and it was sooo goooood! Lovely fluffy cake and great icing as well.

We then come to beverages; and as I've already specified, i'm not a huge coffee drinker (my last year of school may change that!). So I asked Emma and she loves their coffee and raved about their latte art (which I managed to completely forget to photograph at people's tables, oops!).

I had a hot chocolate and it was nice but I've got quite high requirements for hot choc (I've never found the perfect one!)

They also have free tap water in one of the corners which is a thing I am SO in favour of! Everyone needs to drink and free water will actually make me more inclined to try out their more expensive drinks because I just find it unclassy when you have to dish out 2-3 euros just to keep hydrated.

The staff are very lovely, easy to talk to. 

As you can see, the pricing is very reasonable: around 2-4 pounds for a slice, the drinks fall into the same price bracket.

The ambiance is very relaxed, you can easily meet a friend or a date, go by yourself or even have a meeting for your business (there were some ladies from a flower service having meetings with their clients while I was there). 

Bottom line, I definitely would recommend popping in if you ever find yourself in Edinburgh, the cakes are great, it's quickly packed though, so time your visit wisely. (basically avoid peak coffee time of 3-4 PM).

the important decision process

Hope you are all well! My productivity in all things did a lil swan dive when I entered exam period and I've just returned from a festival as well as a trip to Paris so the pick up begins NOW! There will be activity on my instagram account as well as biweekly posts on the blog. I have a huge load of posts lined up (need to write and finish edits), so it should be feasible. I'm also thinking of developing a sort of TLDR checklist or rating system to compensate for my ramblings. What do you think of this? Also suggestions for categories? (such as wifi, price range, service, taste, ...) Please leave a comment with any notes; I would really appreciate it.

Enjoy the beginning of the summer!

Lara

Chicago Eetcafe

Chicago Eetcafe

45 Rue de Flandre

1000 Bxl

http://www.caat.be/chicago/

A great place to bring your friends... and your kids!

I'm so sorry for the late post (even though I don't have an official schedule, I try to make them once every 2 weeks, so just late for me and my 2 readers), I've actually been sitting on this post since I first created the blog, having been here a total of 3 times to photograph/review the place, it's finally time for Chicago Cafe to have its CACS spotlight.

This place is the epitome of cool, from the outside in!  It's set over a really wide building and has all these posters and notice boards in the alcove before the entrance. It's actually quite hard to tell what it is from the outside, you wouldn't notice straight away.

Just fyi, my friend is not pregnet, she just
keeps her baby camera under there!

Once you enter, there are sort of 2 areas, the front one is warmly lit with a long table in the center and then the further in part is really bright, with this big sky light in the middle. Then at the very back you can find a kids' play area, which i find an absolutely great idea! I have raved about this aspect to several people although I know almost no one who has kids of the right age. BUT STILL. And it's good for the people who don't actually like kids, cause the underlings are mostly sitting eating cake or in the play bit. (no photos of the play area for obvious no creep reasons). 

Another thing I love in this cafe is the NEON SIGN(!!) If you follow me on instagram (username: hempfloush), you will know that almost any neon sign that I come across must be manifested on my feed! (for you nonestagrammers, that just means that i love neons signs a whole lot). There also seems to be a potted green plant wherever you may look, this also gets me going. 

Ok and now i need to make a whole paragraph about the seats because they're just so cool. They have some wooden cinema-style seats, the ones that you have to be sat on for them to be down (is there a name for those?). And the others, OH MAN, they are awesome. it's essentially a bench made of wooden slats that are just lined up and rounded off and I want 20 in my house.

Now let's get to the essentials, Food&Drink. 

This is one of the main reasons why this post is so delayed; I really wanted to have lunch here before I could review and it's never been possible till last weekend. but now, let's get cracking. 

They have a pretty wide selection of basic type lunch foods, like croque monsieurs, eggs, pasta plates, etc. What got my friend Issi and I excited was however the quesadillas! She ordered one with aubergines, brie, apple and nuts. It was so good! and It came with a side salad because there, all vegetarian orders come with either side salad, coleslaw, or chips. I got a salad cause I got the halloumi burger. The burger was basically a giant slab of halloumi with smoked mozarella on top which somehow worked alright, but if given the choice, I'd definitely take the quesadilla instead. But I must say. both of our sauces were lush, mine being a spicy tomato one and hers being hot apple and cinnamon.

 After mains... come desserts! And theirs are not to be missed. If you only come once, HAVE THEIR CARROT CAKE! It is so good, not the best I've ever had (more on that in a future post ;)) but an incredibly close second. The texture very moist but still crumbles as a cake should and there's just enough spice (maybe a tad more could be added) and the icing is so creamy. One time I came with a bunch of my school friends who got the crumble cake (pretty good) raspberry meringue tart (lovely but extremely hard pastry), and a cheesecake (also pretty good).

SERIOUSLY GET THIS

As for drinks, most times, there's been consumption of their nice hot chocolate, which comes as milk with little chocolate chips on the bottom. I've also had their green tea which was pretty standard. 

So this place is, I'll say it one last time, super cool. It's got some laid back design elements and good hot food and amazing carrot cake. The kids area really sold it for me as a more familial place to go. I kno that a colleague of mine also went with her friends for a coffee and a cake. It's really the ultimate spot for that catch up! 

. Alrighty! now for me to run off and finish my homework and go sleep for another 2 weeks, I may actually make a sneaky extra post this week to make up for my lateness but who knows if that'll be possible :(

Either way I hope you all have a great weekend (I may be getting a little ahead of myself here) 

xx Lara