By Katey Lee
Katey blogs at Edinburgh Eats and Edinburgh Etiquette
Cafe Musa on the Mound is perfectly positioned between Princes Street and the Royal Mile and provides an oasis of calm between these busy thoroughfares.
A quick lunch visit can soon turn into a “go on then, just one slice and a quick cuppa” afternoon of tea and cake as the range of home baking is very tempting indeed.
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Delicious home made soups
For sale are a range of paninis, sandwiches and soups along with cakes, scones, cookies and traybakes. It’s one of the few places around this part of town where you can get a decently priced sit-down lunch.
We visited on a lovely sunny day and were lucky enough to get a table by a large window with a wonderful view of Princes Street Gardens; the whole room has a light airy feel, with stylish wood decor and plenty of seating.
The staff at Cafe Musa, are welcoming and friendly and recommended some teas for us to try. Supplied by Love Leaf Tea, the herbal blends taste as good as they smell (£2.20 per pot). We ordered the pineapple and coconut delight tea and peppermint tea. These were served in delightful glass teapots and were full of flavour. Our waitress assured us we could refill the pot as much as we liked, which is always a nice touch in a cafe.
Food wise, we settled on a coronation chicken & mango chutney sandwich (£3.75) and lentil & bacon soup served with a roll (£3.25 from a choice of two on the day). There is also a good sandwich and soup offer for £4.95 and panini and soup for £5.95 along with a takeaway ‘picnic box’ lunch of sandwich, cold drink and crisps for £4.95 – perfect for an impromptu outing to Princes Street Gardens.
It was all very fresh and tasty and went down well with the tea.
I’d had my eye on a cherry scone when ordering and very much looked forward to claiming this after our savoury food, but obviously I had to survey all of the sweets they had to offer. Some delicious sounding choc chip shortbread and a chocolate peppermint slice almost swayed me, but I stayed true to my first instinct.
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Freshly baked scone
My friend settled on the rather fine sounding chocolate caramel cake (£2.75), from a selection of homemade cakes, including victoria sponge and chocolate fudge. The piece of cake arrived whilst my scone was being warmed up and it was a good hefty slice which I was invited to share (and did so happily!) It was a mix of chocolate and caramel sponge with caramel buttercream and sauce between layers and was to die for. Meanwhile my scone arrived, studded generously with cherries and with a crunchy sugar top.
It would have been perfect with an Illy coffee but our teas were so lovely that we were happy to keep on drinking them.
It was a delight to visit Cafe Musa and I’m looking forward to a return visit, perhaps to try one of their afternoon teas, more good value at £21 for two people.
You can be sure of friendly service in Cafe Musa and good quality food.
It’s sure to be a festival hotspot in August and deservedly so.
Further information
Cafe Musa is also vailable for private functions in the evenings.
You can like their Facebook page and follow them on twitter @musaonthemound
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Tea in glass pots