Hendersons at St John’s

I was unprepared for this. UNPREPARED. Beautiful lasagne, colourful and flavoury salads (shut up, flavoury is totally a word) and a chap playing such soul drenchingly gorgeous jazz piano that I had to stop eating on three separate occasions because it took away my ability to do anything but sit and attempt to breathe.
The lasagne, being (naturally) vegetarian, was almost more like a moussaka, and so delicious that I wanted about eight of them. I suddenly understood why the chap I ordered from had repeated my order back to me as «one lasagne?» But any more, along with the two included salads, might have destroyed me, particularly as I planned to sample one of the exquisite looking cakes, for which I barely had room after those delicious lasagnery salady exploits. I reckon five star lasagne with a choice of two out of nine salads for just £7.50 is a damn good deal.
I then, as planned, proceeded to the cakery. The cakes aren’t labelled, so I asked the girl what each cake was and she had fun matching the names on a list to what they looked like. I opted for the chocolate and lemon, topped with physalis, because it looked dinky compared to the others. Ha — WRONG! It was dinky in size only, but denser than a singularity and rich, rich, rich. A little dry by nature, it was served with a whole glass dish of lemon curd for my ladling pleasure. Ogh. I think I shall never move again, my friends.
Dark wood tables, a sofa at the far end, stone vault ceilings… It’s a wrong wrong miracle that this place was relatively quiet when I appeared on a Tuesday afternoon, admittedly a little after the traditional lunchtime. I’m torn between wanting it to be as packed as it deserves to be and wanting to keep it as mine, my own, my precious, for all time. Because did I mention the free wifi? Oh, I didn’t? Well I have now.
What twig? Oh, this twig. No, no, never you mind, no, this twig is, uh, just, er, well I am definitely not building a nest here, that’s definitely not what I am doing, ahaha haha ha…

Yay first review which is surprising. Anyways really cool little café. Specializes in organic food. I believe almost everything there is organic. They even have organic beer which I will be trying next time I am there. The service is friendly and the place was packed! Had a delicious savory cheese scone that was nice and fresh along with some ginger beer that was fiery and not to sweet which i quite like. Located at the end of lothian road right at the start of princes st. I will be coming to this diamond in the rough more often especially for the healthy spread of foods and that ginger beer that opens the sinuses!

This place offers good food for vegetarians and some is vegan, both being rare in Edinburgh. It is also one of the cheaper places in Edinburgh. The staff are worth talking to, including many travellers, but as usual are under paid, so leave a tip! It is in the crypt of a church, sharing the crypt with a fair trade shop, ecumenical bookshop and peace centre. The church has murals with peace themes and a big inter-​faith festival in August during the city’s art festival.
The café lacks many windows, but the atmosphere is consistent with the conscience focussed style, as are most of the customers, though people hanging out abusing drugs in the graveyard steal the tips with apparent impunity. They are, I can reassure you, the cause of little trouble to other customers. Sometimes there are events which also reflect the political theme, and sometimes music, and in August during the city’s major festival there is a craft fair immediately outside, though the café is packed then, but a second café opens in the church hall upstairs selling similar food, also vegetarian, where there is daily live music.
There are several dishes each day but they rarely change, perhaps reflecting the fact that the café is a spin off from a more normal but also vegetarian restauraunt a few minutes walk away, which also opens in the evening. The food at St John’s is clearly very healthy and there is a wide choice of salads always available. Vegetarian haggis can be found here. I use the restaraunt a lot as I recover from a long illness, and when it opened my quality of life improved, but I still wonder why few can provide healthy food without being business people.
The café opens at 10 and closes in the afternoon at 4 in winter.