Looking Glass Books

Amazing place. Unfortunately, it’s now closed, probably forced out by inflated rent. :-(
However, I am led to believe they are seeking a new location, so I promise to update as soon as it’s announced!
Looking Glass Books is an excellent bookshop/​café, with a huge selection of fiction and non-​fiction. There are tips from the staff in some of the books, and the atmosphere is nice to walk around and browse.
The café has a variety of teas, coffees, and other hot drinks, along with cakes and cold drinks as well. I do think the prices are a bit too high, so this costs a star, but the place is great, and I have been several times.

Very cute little spot to rock up to with your laptop or indeed a book and have some chilled out alone time but with people.
I got myself a lovely pot of loose leaf peppermint tea. No teabags — big points already. Then a nice little seat next to a massive sunny window perfect for people and weather watching. Tick. A tasty little homemade cake. Perfect score.
Then there are the books. Gorgeous selection, lots with hand written recommendations which is always appreciated.
Looking at it now, there are a lot of distractions. But good ones. So maybe go with the intention of working, but just don’t bother doing the actual work!!!

This lovely little place will charm your pants off.
First things first: Their coffee is pretty good, but falls into the common trap of being a bit too bitter (better than Starbucks, but definitely not on par with the really good coffee shops), and when you order it to sit in they serve it in too-​thin glasses that aren’t solid enough to insulate the heat and don’t have handles. You might need to let your coffee cool a bit before you can stand to hold the glass. The cakes and treats, however, are absolutely to die for. They have an impressive range of them (I especially recommend the macaroons and carrot cake, but everything I’ve tried has been amazing), and they’re always well stocked. They have savoury food as well, but I haven’t tried that.
There’s a good amount of interior seating, and when the weather’s decent they have two or three tables outside as well. The indoor seating is a mix of small folding tables/​plastic chairs and adorable, colourful sofas. The sofas are great if you can get them, and the plastic chairs are reasonably comfortable, but the folding tables are a bit unstable and tend to shake a lot if you move anything around on them. It would be well worthwhile for them to invest in some better furniture.
The environment is charming as hell, and it’s a very pleasant place to hang around for a couple of hours. The bookshelves, cheerful teal walls, and colourful sofas and ottomans give the place a whimsical feeling. They host some great literary events, including story times for kids, book signings and readings, etc. There are two or three spots with power outlets, so if you can get one of them (usually not too difficult, they’re often busy but not usually packed) you can settle in with your laptop for a while. Fair warning, though, they sometimes prop the door open for air flow when there’s heavy machinery operating outside, so the noise in there can be a bit aggravating (not often, though). Also a wee note if you want to go there to work, they have free wifi, but it’s usually not working at all, and when it does work it’s extremely slow and will sometimes spontaneously log you off. I wouldn’t recommend working there unless you can do without wifi, but of the three closely-​packed coffee places in the immediate area (the other two being Starbucks and Peter’s Yard), it’s definitely the most pleasant.

Oh my! Books glorious books!
Oh my, oh my! Tea, coffee, scones to sit and chill whilst reading a book — yes please!
This little indie book shop has so much to offer in terms of books. It really has excited me to get reading again. Whilst in for a Unilocal elite I spotted loads of cool short stories to get me started and by cool publishers too.
Book shops couldn’t survive without knowledgeable and friendly staff, so this has another tick to the box of goodness! Really helpful advice about which book I should go for and really cool reviews on cards!
Its Definitely a shop I would recommend to any book worm & lover … Go on, you won’t be disappointed!

Great hang out place! Felt sophisticated and just a little intelligent being amongst all the books and chessboard tables! Very relaxing, sophisticated, chic and can’t complain when I have a delicious cupcake and pot of tea in front if me! Can’t wait to make a second visit although you have to be quick to get a comfortable seat!

This week is stressful. Final semester of university, essay, presentations and dissertation deadlines are looming and I go and book myself two trips away for the end of the month. Needless to say the last week has been intense, but I have been rewarding myself adequately by discovering a new coffee shop on a daily basis.
Looking glass books is in a convenient location for Edinburgh university students (like me) but also tucked away a little and overshadowed by the ever-​crowded Peter’s yard and Starbucks on the quarter mile. Like Peter’s yard, it is in a glass building which allows natural light to enter, a desirable quality when one lives in the north during the dark winter months…
The café doubles up as a bookshop with a tasteful selection of books. There are many plugin points for laptops, and unlike its popular and tasy neighbour Peter’s yard, Looking Glass books has wifi! Hurrah! I set up my essay-​writing camp at the back of the shop on the comfiest looking sofa and ordered a soya flat white and a slice of carrot cake. The flat white was small but good, and it can be noted that the soya milk wasn’t overheated as is so always the case in coffee shops and so didn’t curdle! Yay! I didn’t eat the carrot cake for a couple of hours, I wanted to use it to maintain a pavlovian response I have developed, whereby my subconscious knows it will get a cake reward for hard work. The cake was delicious and moist.
Towards the late afternoon the place started to get a bit chilly, so I would suggest the staff turn the heater up a bit. £5 for a coffee and cake is standard price in Edinburgh, I enjoyed using the wifi and got a substantial amount of work done. I will be back to nibble my way through more cakes.

If a shop were my spirit animal, Looking Glass Books would be a top contender (you know, with a little added splash of red and a weird circus act in the corner.)
When I moved from Canada, I had to pack up my 700+ book collection and pop it into storage. I’m not going to say it was harder then leaving family… but I just did. So gauge your interpretation from there.
I’m a bibliophile to the core and stocking up a new bookcase was top priority. In fact, I bought books before bedding — I take this s%&t seriously. So from one book nerd to another (and I know you are, because you’ve not only Unilocaled «bookstores», but you made it through my overly flowery review intro), do yourself a favour and pop into this place.
I don’t know if it’s the hodge podge of charming chairs to curl up in, or the big bay windows that scream, «ignore your emails and watch the world go by!» — but I was at home from the second I stepped in the joint.
Having the first book I saw, be the current Booker Prize Winner (I happen to be in the midst of attempting to read every winner since my year of birth)? I knew I had found my literary home.
The selection here isn’t extensive, but it is incredibly curated. Almost every book I picked up, I immediately wanted. Not to mention, the hand written notes on the covers? Brilliant. It makes the experience all the more genuine and I started following one specific hand writing around the place, because we shared similar thoughts about Life of Pie. It led me to pick up a title and an author I had never read, and after cracking that book last night — i’m already hooked.
For the true book nerd, this is heaven, and you’ll be hard pressed to make it out of the place with less then three books in tow (it makes for very expensive business lunches… but pleasant nonetheless).
If you’re a book newbie, it’s the perfect spot to start. Take a walk through the place and read the reviews — you’re bound to find something that catches your eye.
And if you’re not a book guy/​gal, you likely didn’t make it through this review. But if you’ve skimmed to the bottom, chances are you’re on a gift hunt for a book loving buddy — this place is your foolproof guide to what’s new and interesting.
Definitely one of my favourite finds so far and you’ll catch me combing the shelves here for many a day to come!

This book shop is like a dream, situated right in the middle of Quartermile. For anyone who lives around here, I am extremely jealous of but it is very close to my gym so I still get to visit it whenever I go to the gym during the day.
I was first in here for the Istanbul Review night with author Elif Shafak and I loved the feel of the place so much that I came back the next day and spent a few hours in here.
Tables that pair up as chessboards (not entirely sure how likely you are to have chess pieces but no board, unless you’re Cressi of course but she’s the CM, she’s allowed to have these kind of qualities) and comfy chairs to lose yourself in whilst sitting with a coffee and read a book is, in my opinion, heaven.
The books on offer are extremely varied and eclectic so, as Cressi has said, if you are looking for something specific then you might be best going to somewhere corporate as this is the kind of bookshop that, upon entering, you know you are going to leave with something you would never expect to buy (for me it was Elif Shafak’s «The Forty Rules of Love»)
There is one negative part of coming here and that is the fact the floor is black and white tiled «humbug» style as opposed to chequered, which eradicated my idea that, along with the chessboard tables, this would be a superb place to host Edinburgh’s first Wizard’s Chess event. With less bloodshed obviously.

Would it be too obvious to say that Looking Glass Books is… a wonderland? I think this is my spiritual home. It’s got everything I need. Chess tables. (I have pieces, but no board). Shiny floor. Books. Macarons. Wi-​Fi. WHITE HOT CHOCOLATE. The only negative part of coming here was feeling myself shrivel into a raisin of regret at not having come before.
The books on offer are varied and eclectic, so if you’re looking for something specific rather than just Looking For A Book, finding it here might be tricky. But to that end, they have a Super Fast Ordering Service so you can still avoid the foul trenches of the corporate giants if you’re not needing it in your grubby mitt right away.
Also, white hot chocolate. I’m returning to this point because it’s important. And the fluffiest, flavouriest crumbly passionfruit macaron this side of town (probably). It’s tall and igneous-​looking, not like its smooth-​shelled cousins, delicacies of Laduree so on, and bursts with flavour in your mouth in just the way a good weeny treat ought.
Oh, Looking Glass, I find a better version of myself in thee…

Off the beaten track can be a good location for punters as this place is never too busy. Books, tea, cake… what more could you want? Well, the staff are always incredibly friendly and there are regularly events in the shop to help bring you in after hours.
The coffee is considerably better than average, a small but excellent selection of teas and hot chocolates, various cold drinks and a bunch of tempting sweet treats round out a satisfying choice of things to stick in your face.
People who Know Books have often commented to me that the range on offer are remarkably up to date and often pre-​empting the next big thing. Certainly it’s nice to have books that have been chosen to be in stock for more than being big sellers, as well as being comforting to sit and chat with an army of interesting literature right next to you.

I visited this little independent book shop for the first time today, after having been wanting to go there for a while. The shop itself is tucked away beyond Starbucks on Quartermile and is much smaller than its surrounding cafes.
The place is lovely inside, with stylish furniture and colours (and a particularly lovely lamp shade). We went at about 3pm, and it was very full. After a few minutes we got a table but I reckon the sofas were the place to be, particularly as I had brought my knitting along!
The shop has a lovely selection of beautiful books as well as other literary themed bits and bobs. They also stock plenty of delicious goodies from Coco of Bruntsfield… mmmmm!
Overall I’d thoroughly recommend a visit. It is quite busy but I suppose that just shows that it’s a popular spot!

After hearing so much about this bookstore I finally went to have a coffee there with a friend. I loved the look and feel of the place. Even though it’s new looking, there’s still something very welcoming and comfortable about the place. I loved sitting at my table, being able to see all the books on the shelves. It’s very tempting to spend a fortune in there. I want to go back, soon!

One afternoon my friend and I were looking for a warm drink to heat up on a wet dreicht day. Seeing that Peter’s Yard was complete full and noisy, my friend took me to Looking Glass Books, just behind Peter’s Yard. A lovely quite, chilled coffee come book shop.
The interior is fresh, floor to ceiling glazing, quirky seats and mono colour bookshelves. There is a whole Alice and Wonderland vibe about the place. All in all a nice surprise to find hidden within the metropolis of the Quatermile!
All sounds so good, so why only 3 stars? Well, I had the urge for a real chai tea, delighted they had it, I ordered. They bought the hot drinks to out coffee table and sadly it was just a tea bag chai tea, no creamy sweetness, just a weak chai tea. I slowly drank it, wishing I had indulged in the hot chocolate my friend was sipping!
Would I go back? Of course, especially to get away from the yummy mummies and screaming kids in Peter’s Yard! I saw they do fair trade there too. Thumbs up, but alas, still on my conquest to find a real chai tea in Edinburgh!

I love this independent book shop. Tucked away inside The Quartermile, its a book lovers oasis that serves very delicious coffee & teas. There are always tasty baked treats to consume while reading and the couches in here, boy! They invite you stay and snuggle and lounge and generally keep your nose stuck in a book for many hours.
The staff are wonderfully friendly and helpful and it is a quieter, more grown up vibe than say Peter’s Yard around the corner and less student packed than the near-​by Starbucks. It is smaller in comparison to its better known neighbours but it is well worth browsing the book shelves if you cannot find a seat.
Knitting groups and the like often meet here and so there is always a nice level of chatter/​white noise and there is free wifi should you wish to work away. There is also a book club that is hosted by the shop and they always seem to be reading interesting titles.
A wonderful gem of a shop, that should be loved and support by Edinburgh locals.

Lovely bookshop with café built in. The tea is fabulous. They’re also putting on shows in the festival. And a selection of chocolates and nibbly things that will make you swoon. Cardamom and bramble chocolates, anyone?

This is a unique place, tucked away from plain sight in Edinburgh’s Quartermile. A hybrid between a coffee shop and book seller, Looking Glass straddles both experiences quite well and offers a fresh take on buying your latest read.
The selection of literature isn’t the largest, but what’s on offer is of good quality. Browsing is a pleasure as there aren’t mountains of books to get through and they’re on display with space to breathe. The non-​fiction section could use a bit of bolstering, but I appreciate that space is a little tight as a wee café has also been included in the shop’s space.
Buy a book, grab a coffee, have a read and enjoy the atmosphere. A lovely little place, indeed.

I have been randomly coming to Looking Glass after accidentally stumbling upon it via a walk through the Meadows heading from Victor Hugo t’wards another coffee chain.
The unique selling point is they are an all important indie bookstore that can make great coffee, decent service staff that have a fantastic knowledge of books contained, wifi, and its quieter on so many levels than another nearby brew chain, unless children are in — but most do behave.
A quick scan in terms of what books they stock found nothing concrete, and as heading out was asked if I was after anything in particular. It bothers me that no other bookstores do this? I expressed interest looking for technical travel books on cycling the for a future venture.
Their database held one possible but as feeling obliged to buy upon ordering, didn’t want to do this… more research is needed before I come back and buy. Oh yes while I nearly forgot to note — take cash next time as their card machine sometimes throws a hissy fit.
At the end of the day, they don’t supply a bad service, but a great big happy one with icing on top plus they have the components in place for repeat custom. One thing I did notice on searching for Looking Glass Books on internet, their namesake in the US cropped up — and it has or had a resident cat that sleeps by a fireplace.
Please oh please LGB don’t get a cat, or far worse a fireplace!

I love Looking Glass Books.
Not in the least for their decoration (think Alice in Wonderland on Tim Burton with a hint of cirque du soleil thrown in for good measure). This little bookshop with deviously placed comfortable couches, is hidden away behind a Starbucks and Peter’s Yard on Middle Meadow Walk.
If you’d like to get away from the screaming children at Peter’s Yard, and I often do, (have you seen Sinister? Yeah, my point exactly), Looking Glass Books is just your place. It’s so lovely and quiet, for a change, people seem to come here to read, browse or just catch up over a quiet tea and coffee. But there are no screeching children, this is sort of a pet-​peeve of mine, and that is so so lovely.
They also sell the chocolates from what I believe is the Chocolate Tree, which I still need to visit!
But yes, the coffees are very well done, and thought not a the standard of Artisan Roast (but I mean, who is) they are well above and beyond a Peter’s Yard. Very jummy. The baked goods are not covered during the day, which means that there’s no sneeze-​guard (I don’t quite know how I feel about that) but more importantly, it also means that the cakes are a little dried out at the end of the day, and not quite fresh. Maybe something to think about?
The staff seems absolutely lovely, and their selection of books is just, … well, bad for my budget really. But so good for my soul.
One more kind little hint towards the owners: please turn the heat up just a little. We love your place, but Robyn and me were freezing in here! Oh, and please get a latte ready, I’ll be there in ten.

Well isn’t this place just adorable!
Looking for an afternoon coffee on Saturday afternoon we were heading elsewhere when we saw the sign for Looking Glass Books. I’d heard about this place via a local knitting/​crafting group and, wanting to check out some more of the newly redeveloped Quartermile, just couldn’t resist.
Seriously, this place has such a fitting name.
Half way between bookshop and café you could lose an afternoon here. When you enter the counter on your left filled with sweet treats looks very inviting. Meanwhile to your right, pretty purple couches and transparent chairs make the place look cozy but still open and chic. The coffee is alright, could be better, and I had a cherry flapjack which was a tad sweet for my tastes, but most things are (and to be honest I just wanted the cherries, I gave the flapjack to the OH — yes I’m a child!)
What I haven’t mentioned yet are the books! Possibly the prettiest display of books I’ve ever seen. the editions they have of some classics are just gorgeous, particularly the Sense and Sensibility. I know it’s a bit odd to wax lyrical about the cover of a book but seriously, gorgeous. I think what sums up the amazing display better than I ever could were the group of 20 something year old girls who spent approximately 30 minutes with their phones out taking pictures of the displays.
It was a really nice place to spend the afternoon, and possibly my next paycheck if the OH doesn’t stop me from buying those pretty books! I’ll definitely be back.

I’ve been stumbling around the Quartermile a few times now when I’ve been working in the area and was intrigued by Looking Glass Books. I could see pretty looking books, coffee, cake and comfy chairs and it just looked so inviting.
I’ve always been a bookworm and wrecked my eyesight as a kid, trying to read whilst it was getting dark so the parents wouldn’t know I was awake. No pen lights in those days as pocket money stretched to penny mixtures, not torches and batteries, but books have remained my one true love. Sure there’s been a few disastrous dates, but then there’s the cosy dates, late nights, on the sofa with a great novel.
I finally dropped in to see what was inside the looking glass and to grab coffee between meetings. No cake as no GF versions available (I had already been to Peter’s Yard at lunch) but had I been well fed and the Nak’d bars are available. I was told there is usually a chocolate and orange GF option. For cake munchers, lovecrumbs supply cakes.
The pretty books which always caught my eye when I passed were re-​issued classics, with lovely colourful printed covers. I was drawn to the pretty pastel covers and also feeling guilty that I hadn’t read the many classics on offer. Its not just classics available but also up to date releases, history, culture and kids books too.
The store itself is a mixture. Despite being glass fronted, the mix of dark wood book shelves and jewel coloured velour sofas and chairs, interspersed with perspex chairs and tables gave it a modern but relaxed, comfortable feel. Staff were helpful and friendly but left you in peace to read.
I didn’t buy books this time, but given that the Unilocal book club is starting, I think I’ll be a regular visitor, popping in for the next book on the list or just to grab a coffee and a comfy chair and curl up with a book between meetings.