S Luca

Good for ice cream but the rest of their desserts are average.

S Luca is part of my soul. Ingrained from my childhood in Musselburgh, it’s staple of anyone who grew up in the area, and I know a few octogenarians that have frequented the original café pretty much all of their lives. As a result, the menu has rarely changed, bar the addition of a few new plates, and over the last ten years or so, the incorporation of more than 3 flavours (vanilla, strawberry and chocolate). Now I’m studying in Edinburgh, I took the opportunity to visit the Morningside café, thinking this might be a bit more of a highbrow experience.
What you get, in terms of dependability, is a completely faitherful version of the Musselburgh café. What did you expect Catriona? Welll… I thought it might try to be a bit different, perhaps a more modern menu, but no. Savoury options are trapped in the last century, and my baked potato was an odd combination of burnt bottom, and slightly raw inside. Salad is iceberg, a slice of tomato, one layer of a slice of onion (not even a whole slice) and a spoon of coleslaw. I do wonder if Luca’s will continue, stubbornly on, refusing to change an iota of their setup onwards to the next century. Although I retain affection for what is decent ice cream, I do waiver for lunch options, as there are many better options out there, and I’m slightly disappointed that Morningside Luca’s was reliable in it’s predictability, I had hoped it might be slightly different.

This place is the best. It’s open until 10pm in the summer which means you can make it a nice little reward after achieving your 10,000 steps.
My favourite flavours:
— toffee fudgie wudgie
— banoffee
— ny like cheesecake
And my new favourite (which they had on offer last night): very berry pavlova.
It’s generally busy in the evenings but it won’t take long to get served. There is a nice bench across the road at the Eric Liddell centre where you can sit and enjoy your ice cream.
They also sell chocolates and candy. Good for gifts!
Staff are friendly too!

This is a great ice cream shop and always busy, there’s always a line to get served so a little patience is needed but it’s worth the wait. The flavours are delicious, esp the rhubarb!

lucas is my favourite ever ice cream place! They have a huge range of ice creams, my favourites that i would reccomend are irn bru sorbet, rasperry sorbet, bubbleguk sorbet, mint choc chip, nutella, and chocolate. Its reasonably priced for such good quality! Theres also tubs you can buy of the ice cream in the freezer that come in different sizes to take home, and there is sweets everywhere to pick from, including jelly bellys which are really nice! They also do a huge vary of truffles!
There is a small sit in area downstairs and if your in for a bit more than ice cream you can pop upstaires for a seat! Upstaires you can get chips etc, as well as ice cream and a bigger vary of puddings, ex. Pancakes and icecream, ice cream sundaes, etc. Its all lovely & i really reccomend you try this place

I love the ice cream here!
Great place with nice chocolates and really nice ice cream.
On a nice sunny day, this place is perfect to get a cool dessert and go for a walk in Morningside and the meadows.
Enjoy!

We craved an ice cream; a perfect pairing with the beautiful sunny day that it was. And so, we headed to S Luca. The queue flowed out the door but the staff worked through it with ease and speed. No sooner had we reached the counter. It was so busy that I hadn’t been able to sneak a peek of the flavours until that point. They all looked delicious; Nutella, Peach, Lemon Sorbet, Key Lime Cheesecake…
I surprised myself in going for their vanilla. — It just looked so scrumptious! 99 cones were just what we needed to cool down from the heat. We headed out to the sunshine and… They were gone in minutes! So very delicious and creamy and mmmm… Vanilla ice cream perfection.
S Luca is quite the ice cream parlour, but forget luxury prices. The prices were extremely reasonable. Service was fast and friendly too.
I know I can rely on S Luca for ice cream in Edinburgh!

If you just want a cone of ice cream, i literally can’t praise luca’s ice cream enough. it is of the highest quality! There is a restaurant upstairs here too which is totally cheap and cheerful (mostly) but i’m not such a big fan of it there. Thankfully though the ice cream is incredible, which i think is the important thing given that it’s their thing.

I love ice cream and was really eager to try S Luca’s ice cream that I had heard so much about. When we arrived on a Saturday afternoon, there were long queues for the take-​away treats downstairs but we headed upstairs to find seats. We should have known this would be packed as well, especially with boisterous and sugar-​filled kids with lots of newly found energy. We waited patiently for a table to open up and were seated within a few minutes. My chocolate and pistachio ice creams were good, but they didn’t blow me away.
Besides the okay-it’s-good-but-not-amazing ice cream, the whole experience was a bit lacking in my view. The servers seemed overly-​busy and lacked a sense of genuine friendliness. The place was clean and the old-​fashioned ice cream bar feel provided good ambiance, but the rowdy kids and sheer noise of the place got to me. We could hardly hear each other, which never bodes well. I’d go back to S Luca for the ice cream, but perhaps next time I’d just do take-​away and enjoy it while strolling through Morningside for better ambiance.

When announcing I was coeliac the waitress was able to tell me straight away that a couple of the ice creams were OK but she’d get the manager to come over to chat through the choices. Manager duly arrived with a folder full of all their products, with all ingredients listed, so it was incredibly easy. Vanilla, strawberry and Nutella ice creams are OK, chocolate is not as they add drinking chocolate powder.
The rest of the service was superb, and the place was buzzing for a Sunday afternoon.

I want to like S Luca more than I do. I keep trying, but I just … fail.
I’ve had ice cream from here a number of times and so often I get really excited and then I try it and I’m reminded that I didn’t really like it last time either.
The other day the glorious sunshine and heat caused me to require icey creamy goodness so a couple of us headed out to Luca’s. I got cookies and cream and mint chocolate chip. The mint chip was reeeeeeeeeeally tasty, I was well pleased about that, but the cookies & cream was a bit grainy and just didn’t taste very nice to me.
Additionally every time I come here I really want a sorbet, but they seem to very rarely have standard sorbet flavours. The other day they had Irn Bru (??), vimto (???), and mango. What’s with the soda flavours?
Additionally, every christmas The Man gets me a box of chocolate from here. I don’t have the heart to tell him I really really really really don’t like their chocolates, and he ends up benefitting in the end as I get him to eat most of them. They have the same odd flavour that I found in the cookies & cream ice cream… maybe it’s the vanilla they use?
So, I know that this totally puts me apart from the Luca’s loving crowd but in my opinion if you’re looking for good chocolate and ice cream in Bruntsfield, The Chocolate Tree is absolutely the way forward.

Amazing ice-​cream — 3 scoops is £2.35 to take out and is very busy on a sunny day (there was still a queue at 8.50pm last night). I tried the irn-​bru sorbet (amazing!), fudgy-​wudgy (gorgeous sweet fudge and toffee bits), and strawberry (real bits of fruit).
Ice-​cream sundaes are impressive and good value (typically under £5) but make sure you are hungry when ordering as you feel guilty if you cannot finish it!
You can sit in upstairs in Luca’s. The menu is basic (pannini’s, burgers, pizzas) but prices aren’t over the top. Gluten Free chioces are more limited but if like me, cheesy nacho’s are your fall back then a decent portion with salsa, guacamole and sour cream is only £3.80
Also– — if retro sweets are your bag, Luca’s has an awesome selection :-D !

Wow S Luca sell the best ice cream i’ve tasted, especially their nutella flavour!
Yum yum yum!
You won’t regret searching out this shop! :)

This little shop is amazing, and they definitely sell the best ice cream that i’ve found in Edinburgh so far.
The portions for the price are totally reasonable for the quality (two scoops of gelato for £1.70? I dig it!) I got a scoop each of nutella and vanilla, and I was beyond pleased. Probably some of the best, if not THE best ice cream I’ve ever had the pleasure of wolfing down. I’ll be sure to buy a liter to take home with me next time I pop in.
They also have an array of adorable handmade chocolates that I’ll have to come back for to give as a gift to someone!

I have yet to find a better ice cream shop in Edinburgh. It seems a lot better and real when compared to the big chains. The staff seem nice, allowing you to taste your flavour if you like before buying. This is always helpful for me as I am a little bit indecisive! As a huge fan of Bananas, I discovered their Banoffee ice cream. Oh man. I don’t think i’d need to try any others. LOVE!
They also sell other chocolates and yummy things. But I will always choose gelato over chocolate! I’d suggest going if you have a craving, enough choices to find one you like!

The founder of this icecream/​chocolatier/​candy store had a name I didn’t even bother memorizing, so wisely changed it to the more easily remembered S Luca. Another Italian establishment (where are they all coming from?!) this shop is primarily an ice cream store and has quite an extensive variety. Being a more traditional gal, I’ve had the vanilla flavour on several occasions and tried some others as well; it’s definitely the yummy stuff!
If carefully tasting your way through every ice cream flavour isn’t enough for you, they also sell realllllly fancy chocolate right next to the ice cream counter and just by the entrance is a further candy counter; apparently they’re «everyones’ favourite childhood sweets» but having grown up in Nigeria, it’s obviously some one else’s childhood they they’re talking about.
My next plan of attack is to venture upstairs and visit their café! That’s if I haven’t succumbed to sugar shock by the name I make it there.

I’m not really into ice cream as much as some people but this place is seriously good. It’s on two floors with an ice cream parlour on the ground floor and a café above it. I came here with two friends and we sat upstairs after about a ten minute wait for a table — testament to how popular the gelataria is. The menu had the normal flavours of ice cream like vanilla, strawberry, chocolate but also more exotic ones like champagne and kiwi fruit.
They let you choose either three or five scoops of any flavour of your choice and there’s all kinds of sauces on offer to go with it. It costs about £4 and the scoops which they give you are a decent size which are the perfect antidote to a heat of a warm summer’s day.
As a café it’s very pricey and I would only really recommend coming here for the ice cream which is definitely its major selling point.

I. Am. In. Love. With. This. Place.
Quite frankly, if you walk out of this place and don’t also feel the same then there’s something wrong with your eyes and tastebuds.
This chocolateria and gelateria used to be on my route to the nearby supermarket, which invariably meant I’d have much less money for boring things like groceries by the time I eventually got to Tesco! You can get a takeaway cone or tub, but I challenge you to step inside, see the home-​made confectionery counter full of sweets, cakes and handmade chocolates and truffles, and still have the self-​restraint to order your take-​away and walk out.
Instead, you’ll probably end up spotting the menu, and before you know it you’ll be ordering a cappuccino and slab of home-​made cake. Yes, they do savoury stuff like sandwiches, home-​made pizzas, soups and lasagnes in all their cafés, but why bother with sensible food when you’re surrounded by all that sugary goodness?!
It’s true, the Morningside branch isn’t quite as big as the original in Musselburgh and so doesn’t stock quite as big a selection to choose from, but I guarantee you won’t leave feeling hungry.

My university is based in Musselburgh where S. Luca originates and is an institution. I have visited S. Luca many a time and it never fails to impress. The Morningside location is just as great as its original.
We visited the café for lunch and the menu is great. The menu includes sandwiches, paninis, fish and chips, and a wide range of specials. I went for the Chicken, Mozzarella and Guacamole panini. Despite the fact the Guacamole was store bought (it really isn’t that hard to make at home), it was lovely. My boyfriend had the Club Sandwich which he really enjoyed. Basically it is everything you would expect from a café.
But it isn’t the café you come to S. Luca for.
The ice cream is what its all about. I could spend forever in here sampling the different flavours and sundaes. They have your standard Chocolate, Strawberry, Mint Choc Chip as well as Coffee, Toffee, Irn Bru Sorbet, Vimto Sorbet and many more. My personal favourite is Toffee Fudgy Wudgy. Yeh try asking for that with a straight face! The ice cream is homemade and really is fantastic. I recommend eating in the café first and if it is a nice day, go downstairs and get your cone to take away.
Downstairs also has an amazing selection of chocolates which will leave you drooling all over the glass.
Also you can buy tubs of ice cream to take away. Which after sampling their delicious ice cream, you probably will do.

During my week-​long vacation in Edinburgh I spent the first few days and nights in romantic bliss, but then my companion-​in-​intimacy had to leave town a couple days before me – I needed immediate and immense comforting, and S Luca provided just that (in spades).
Irn-​Bru sorbet — HOLY COW, I came back three times to enjoy it… It’s fizzy, it’s ginger, it’s phenomenal… Also I enjoyed something called the «Knickerbocker Glory» which was a little overwhelming (I’m not really a sweets person, and it’s pretty much an encyclopedia of sugar’s varieties and manifestations) but still pretty damn good.