The Fruitmarket Gallery Café

Good ambience. Average food. The orange juice they advertise as «fresh» is bottled and not freshly squeezed by them upon ordering.

This café is a nice little escape from the busy train terminal. Connected to a Modern Art Gallery, this small but nice gourmet quality food. The mains can be a wee bit pricey for lunch but they are fresh, tasty and different. I popped in the other day for a wee bite and since the soup had cream in it (stupid lactose intolerance) I got the light bite of smoked salmon on soda bread with a mustard aioli and capers.
Lovely cakes and tray bakes. Good strong coffee and lose leaf teas. Great place for lunch or some tea and cake.

The Fruitmarket is conveniently located just next to the train station which means that if you have some time to kill and fancy a coffee and/​or a bite to eat, you don’t need to settle for expensive and sub-​par station food.
Our coffees were lovely, but our cakes left a bit to be desired as The Man’s carrot cake was quite dry and my orange and almond cake was swimming in frosting/​sugar drizzle and tasted nothing of almonds.
Staff were a bit funny about two people having to sit on a table for two (rather than a larger one), which I could get if it was at all busy and if we didn’t have a million bags between us, but there was only one table other than us and we ended up crammed in a corner with our bags spilling into the walkway.
Totally fine for a pre-​train coffee, but not somewhere I would come otherwise.

This little café in an art gallery has fantastic food — especially if you want something a little lighter like a sandwich or a salad. Unfortunately the service is slow, unenthusiastic, and indifferent. However the rhubarb tartlet is worth going out of your way for.

Nice place to have my final Sunday coffee before the short walk to platform 13 and the train to the daily grind in Glasgow. Nice bakes and fairly laid back atmosphere mean thoughts of the week ahead are kept at bay for a bit longer.

Excuse me whilst I take a moment… The food here is so delightfully delicious, it deserved that moment of silence.
Housed within The Fruitmarket Gallery, the Café is worth a visit (or five) in its own right. In a slightly unassuming spot beside the Dungeons, and tacked onto the back of Waverly Station, it almost feels like it’s *too* central to be this good. Normally little gems are hard to hide, they’re hidden, they are worth the extra walk outside the city centre. Right?
Well The Fruitmarket Gallery Café has it down. It’s super central, it’s a beautiful light, open space with plenty room, and the food is superb.
There’s quite a large selection, and it’s all quite ‘different’ to your usual fare. Salads, soups and sandwiches but also daily specials of which I’ve tried the cous cous stuffed peppers, the vegetarian tagine, and chickpea number. As you can see, they provide a lot of vegetarian options.
The seafood platter is also delicious. Smoked salmon, king prawns, mackerel pâté. And whilst £7.50 isn’t cheap for a normal lunch, you could easily share this, as the amount of food you get is quite spectacular.
Let me take another moment for the cakes, or more specifically, the rhubarb tart. It is apparently famed in Edinburgh for being the best rhubarb tart you can get. They display all their cakes up on the counter, all of which are drool-​worthy. I was intrigued by the little pork-​pie looking numbers, was told they were rhubarb tarts, and thought why not?! Oh my good golly, I’m so glad I did. Absolutely delicious, especially with the cream and spiced ginger on the side.
Although coffee drinkers, take note. The coffee comes in one size, and is quite small. Sad face.
This is a fantastic space, is great for business lunches, a pit-​stop for tea and cake, or somewhere to while away an afternoon solo with a book /​laptop and a decadent lunch for one. It’s one of my new favourite lunchtime spots in the city.
Rhubarbrhubarbrhubarb…