Caffe Piccolo

Lovely little café in one of my favourite parts of Edinburgh. The waitress was so sweet and attentive and it was a cool place go sit and chill and drink coffee for a couple of hours. However I thought the soup was way too expensive for a wee café! 6 quid and it tasted pretty average to me. But very cute place.

Stopped in here for lunch. £8 for lasagna. £6 for a soup.
They are really strict about who can sit at their café, with signs EVERYWHERE saying you need to order hot food to sit down.
When I came in, a lady immediately asked me if I was ordering food… I was looking at the menu, yes, I’d like to order food.
She left and my server was much more friendly.
A bit pricey and no other pastas on the menu, but the food was good.
Nothing that would have me running back here again, but I enjoyed the food all the same.
The cakes look pretty good.

With space for max 20 people, this wee café is not great for large groups of tourists and is therefore ideal for a quiet coffee a stones throw from the thronging crowds of the grassmarket and the castle. They serve Caffe Di Canto traditional Bar Mix beans and the latte tastes good. Not too strong and lovely smooth creamy froth. Slight nuttiness in the aroma. The barista let me sniff the beans which were darkly roasted and deeply rich in character, typically Italian. I tried a bean and it was smoky and strong.
Other things of note, speciality Sicilian pastries, almond and cardamom spiced buns, plus full breakfast, toasties and bruschetta menu. Also do Italian food including pizza, focaccia, paninis, soups, and cold meat plates. Some outdoor seating. Quiet reggae music in background.

Nothing to do with little flutes — piccolo is Italian for small, which suits this Mondrian delight on the south-​eastern corner of Grassmarket perfectly. Primary coloured benches surround three sides of a table in the window, unsinkably cheerful — rather like the proprietor (who, for the sake of clarity, does not surround three sides of a table by the window). I had a delicious panini — I can’t remember precisely what was in it; bacon and some other things but they had me at bacon. It was perfectly done — fluffy yet crispy and generously filled, but not overly so. There’s a good range on the menu, from droolworthy-​sounding focaccias to a couple of really lovely soups. My partner for lunch that day had the vegetable soup and I’m told it was… brace yourselves… soup-​erb. (Thank you, thank you…)
You pick up your soft drinks from the fridge, and it’s £1.50 for a can, which you might wince at if it were a vending machine but which seems reasonable in a café. The fact that you pick them up them yourself and they’re still in a can does kind of emphasise the markup, though, despite the fact that we were later brought glasses to decant them into.
However, the touch I really liked was — oddly — paying. Apparently, they had ordered the wrong kind of card machine — one that has to plug into a telephone point instead of a wireless one — so I had to toddle on through the back door and into the kitchen to pay. Seems funny, but that little touch of character and quirk actually made it for me! I really hope they keep it that way.

When I noticed that the Blackcherry Café has closed down, and somewhere called Caffe Piccolo had opened in its place, I added it to my list for a visit. I was really pleasantly surprised by what they’ve done the place, as it’s really very smart. The influence is now strongly Italian, with some outstanding sandwiches of offer. It’s not the cheapest, but the quality is really good. I’d recommend a visit.
Overall, we said: «I thought Caffe Piccolo was really impressive. I look forward to timing my visit better, next time, so I can try their soup. If it’s as good as their sandwiches, I will be a very happy chappy.»