Loudons Cafe & Bakery

They have the best carrot cake in Edinburgh. Reliable place for coffee and brunch. They also have a good selection of cakes. It’s spacious and the ambience is relaxed. A great place to catch up with friends or read a book.

First visit to Edinburgh and was recommended to go to Loudons as a member of our group requires gluten free options, well upon first arriving at this place we found a great hip and moving café mostly full with a very short wait for a table. Staff where very supportive and helpful all friendly and wearing smiles. Food was excellent, large plates for the value and excellent drinks available, tee’s, juice, coffees and other drinks. Meal options were plentiful especially for the gluten free member of the group and the staff were even more helpful in dodging around any possible issues and recommending options. Would recommend to visit this place for anyone in Edinburgh, locals and tourists alike. I will be back when I return to Edinburgh. Thanks Loudons team for a full great experience.

A great place to drop in, though try not to be on a diet. Lunch is amazing, and even though they have a small menu they seem to be able to cater to almost any dietary restrictions. Well worth checking out:)

I first visited Loudons back in the Summer & recently came again last week based upon that 1^st visit here being really positive. When we first stumbled upon this place & it was a sight for sore, tired, hungry eyes (can eyes get hungry? According to Eric Carmen they can!). We’d been searching for a place to eat breakfast/​brunch for what seemed like AGES & when I spotted Loudons it was like an Oasis in the desert of Fountainbridge, by that I mean it was a total DELIGHT, not an Indie lad band from Manchester.
If I had to compare Loudons to a furniture shop (as you do) I would say it’s like an alternative IKEA ~ lots of pale woods (oak/​pine), funky furniture, a bright, spacious, airy yet still homely feel and nice cakes. No hotdogs though. As well as being a café they also have an artisan bakery on site & you can buy the doughy wares here alongside other foods, drinks, teapots and sock monkeys, yep, sock monkeys!
Having only been here twice and both times for Brunch I can only comment on the Brunch menu and what a mighty fine Brunch/​Breakfast menu it is! I’ve had both the Eggs ‘how-​you-​like-​them’ with Toasted, Handmade Bread (very good) and the Eggs Benedict with Avocado & Bacon (very good also). Glasgow’s own Elizabeth F had their French Toast with Maple Syrup & Bacon & the lovely Edinburgh Unilocaler Caz H had the American Style Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Bacon & Banana ~ both looked amazingly good! The coffee here is also really nice ~ it’s provided by the Artisan Roast dudes & prepared lovingly by the lovely Loudons baristas. The 1^st time I came I ordered a soya Flat White twice and both came with cute little faces in them! :-) Such a sweet touch. Last time I had as well as a soya FW a soya Mocha too which was really tasty; a good strong, Mocha with just the right amount of chocolate. Delicious.
The cakes here are all handmade on site & vary every day/​week. I had one on my first visit & it was really nice; moist & flavoursome. Didn’t get an opportunity last time but some cakes I noted were a really tasty looking Carrot Cake, a Gluten Free Almond & Orange cake, some super schexy looking Brownies, some vegan/​diary-​free cakes and loooaaads more… I should’ve made notes!
Staff here are super friendly and service is fairly swift without feeling rushed. They also have free Wi-​Fi and a lot of their food/​drinks here can be bought to Take Away also. They apparently have a loyalty card here also which if I lived closer I would definitely partake in.
When I’m ever in need of a super fly Brunch/​Breakfast or just a decent coffee & cake when I’m in Edinburgh I will make sure I visit Loudons again. BOOYAKA!

I’m a connoisseur of French toast — no matter where in the world I go, if there is French toast on the menu — it’s my order. The French toast here was a bit crunchier on the outside than I’ve ever experienced — that first bite was a bit concerning. Until the warm soft center broke through on my palette. Heaven. The combination of crunchy outside and soft inside — covered in a light but sweet maple syrup — made for a perfect bulwark against the cold wind blowing through Edinburgh. Add on a delicious soy mocha — perfect temp for drinking as soon as it hit the table — and I had no desire to push back and continue my explorations for the day. Alas, I had to leave and step outside and the staff offered a hearty thanks & goodbye. The service was top notch — friendly, helpful, but not annoying while I was dutifully catching up on email. If you’ve got a bigger group — prepare to wait a bit as it was really busy around noon on a Sunday. It’s well worth the wait — great food, friendly service, and a satisfied feeling of comfort that only a great plate of French toast can bring!

Favorite place in Edinburgh. Food is delicious and super fresh. Also very vegan and vegetarian friendly.

I like it, but…
I’ve been to Loudons a few times, though my visit on Sunday was my first in about 2 years.
I like it, it’s light, bright and airy and you don’t feel too close to the neighbouring tables. They have a nice selection of loose leaf tea, served in a teapot which is always a winner for me.
However, there isn’t much atmosphere, the tables and chairs don’t encourage you to stay for long — unless you’ve managed to grab a sofa, and even then, that’s a rarity as they’re often filled with clambering toddlers!
The selection of cakes has vastly reduced, gone are the large tables as you go in, struggling under the weight of all the cakes. Now there’s a reasonable selection at the till, but nowhere near as many as there used to be.
For the area, it’s a nice café and I’m glad it’s still there, but I think I’d be inclined to walk a bit further and find something a little more cozy.

Great place on Sunday morning for a healthy brunch. After eating fat burgers for days it felt great to have some fresh food. I ordered a fresh squeezed orange juice and scrambled eggs with Scottish salmon. This little café was recommended by the Lonely Planet as one of the best in the city. I didn’t stay long enough to confirm it but I haven’t seen many places like this around. There was a buffet with homemade cakes which looked very appealing and I tried the coffee/​walnut one, delicious as the rest. I enjoyed it a lot!

Sad to say this place has dropped … Went here a few times last year and really enjoyed it! Tasty food and great deserts!
Really the deserts are what make this place stand out because there are gluten free and dairy free options and their all tasty.
And while the desserts are still good the place has gone down … They now seat you, instead of the more informal café feel it had before… Which could seem good but their table service isn’t very good and takes forever!
I had an 40 for lunch and was only getting a latte when I met my husband there on a thur. Between being seated, order taken and then us reminding them, it took the whole time. When they finally brought me my latte after 30 min it wasn’t even soya !! My husbands lunch still hadn’t show up either. I had to leave and the serve rushed to make me a latte and told him it was too late he gave it to me for free and somehow it only took 3 min! Crazy :/​I left my husband and he had to remind the server again of his order which also seemed to have been forgotten… He waited 45 min from order time for his meal,
Which they gave him for free as well… I feel like it was nice they gave the meal for free but really if they hadn’t that would have dropped them to one star…
Such a shame they changed to table service I think the countered service worked better for them.
I double I’ll be back, even if their cakes are delicious it’s not worth the hassle.

I’m not sure where my other reviews for this place went… but I used to like this place, A LOT. Sadly not so much anymore. The eggs benedict used to be made with this delicious piece if ham now you can choose from dry over-​cooked pulled pork, salmon or bacon. Why they got rid of the ham I will never understand.
I am also very annoyed with this new table service. I was told to sit down and I could see a waitress walking around but she kept forgetting about me so I went up to the cashier and ordered. I sat back down and was expecting my drink to arrive yet, no drink. Got back up after 10 minutes and went straight to the barista. All in all very annoying, waiting around to see if I would be noticed. The waitress came over to me 0 times.
What a disappointing experience. Also in my last experience my eggs benedict were dry. I would have let someone know if anyone bothered to come and ask. I’m only giving them 2 stars because I’m hopeful that next time it’ll be better.

What happened to Loudons? The magical place with the scrumptious cakes and tasty meals with the queue out the door seems not only to have lost it’s charm but it’s good service as well. Mind you, they’re cakes are still some of the best around.
Sometime in the last year they switched from picking out your food and ordering at the till to, now, waiting on a server to take you to a table. I’m not sure exactly how, but this has effected the dynamics of the café’s atmosphere in a profound way. On my last visit the place was nowhere near full, where in the past I often had trouble finding a table.
I have been here twice in the past month and have had long waits for my food and drinks. In fact, the most recent one took about 20 minutes for our drinks (while getting one of the orders wrong) and 40 minutes (give or take) for my food. The impression I was left with was that the waiter had forgotten to put our orders in on both counts. I had to remind him to bring our drinks after the first long wait. Then 20 minutes later I had to remind him of my food order to his seeming dismay that I had yet to receive it.
From now on, if I actually call by again for convenience, I’ll just be here to get some of their yummy food to take away.
Loudons, you really need to get it together. You once were one of my favourites.

This was my first time at Loudons and I was very excited to try the vegan (and glutenfree) pancakes from their breakfast menu. In fact, I am not in Edinburgh often and had made a special trip for these pancakes! My friend was very impressed by them, I feel a little bit picky in that I would have liked them if they were a bit thicker and fluffier. However, I suspect that making them vegan AND gluten free allows them to have a regular breakfast item which is suitable for box-​ticking a whole host of dietary requirements, which I think is fantastic. Also, I get far far more excited at this option than what is the usual vegan-​friendly breakfast option (if there is one!) of museli or porridge.
For £6.95 you got three small pancakes topped with banana, strawberry, and maple syrup. On informing the waitress we were vegan she also told us they had vegan chocolate cake available, too. I love when wait staff can give me one or two other recommendations without me having to ask.
My friend asked for a veggie sausage on the side of her pancake, which was added for an extra £1. I also had an iced coffee with soy milk. The place has a nice, bright open interior and we had a great spot in the sun at a window table.
I had a skim through the rest of the menu and they have a salad and a veggie burger and veggie breakfast which I presume could easy be veganised, if not already vegan, but there isn’t any dietary info on the menu. My one little slight on the experience was when I went to pay the bill and they had charged me for a jug of extra maple syrup, which had been given to me but I definitely had not asked for it and thought it was just an accompaniment to the dish. But when I queried it the waitress quickly amended the bill and it was all fine.

Rather a difficult place to heat one feels, what with the large windows and fairly high ceiling. Pretty decent service though and a varied range of seating options.
Only indulged in coffee & cake (of the vegan chocolate variety which was a bit dry so quite happy to remain a meat eater for the time being) but would go back for at least the same scenario if in the area.

This is a must for the full breakfast was amazing the staff really polite and helpful the range in this bakery /​café is of the highest quality. So much choice it’s difficult to not stay here and eat all day .
A gem of a find in this city.

Layout of cakes upon cakes stop you mid-​entry, while eyes glaze over and I forget I want a seat.
Definitely going for a cake. Got a cake. Good cake.
Latte macchiato, not so much.
Its the type with just a ‘coffee mark’ on top instead of an actual shot of espresso layered over the heated milk.
Result: A pleasantly nutty mug of warmed milk with a coffee scent.
My conclusion: Not sucha happy camper. Its not like they were skimping on the coffee or that I should’ve ordered a more caffeinated drink. but a latte macchiato with no actual coffee! Coffee speak interpretation denied.
Clean, spacious, mindful service.
From other reviews, their actual coffees sound promising.
But when I do go again, staying clear away from any «lattes» OR «macchiatos!

I love buildings with lots of huge windows — who doesn’t? Loudons is tucked away in Fountainbridge (opposite the disused Bingo Hall, yet to be a Wetherspoons), and it wasn’t really til I ended up there that I realised it was a place that you either had to be in the area for, or really wanted to go to. Lucky me, I was a little bit of both.
It was pretty busy — and as other reviewers have commented, popular with young families for meeting and a-​greeting.
I was in for a post-​interview cup of tea to ease my drouth, and felt it was necessary to also sample some of their goods (so I could write a half decent review of course). It took a little while to get seated, as it was a busy Thursday lunchtime, to the point where I felt I could have just grabbed a cake from the cake table in front of me and made a run for it and no-​one would have noticed. I would note, paying was also a little slow as well and difficult to get anyone’s attention when everyone’s backs are turned.
Eventually service came and I headed to my table, where I tucked into an apple and cinammon tea (what works better in winter than fruit and spice?) and their vegetable soup of the day, which was a cheeky sweet potato, chilli and lime. The lime, versus a more traditional coconut, was a fab change from the norm for me with chunks of lime rind peppering a very nippy soup. Served with homemade bread, which had the chewiness of homemade bread (unlike other restaurants, half baked baguettes chucked in the oven doth not make it homemade) but happily none of the heaviness of my own halfassed attempts.
It looked like you could just help yourself to cake, but as I was out again in the evening, decided to forgo. It was a touch decision, the cakes did look good, but I had to be semi-​good to my ever increasing waistline.
Loudons, I’ll be back again, when I work in the area, so take this not as a goodbye for now, but a I’ll see you soon. With cake.

4 stars for a lovely «traditional» (albeit the veggie version) of a Scottish breakfast. No qualms about that!
3 stars for being apparently forgotten by the staff a wee bit – hey, it was a busy day for them, so I can understand. But damned if it didn’t take us at least 10 – 15 minutes to manage to even catch someone’s eye for the ticket. As an American that’s something I’ve had to get used to over here, but even this was more than the norm.
Still, a lovely place for meeting friends over coffee or tea.

I would have chosen a half star below, but why be so quasi about it. The people are great, and that counts for the extra half star in the upward mobility direction. A friend brought me here for breakfast, which was a very small selection of extremely unexciting options: rolls, granola, and eggs with bacon. After a pause to turn the page over, hoping for more, I settled on the eggs and bacon.
The surprise came when the owner’s son/​waiter told me they had gf bread. And the biggest surprise came when that bread turned out to be the most amazing, crisp, fulfilling gf breads I’ve had the delight to devour. Though you may argue that the amount of butter I put on my bread would surely make it agreeable no matter what, I assure you, I put that much butter on all the time and I could still tell that this was the best. I told my smiley waiter to pass on my compliments to his german baker (he gave me those details, I didn’t know they by osmosis, or from a peculiar grain in the bread that only comes from germany and only german bakers are allowed to use it).
I didn’t have coffee here, having already had an espresso, but my friend told me his was great.
The space is very open, lots of floor-​to-​ceiling windows, with some couches to relax on. They DO NOT have wifi, probably to keep turning people over, as it is crazy busy.
Also– their display of cakes and scones was beautiful, and though being gf I couldn’t eat any, there was a general flutter around the dessert table the whole time we were there, so they must be scrumptions.

I am currently sitting in Loudons thinking about how dry and tasteless the vegan banana and chocolate bread I am eating is. It cost 3.20 pounds, a price I really cannot justify.
The interior, as previously mentioned, seems straight out of an ikea catalogue, which for me makes it kind of sterile.
I cannot concentrate on my book as this place is full of children, lots of cutlery is clattering and doors are slamming.
The staff are friendly and attentive, but I will not be returning to this café in a hurry.

A bit pricey but I love Loudons’ £8 salmon egg benedict! Absolutely scrumptious! And their cappuccino was also excellent but you pay for the qualilty… not a cheap place for sure even though from the outside it looks inexpensive. The space is modern, bright, and very Ikea fresh. It’s a nice place to have a brunch on a lazy weekend.