Peckham’s

On the one hand, I would say that I’m lucky that my work is just up the street from Peckham’s and I could get lunch here every day of the week if I wanted (or was paid enough). On the other hand, I’m inherently lazy these days and don’t usually leave work to get food, instead opting for canteen grub.
But, when I do get off my lazy bum and come here for a bite, I do enjoy the possibilities. They’re well stocked for local professionals with sandwiches, tubs of salads, soup, crisps, etc.
In addition to lunch food this is a nice wee deli to get cold cuts, pastas, cakes, and various dried goods which can be hard to find in other places.
But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention the impressively stocked room of booze. They have beers from all over, including North America which of course always brings a smile to my face (even if the imports tend to be the ones I don’t like!). For a while they even had my brother’s favourite gin in stock, which was absolutely impossible to find anywhere else in Edinburgh.

I love food, so much so that most of my money goes on tasty treats and all I ever have to show for my hard earned cash is a bigger dress size. My relationship with Peckham’s is bittersweet. On the one hand I love their freshly prepared salads, meals and deli selection but on the other hand always feel mad at myself when I leave here with a bag of goodies in tow, realising that I probably should be paying my phone bill with the money I’ve just spent. Oh well… it tasted good at the time.
The food here is to die for and everything is so fresh and crisp. If you’re having a dinner party or just feel like cooking a nice meal then you can’t do better than coming to Peckham’s to stock up on treats.
5 stars any day of the week!

I actually came here in a last attempt of desperation to find some good Greek ouzo for the clean Monday event (think a Greek version of shrove Tuesday but with lots of food and ouzo to start lent).
Edinburgh is filled with Greeks and every year ouzo stock drops to an all time low. Especially now that Wine shops closed down, other than the crappy stuff sold at Lidl fit more for a toilet rather than to drink, Peckhams is the only place I can find it. The other Peckhams had run out (and even suggested I buy some Italian stuff instead) but I headed here and luckily they had stocked a few extra– phew!
Note to possible Peckhams managers reading this: stock up around clean Monday– you overcharge Ouzo as it is, might as well have it for the Greeks here when demands are high!

Peckham’s is the sort of ‘shop’ where it’s totally acceptable to buy a £250 bottle of wine with your freshly made (yet somewhat stale) bread. It is considered to be a high-​end supermarket (sortof) and sells itself as serving high-​quality and fine-​food. Yes, it does sell high-​end products — as a student I was always in the ready-​meal section and there are no Asda-​Price bargains here — but to be honest, it’s a rip off. Yes the things they sell are selective and fancy, but taste just as good as similar things you’ll get in the corner shop opposite. The ready-​made meals are good, but again are on a par with those you’ll find in Tesco, a mere 2 minute walk away from this Bruntsfield branch.
My ex-​flatmate used to go down and buy cakes once a week as an indulgence, but after the first few bites would find them too rich and donate to us (thanks Rach!). They have an extensive alcohol section which is alluring, but only to those who appreciate it — aka not me.
Yes they have nice things and yes their cheeses and cakes look yummy, but is it all really necessary? It’s not a bad shop — far from it, it’s just a bit pretentious. On those grounds, therefore, it has quite a large market in Edinburgh (ha!) with all the yah’s.
The only time I would frequent Peckham’s would have been late at night (it’s open till midnight) to buy my dinner — as a student I’m not the best in the kitchen. Yes the staff are friendly and there is a nice atmosphere, but there is something quite resentful about Peckham’s which I can’t quite place. The restaurant downstairs is nice… bit dull, but nice. pleasant really. To be totally honest I have been entirely unaffected by Peckham’s, which tells me it’s not somewhere I will venture to in a hurry!

Peckhams bills itself as a Vintners, Victuallers and Restaurateur — I’ll save you the trouble of looking up the first two words, they mean ‘wine merchant’ and ‘supplier of food’ and this pretty much sums up what they do; however, the words don’t perhaps portray the fact that they sell bloody good food and bloody good wine. The deli counter at this branch in Bruntsfield is full of tasty tidbits like good quality salami and damn fine cheesecake. They also sell prepacked sandwiches (far superior to anything you could get from the Subway a few doors down) and homemade soup that’s delicious and filling. Until the recent changes in Scottish licensing law, they somehow managed to sell booze long after every other offy had closed (perhaps something to do with the restaurant downstairs?). Unfortunately the Scottish Government have put a stop to this, they still sell great wine and interesting spirits and beers, but only until 10pm these days. Meh.

Peckham & Rye is one of those stores you imagine Yah’s in their BMW X5’s come to do their shopping. In fact there is always quite a few in there, rah rah and yah yahing around the place.
The shop stocks the more upmarket brands which you commonly don’t find in the supermarkets. The kind of food you would find in Harvey Nicks food hall. They do a good selection of breads which are fresh and taste good. There is also a good selection of sandwiches, panninis, salads and soup to take away. The deli counter has very tasty looking lasagna and pasta dishes which I guess are for the more lazy among us. I imagine these Yah’s don’t have time to cook so Peckhams is the place to go. There is a good selection of cakes, the cupcakes were very elaborate and I did drool over them a little. Unfortunately I don’t think my figure would benefit if I gave into the cake counter here. There is a huge alcohol selection too so its a great one stop shop for a dinner party where you can fill your basket with fancy foods, cakes and booze.
Also, its well priced too, nothing feels too overpriced so it is actually good value for money.