Picnic Basket

Small shop with really good sandwiches. Ive had a couple different sandwiches and all of them have been great. Perfect place to get lunch for students — quick & cheap.

The picnic basket is one of those deli sandwich places that litter Edinburgh. Found next to the uni campus, it clearly caters for students picking up a bite to eat between lectures, and the queue is often out the door. This is because the food there is great, with a great selection of pre-​designed sarnies and a large range of ingredients to create your own.
The pre-​designed ones are very varied, with a good selection of meats, salads, cheeses and other garnishes. The breakfast one is good with egg mayo, bacon and chorizo, as is the surf and turf with a weird mix of roast beef and chilli prawns. Sounds strange but is excellent. These only cost £3 for a large as well, and considering the ingredients are good quality, is very good value. Whilst not quite as good as Bonningtons on Nicholson Street, the Picnic Basket is still one of the finer sandwich shops in Edinburgh

I avoided this place all the way through my first year as I thought it looked and sounded expensive. I was so wrong. It offers delicious sandwiches, baguettues and paninis at surprisingly reasonable prices. They have a massive range of fresh salad, meat, cheese and sauces to choose from. Further, there’s a great range of fresh bread, ranging from seeded, granary brownto soft, doughy white.
I usually go for the smoked turkey along with some lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise. This only costs about £3 along with a drink, and they’re certainly not stingy with their fillings. The staff are friendly and keen to let everyone know that their ingredients are mostly locally sourced and always fresh. I definitely recommend Picnic Basket for a tasty, cheap lunch.

Great sandwiches and home made scones. Friendly staff. The Hot ‘n’ Cool sandwich has been made here for years and has to be tried. Chicken cream cheese jalapeño and sweet chilli sauce — heavenly.

I’m always a little hesitant about sandwich places like Picnic Basket. Even though they often make a good alternative to crappy prepacked, white bread and slab o’cheese supermarket sandwiches (and for vegetarians your options are usually cheddar cheese or egg and mayonnaise), I always feel that with the same money I could buy an entire loaf of good bread, and some decent filling to last me a week,
Having said this, it is not always possible to pack your own lunch and sometimes you just don’t want to, and in those cases Picnic Basket will always make a good alternative to those aforementioned assembly line lunches. As sandwich places go, Picnic Basket is one of my favourites. Initial reservation besides I’m still often left disappointed by the quality. But Picnic Basket provides good sized, fresh wraps and sandwiches with decent produce.
The down side is that everyone knows this place is really great, especially students who traipse here from nearby George Sq at lunchtime. Getting here early means avoiding ques.

Put simply, this place ticks pretty much all the boxes on the Good Sandwich Place list…
They have a good range of predesigned sandwich fillings if you’re not feeling creative, but they’re also really patient if you want to make your own… even if you do keep changing your mind every two seconds like I usually do.
There’s the usual choice of white/​brown/​seedy/​crunchy/​soft breads to choose from as you’d expect, but the best thing is that when it’s full you’ll struggle to spend more than £3 on your work of sandwich art.
Speaking of the fillings, they order them all in fresh every day so you know you’ll never get any nasty surprises — no fizzy humus or brown lettuce like you get in other lunchtime sandwich places.
But the fact that they order it all in that same day does mean that if you go later on at lunchtime they are likely to have run out of the more popular ingredients. Also, they’re only open until 3pm-​ish so if you get the mid-​afternoon munchies then Picnic Basket will not be there to save the day. Instead, you’ll probably end up nipping across the street to Scotmid, spending the same £3 on a pre-​packed sandwich, and realising all over again just how great Picnic Basket really is.

I discovered this place purely by accident — my usual lunch stop was closed for some unknown reason and I wandered disparingly into Picnic Basket.
And frankly, I am glad I did.
Not only was it staffed by two of the nicest women ever, there is a huuuge selection of premium, high quality and fresh sandwich fillings to go with a large selection of different seeded, cheese or whole wheat breads, rolls, baguettes… The list goes on. Personally, i always have the same — the spicy chilli prawn cocktail on the brown seeded baguette. Amazing.
The trouble is that a lot of other people know how amazing this place is too — if you dont get there quick, you will be at the back of a large queue and they wont have any of your favourate filling left.

This place is crowded at around 1 especially if the weather is good. It has no seating area mind you and I have seen the que got outside. Its good quality sandwiches and wraps provided as speedily as possible from the lovely ladies. I really liked my chicken mayo combo and the bread was fresh (which makes a huge difference!). Definitely a positive alternative to subway– despite the difference in price, it is worth it!

I often go here for my lunch, and the food is always good, whether it’s a baked potato, a sandwich, or the special of the day (things like macaroni cheese/​stovies/​chilli). The staff are really friendly too. And they stock Smarties, a lunch time essential for me! (ooh, and they also do porridge).
And they’re open from some insane hour like 8am for take away coffees!

great sandwiches, friendly service. brilliant little place.

Definately the best for freshly made sandwiches, baked potatoes, toasties, salad boxes, wraps and specials in the area! There is something for everyone on the menu, so you won’t be disappointed (unless the students have arrived before you and cleaned them out)!

A great little sandwich shop for lunchtime, while i may not classify these yum homemade sandwiches/​baguettes as cheap, you won’t find the same sort of thing anywhere alse for any cheaper.
My personal favourite is probably the bacon and brie. or the chicken club sandwich, but there is a huge choice avaiable, just make sure you get there in time or there will hardly be any food left