Polentoni

Quite simply best café for breakfast in Edinburgh — not your usual Scottish fare but excellent Italian dishes. Beautiful omelettes, asparagus wrapped in parma ham, scrambled egg bruschetta. Decent coffee too. For lunch an incredible selection of fresh ciabattas, focaccias, saltimboccas etc filled with hams, cheeses, mushrooms etc. The cakes are tasty and varied with brownies and crumble cake a favourite. Deli counter. Very friendly service and Wi-​Fi.

I’ve been eyeing up this place for a while, but with so many other excellent lunch or cake cafés around it took a while!
I came in on a saturday around 4 to have a late lunch. I had some kind of mozzerella pancetta creation, which was amazing. Paired with a cappuchino this only came down to a fiver, so it’s excellent value!
Because I’m a European, I do like a dessert after my lunch, and I opted for the almond raspberry tart. It was very tasty, not too dry as you might expect. This place will give the Manna House a run for its money!
There is good chilled music on and some local art on the walls which i always think is cool, but if that doesn’t tick your box why not stare at the italian delicatessen, sausages and cheese on show! The staff is friendly and quick and the clientèle are mostly locals.
I’ll be back here again!

Polentoni has been on my radar for some time. I had popped in briefly before Christmas seeing all the lovely goodies on offer (I was very hungry) but the place was packed so I thought I would return another time.
Today, midweek, was a better time. I ordered a toasted porchetta sandwich (slow roasted pork belly nested on a red pepper sauce /​jam). The bread was focaccia.
Moments later, when the sandwich was brought to me, I was in food heaven. Seriously good sandwich, savoury and bit sweet at the same time (the red pepper jam) — all flavours mingled together really well. The sanwich came with some ‘good quality’ crisps on the side.
Highly recommended!

Genuinely good Italian café which now means the top of Easter Road becomes an unlikely centre of culinary and alcoholic excellence with Manna House and Cornelius within metres. Great breakfast menu — last time I had scrambled egg bruschetta with my better half having the asparagus wrapped in parma ham with poached egg. Great lunch menu too — filled rolls, mini pizza. Very pleasant service, well prepared, fresh food. Tastes great. Coffee is quality too along with fine cakes. Thoroughly recommend this delightful café.

We are so happy to have this new deli/​café in the the neighbourhood! Not only is the service friendly (and child-​friendly), the food is delicious. I’ve sampled everything from sandwiches to brownies to lovely little biscuits that go perfectly with tea or coffee. We’ve been using the place a lot this summer as the perfect spur-​of-​the-​moment picnic solution — should we make some sandwiches? Or hey, should we grab pizza slices and treats from Polentoni??? Not to mention that I had a fantastic latte from there yesterday. As the first reviewer said, welcome to the neighbourhood!

I’d been keeping an eye on Polentoni for the last couple of weeks, eagerly awaiting its opening. A new Italian deli/​cucina but a stone’s throw from my new flat? How could I not be excited?!
Well, on my way to work last week and finally, Polentoni had opened. There was no fan fare, no ‘OPEN NOW’ signs, it was just open. I browsed the breakfast and lunch menus displayed in the window and was it was decided, this was definitely a good thing. And so the very next day, on a rare weekend off together, Kip S and I ventured forth to try out our neighbourhood’s newest offering.
Sadly we were too late for breakfast, which they stop serving at 11.30am, so we had a spot of lunch instead. There’s a menu of mains, salads and sandwiches to choose from, with takeaway available. A young family were finishing up their lunch, ordering more tiny little Italian biscuits for the kids, and a number of people came in for takeaway coffee. We opted to share one of the mains, a selection of fried aubergine, squid and prawns with a garlicky dip, and ordered from the selection of savoury pastries and bites. Kip had a mushroom frittata and I had a barley risotto arancini. We were asked if we’d like these heated up, yes, and my only gripe, which I’ll happily put down to teething issues, was that they were still cold on the inside. That and arancini is always better fresh (and with rice), but hey I knew that when I ordered it! The aubergine, squid and prawns though were delicious. I could easily have eaten the portion to myself, but that would have been greedy.
Oh, and the coffees were good. There’s a really nice selection, more than just your usual latte and cappuccino. I can foresee myself popping up to grab one to takeaway most weekends.
And I forgot to mention! Polentoni is a deli, so there’s a smallish selection of meats and cheeses to buy, in addition to savoury pastries and sweet biscuits and cakes.
Welcome to the neighbourhood, we’re happy to have you!