The Forest

So I had a good hour to kill before a play (OK, a musical) in the nearby King theatre, and I was tired of walking all day. I literally couldn’t find any café which is still open on a Saturday at 18 (never happened to me before, even in East European capitals). Anywho, was a bit desperate and not at all picky, which should be the new name of this café if you ask me. You should go and order but they will bring your food to you (after a while, and without cutlery). I had a soy hot chocolate and a vegan date pie. Paid £3.8 which is OK I guess although I had better chocolates and pies before. The service was OK– waitress wasn’t super nice, wifi was down. As I said, low expectations and a bit of desoair is key here. Looks and feels incredible hippie, hipster and other words used to descibe semi dirty low quality food and drinks in a one-​small-​lamp-​for-​an-​enrite-​place Institute. Noticed people leaving food, toys, books etc. here as donations, that’s nice, though I’ve seen about 20 homeless people in Edinburgh today, so why not just give it to them rather than to hipsters/​students/​hippies?

Been here many times to get some lunch. Falafel meal is nice, vegan chilli is great, a variety of food. Really love the place although sometimes the wait can be a tad long. Really hope it’ll last a long time, and maybe even expand. The décor and furniture are colourful and cosy, plus sometimes there’s free bread. Looking forward to the many times I’ll be back :)

First time visiting in this location and found it to be as cheap and cheerful as expected. People seemed oddly fascinated by a Dansette record player but otherwise all pretty normal. When coffee’s this tasty you don’t need it tarted up.

This place is hipster as fuck. If you’ve got dreadlocks you’ll literally never leave. It’s your new home.
The food is ok, the internet is slow. The tea is good. They do a fucking incredible job of boiling water here. I don’t think I can handle how good they are at boiling water, they’re like hot water maestros.
I’d stay longer if the internet is faster. I bet somebody was torrenting on that ironic imac they’ve got kicking around. True hippies use linux and emacs you silly dreadlocked barbarians! This place is like what would happen if Richard Stallman had a baby with starbucks. I think I’ll call this place «Stallman’s dirty hippy forest» from now on.
It’s pretty good overall though, the people are super nice.

Nice idea, poor execution. I like the idea of a volunteer run, enviro focused place, however there are some basic café requirements people tend to look for:
–Good coffee
–Reliable wifi
–Space to work/​lounge.
Forest is trying on points 2&3 but does not hit the mark on any.

It’s clear that the earnest-​feeling Forest Café is trying to do something different and meaningful, and for that I want to support them. And yet I don’t particularly want to return.
This is one of those funky hip cafes with «freeshop» shelves of books, board games, boxes of knitting supplies, that sort of thing; lots of mismatched wooden chairs and stools, handpainted creaky tables, slightly torn throw pillows. And I see the appeal of Forest Café in principle. The problem? It’s run by well-​intentioned volunteers who don’t actually seem to know how to run a café. The food just isn’t very good and the service is terribly slow. I had a reasonably priced (I think around £5.50) bean burrito, which was enormous and came heaped with a couple of side salads. It was pretty bland.
Other issues? Besides the very slow service, you need to bus your own dishes, which always annoys me. There’s not enough light to read comfortably, which certainly is a design flaw considering their seeming target demographic of environmentally-​conscious students, and the entire place is just a bit grimy. The coffee isn’t great. Nothing too objectionable, but I won’t be returning.

I have been here a couple of times and each time have felt right at home! I loved the whole vibe of the place, reminiscent of places I used to go to in California (bay area.)
I also love supporting a non profit vegan/​vegetarian café. Its artsy, experimental and the food is really tasty! We hung out in it for a good while at lunch today, my toddler completely at home dancing around to depeche mode. The funky ambiance, toys, games, free boxes full of clothes, random objects. I loved that the guy next to us was creating this glittery poster and glueing together a wee ceramic duck.
The space is just so open and embracing to whatever you may need. You have the guy doing the art next to the dude on his laptop doing his thing and us doing our thing all at the same time in complete harmony. I really enjoy these types of places and feel sad that there arent more of them.

Great community here– they host all kinds of activities from documentary film releases, to inky fingers writing groups, to whatever people want to share with others. Just sitting there for any fingers to fondle are three typewriters, glinting with invitation to let the mechanical sound remind the writer how much machination goes into their own work.
I had a drip coffee, which was eh, but I hear the food is nice. They happened to be making a soup and cutting onions, which I am allergic to, so my eyes were burning and I could not keep them open. I don’t usually like to cry in public, but this was unavoidable, as my eyes were running trying to get the noxious fumes out.
It is also run by volunteers, so thank to the lovely folks who make this possible!

I had a Mexican Chai coffee when I visited the new Tollcross-​located Forest Café for the first time. And it did work. It was really tasty actually, and just the milky-​sugary hit I was looking for at the time.
What I do like about Forest Café is that you never know quite what to expect when you arrive — the people hanging out here are and always have been a distinct bunch, and it does always feel chilled — and actually, every time I’ve been here I’ve got quite a bit of quality writing done, which must mean its artistic leanings have prodded my procrastinating typing fingers into action somehow. It’s good to be in an environment where you feel like (almost) anything goes in terms of what kind of a person you are and where your interests lie.
I think it might just need a bit of time to grow into itself (much like a blossoming forest… meh…) and to develop more of a buzzing atmos. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time to find a banter balance that works, and I’m sure (and I hope) that’ll happen, because I do like it here. I will return for more sweet Mexican goodness soon.

‘If you turned lesbian, I’d turn lesbian too.’ The tone was set by the band’s opening line at the Forest Café. It’s all a little strange. And quirky. And hipster. I am partial to all these things. On Valentine’s day they have ‘My heart goes boom, boom, ribbit, ribbit — love for frogs.’ It said so on a poster. I have no idea what this entails but it sure adds to the mystery that the Forest Café exudes. I think I’d quite like to sit here with a tea when I’m in Edinburgh. It’s all very creative and artsy. But 3 stars because the service was exceptionally slow and I think the live music (if as silly as it was when i was there!) may have you wishing for a quieter spot to drink and chat.

We headed here on Sunday as, since it’s opening, we’d wanted to check out the new incarnation.
I was a fan of the old Forest Café for free gigs and somewhere to bring cans from Tesco (I’m mad classy, I may have mentioned this before…) My first year here, I popped in and out but never really became a ‘local’.
I have no intention of becoming a ‘local’ to this incarnation… first off because I think I’ve outgrown it but also…
It’s cold! Oh so cold! Granted, I was near the door, but brrrr! Concrete, linoleum (I think) and giant windows do not suit Edinburgh. Speaking of linoleum, the floors were dirty which I could deal with if it didn’t look like weeks worth of dust. The staff were friendly but, and I’m going to sound awful here, the service was bad. we ordered a tea and a coffee and were told it would be brought over to us. The drinks arrived, no milk or sugar in sight so we go back up, with our drinks, to get the essentials. There weren’t too many in when we went so I couldn’t really get a feel for what it would be like on a Friday night.
If this was anywhere but the Forest Café it would be one star. No question… but…I like the idea. I like the 65p to come drink your own cider in a place that isn’t your living room. I like the local drama workshops. I like the free space for artistic expression. I think it’s necessary to have a place like this. Also, I think they’ve learned a few lessons from the last place and the running of things has slightly improved. Based on those points I think Forest Café deserves a bit of leeway…
I want this place to work! I really do, but I think the volunteers maybe need to step up their game a bit and have more pride in what their doing… just the opinion of a rambling mad-​woman though…

Only after seeing Peter S’s review pop-​up on my feed was I reminded of the Forest Café, and also of how little I genuinely liked it.
I love the idea of it. And I tried to like the old one (near Bristo Square). But at that one I ordered a falafel salad. The falafel was so dry I had to order coke to go with it (I never drink coke), but then as one of the servers walked by she knudged by coke with her hip and it spilled into my falafel salad. She just looked behind her, muttered «oh oops» and didn’t offer anything, even help to clean it up, let alone more dry falafel.
So with that memory of the old Forest Café as the only comparison point I had for the new one, I went along here when it first opened to meet a friend. I admit, I like the space. It’s on a corner, all glass, near the Meadows but overlooking Tollcross. They’ve done a nice job of decorating the ground outside with chalk patterns.
It’s probably worth knowing that I went through a two year ‘hippy’ phase in my youth /​pre-​teens. I listened exclusively to music pre-​1980, wore vintage levis flares, watched the 70s version of Jesus Christ Superstar on a monthly basis, wore tie dye, started a school World Wildlife Fund group, started donating money to save the gorillas. (I didn’t say I did the hippy phase very well. It’s a sliding scale. I still washed, shaved, and worked.)
Anyway. I have a nostaligic love of all things eco-​hippy. I still engage in more spiritual matters –I practice yoga, I try to meditate, I still do my bit to help endangered animals, I use ecover products where possible. But I’ve grown out of my dreadlock-​crush and the ‘image’ of it all. Because really it is an image.
I’m not trying to bash on anyone. All I’m saying is, I should in theory love the Forest Café. The idea of it appealed to my inner eco-​warrior.
But when I found it cold, the tables dirty, and as Peter S also said, serving cold coffee with very non-​engaging or friendly staff, you realise that whilst some things are nice in theory, when it comes to running a business and serving customers, there’s certain standards that you just shouldn’t let slip. Like smiling. Or serving coffee in clean cups.
I *might* give it another go. Their advertised mexican coffee sounds good. And it’s got more romance than the previous venue. But I just can’t trust it to be reliably good…

Hmm I ve never been so confused about writing a review before. This place is scabby, the coffee I was served was cold filter coffee. Though I think this is the whole idea about forest café, an Edinburgh CBGB’s more poetic rather then punk rock. There is a tension in the air here, a political and spiritual tension. I feel a lot of sadness, frustration and anger at the forest and I can’t say I felt very comfortable here but can see how people feeling the same seek out each other to fight internal struggles and injustice in the society.
They say that a messy room is a messy mind, maybe some passion to make good drinks and food would do good here, after all it is in human nature to seek out good food if we can. Though this is just my opinion.