We were in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago and we had a really good vegetarian breakfast at a little cafe named Has Bean on Canongate section of Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
We were initially looking for a cafe for a light continental breakfast with capuccino (as we were going for a dinner at The Witchery later on - see my earlier blog). Has Bean cafe is rather an unassuming place, yet as we were passing, for some reason their menu on the window caught our eyes. They offer a full Scottish vegetarian breakfast and if I could remember correctly it was under £6.00! Very good price on Royal Mile in Edinburgh, so we went in.
Inside, the decor is cosy, a bit eclectic with different styles of framed pictures, ornaments and handcrafts (are they for sell?) and there is a big wall-to-wall size map of the world, which I have now regretted that I did not take the picture at the time!
Anyway, we ordered our vegetarian breakfast with tea and coffee. My husband thought that his coffee was really good. Yes, they do 'Has Beans' and the good ones.
The place did not look too busy yet continuous flow of customers kept coming in and out, not a bad turnover, and they all seem to be very contended with the food they had and the service they received.
Our vegetarian breakfast arrived - well cooked vegetarian sausages, perfectly fried egg (when you put knife into it, yolk oozed out nicely), real fried mushrooms (not tinned) and super hot beans (we all hate luke warm baked beans, don't we?) with fried tattie (potato) scones and brown toast. Perfect! And we discovered that underneath the toast was hidden with simple salad with chopped coriander with shredded carrots. Chopped coriander? We never thought about putting coriander but it was actually quite nice and refreshing.
I know, it's just a breakfast, it's just a fry-up and it's not a healthy option, but we really really enjoyed Has Bean's vegetarian fry-up! Just looking at the picture, I could really have this right now.
There was a mixed up with our orders earlier and they brought us with a full traditional Scottish breakfast (with meat and all) by mistake. When we mentioned that we had ordered vegetarian ones, they were very apologetic and offered us if we could like some cakes after the breakfast. I was looking at some of their cakes on the counter which all looked very delectable but we kindly declined as we would be full after the breakfast (plus we were going to have a big dinner later on). We thought that was very nice of them offering that.
We had to wait a little bit for our vegetarian versions as by then a few smalls groups of tourists arrived and the place got a bit busier, however we did not mind waiting as our pots of tea and coffee were very good, and in the end we were served with excellent vegetarian breakfast.
When the bill came, we noticed that they gave us some discount for their mistake, which we never expected. We felt bad as they did not need to do so, so we gave them extra tips to square it up.
We would be happy to go back to this place again to have another vegetarian breakfast or even try something different. We noticed that on the menu they had some Eastern Mediterranean dishes which sounded delicious. Later on I found out that the cafe is owned by a Turkish person who runs this place as a family business. Maybe that's why salad on our plates had some chopped coriander in it.
Has Bean is not far from Holywood Palace, the Queen's official Scottish residence in summer. You could visit the palace first as soon as it opens to avoid crowds, and long cues, walk upwards Royal Mile and stop over at Has Bean cafe for last breakfast before you continue on toward much busier part of Royal Mile, eventually get to the Edinburgh Castle in time for the famous One O'Clock Gun.
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| A fictitious unicorn has been a Scottish heraldic symbol since the 12th century with the shield of the Lion Rampant, a royal emblem in Scotland with a gold background, red upright lion with blue (azure) claws and tongue surrounded by a two-lined border decorated with floral symbols. |
I am getting really hungry so I will stop here and check what we can have for breakfast now...
That's all forks!
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