CAFE TRUVA 251-253 Royal Mile, Edinburgh 0131 556 9524 Style: Borrowed art deco Food: Turkish lunches Price: £10 for two courses Wheelchair access: Yes
It's not often you can recommend every dish on the menu. But in the case of Cafe Truva, I'm willing to stick my neck out. The reason?
Well, it's not because I've tried everything, although between five of us on a sunny Sunday lunchtime, we got through a fair whack. It's because, even in the unlikely event of being disappointed with the main course, you'll get a side salad of such magnificence that you wouldn't dream of complaining.
There's a lesson to be learned by all those restaurants that throw a begrudging piece of lettuce and a half-hearted slice of red onion on to the side of your plate without so much as a drop of olive oil.
Indifferent salad provides little more than colour contrast and does nothing to give substance to a meal. Here at Cafe Truva, on the other hand, they don't hold with the idea of salad being mere garnish.
Instead, it takes up a good half of each big square plate, whether you've ordered one of their Turkish specialities or, like my two children, gone off-menu to ask for a simple cheese and tomato wrap or a panini.
Not only is it a riot of colour - the yellow grains of couscous set against the oily greens of olives and chilli peppers and the summer reds of sliced tomato and harissa - it also tastes delicious. It's an equal to the dish you thought you'd ordered - such as my borek, a tasty spinach and feta pie in flaky filo pastry - not an afterthought. It means that even though Cafe Truva is a casual daytime eatery (its hours are 9.30am-7pm), you feel like you've treated yourself to something altogether grander.
If salad is your thing, you couldn't do better than two of our party who decided to share a meze.
This substantial feast, costing £13.95, takes the side salads to an extra level, adding spinach, green beans, courgettes, roasted red peppers and stuffed vine leaves to create a plate so vibrant it seems a shame to have to eat it. But eat it they did, with pitta bread to mop up the extra juices.
All this is so engrossing, you hardly notice the owners have made virtually no changes to the place since taking over from Plaisir du Chocolat, the "salon de thé" which brought a touch of fin de siècle Parisian charm to this middle stretch of the Royal Mile. The art deco mirrors are still there, as is the big sweet counter on the way in.
And in fine weather, the customers can still sit outside at the front of the cafe. In practice, it's only slightly anachronistic and, in any case, better they concentrate on the simple quality of the food than splash out on an expensive makeover.
Having built a reputation over the past 10 years for its smaller branch in Leith - where it rightly claims to have been a leading contributor to the area's new-found cafe culture - Cafe Truva is in pole position to set the pace in the city centre.
Sitting midway between the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the castle, it's a natural tourist trap.
It's worth more than that, however, and let's hope the locals claim it as their own.
In true cafe style, you can call in for a coffee or an all-day breakfast and there's considerable flexibility in the menu. We stuck with the Mediterranean theme by ordering a sweet Turkish apple tea and, later, a strong and bitter Turkish coffee, served from a traditional copper pot. Then, of course, there came a moist baklava and, around the table, an indulgent line up of profiterole cake, pear and chocolate tart and chocolate fudge cake. It was a shame to have to leave.
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