Cafe Review: Union of Genius, 8 Forrest Road, Edinburgh, EH1 2QN

Soup Heaven in Edinburgh

We’ve known about Union of Genius for ages and have tried their lovely grub at the Scran Salon events at Hemma and Akva so a visit was long overdue. We of course never do anything straight-forward here at Foodie Towers and went for lunch just before visiting the Foodies Festival, yes a food festival, at the start of the Edinburgh Festival, yeah one of the quietest times of the year in Edinburgh!

The outside is welcoming, with outdoor seating as well making the covers a grand total of around 15 seats, so get there quick if you want a seat. Inside is cosy with posters adorning the walls, lots of things to buy such as re-usable coffee cups, seasonings and spices. Mrs Foodie grabbed a seat whilst Mr Foodie wrestled with a decision on the food.

There are up to six soups on offer plus three salads, a good selection. If you can’t quite decide on which soup to choose – there are soup flights, plus the server lets you have a little taste as well.

Coffee by Artisan Roast and Tea by Eteaket are available to sit -in and take-away. If you are dairy-free soya and almond milk is also available.

Soup, salad, specials and combos board.

Get free soup or donate your soup.

Picnic bags are also available to take away.

Mrs Foodie opted for a red pepper and chilli stromboli salad. Fluffy and chewy with lots of flavour. More chilli would have been good. (£2.50)

Mr Foodie opted for the Peruvian Quinoa Chowder. Quinoa, sweetcorn and chilli, which was very nice but a bit watery (isn’t chowder meant to be thick?). It tasted very similar to Baxter’s Spicy Tomato and Rice with Sweetcorn Soup but with quinoa in place of the rice.

The feta and apricot salad was filling and very healthy, far too healthy for Mr Foodie, he felt the need to buy a cake for being so good! At £7.50 it did seem a bit steep at the time of ordering, however it was tasty, filling and worth it.

The Armenian Honey Cake ( £2.50) was just what was needed. That right amount of sugar and stickyness to off-set that healthy feeling. We shared this, but you’ll really want one each.

The toilet passed the toilet test, clean and tidy. Bonus points for being part of toilet twinning….