Claire L.
Yelp
Having spotted the opening of Casa Angelina and the favourable reports of lots of GF choice, I was keen to check it out and quickly.
Scones were on my mind - I know, totally fab cakes and I wanted a scone, but a good scone is the holy grail in gluten free land. Marie Claire, the owner, listed all the options - poor lass, she rhymed them all off to get a response of 'do you have the scones?' and I breathed a sigh of relief when she confirmed that, yes, there were GF scones.
There were so many options through - at least six GF cakes and I actually felt bad for not being able to sample more - lemon drizzle, millionaires shortcakes, pistachio, courgette (they use a lot of veggies in cakes so cake here is essentially one of your five a day), banana and walnut cupcakes, apple, and more. As we were positioned with tea on one side and cake on another two then it was cake porn heaven. In the interests of research I will return to sample more varieties but this time it was for a cuppa, scone (with jam and clotted cream) and a shared piece of millionaires shortcake (couldn't resist).
I did wonder if the scone would be over done but it was lovely and held together perfectly with the clotted cream and raspberry jam. The millionaires shortcake was lovely - firm, not too hard, but not disintegrating into crumbs with a coconutty based biscuit, nice thick layer of caramel (I hate a skimpy layer!) and a good wedge of chocolate. It was delicious and very rich but having an almighty sweet tooth, I kept eating little bits and was disappointed when the little bits disappeared one by one. Tea is by Eteaket and there are lots of varieties but the breakfast tea was lovely and our pot was topped up with hot water for extra cups.
Although it's new, Casa Angelina is already on the Edinburgh hot list I would say. At 3pm on a Saturday (without a booking), we grabbed the last free table and some visitors were left disappointed by not sitting in, though did purchase consolation take away cakes. The vintage tearoom is small (decor is lots of creams and pastel colours) but very cute with vintage style chairs, chaise longue and in a lovely sunny backroom (even though Casa Angelina is at basement level, its not dark and pokey). It is worth booking in advance to avoid disappointment and I plan to go back shortly to sample the gluten free afternoon tea. Cakes are made fresh and on the premises and the chefs were bringing out fresh cakes when we were in which is great to see.
Friendly service and great prices considering some places are quite expensive for cake in town. £9.60 for pot of tea for two (refilled with hot water), 2 scones with jam and clotted cream (both ignored the butter) and the millionaires shortcake so budget friendly too :-)