Cairngorm Coffee Melville Place.

Cairngorm Coffee Melville Place

Four espressos on the bar every day and a batch brew that rotates, off beans roasted a short walk from Portobello beach.4

Why go

Robi Lambie started Cairngorm around a kitchen table in Newtonmore in 2014 and this West End corner has been open since 2016.41 The counter runs four espressos each day along with a rotational batch brew, which is more choice than almost any room this size attempts, and the roasting happens at their own unit outside the city held since 2023, where they cup the coffees weekly.4 The buying shows up in what they are willing to argue: Guilty Pleasures is a blend built to make the case that a blend can hold its own against a single origin, and they have sold the same coffee twice in one pack under two processing methods so a drinker can taste the difference.3 The room itself is a Georgian frontage with wide windows, open from seven on weekdays, and it fills with commuters early and settles down later.41

Order this / avoid

• Order: the rotating filter if you want to know what the roastery is doing right now, since it changes and costs less than a made-to-order cup anywhere.4
• Order: a toastie with it. It is the one food item both The List and The Skinny pick out.21
• Order: a bag of Guilty Pleasures if you want the roastery's own argument in your hand.3
• Avoid: planning a roastery visit. The unit near Portobello is closed to the public and takes people by appointment only.4

What locals & experts say

• The List, in its five specialist coffee shops: One of the OGs on the Edinburgh coffee scene (they've been roasting since 2014), Cairngorm's Melville Street base is a hub for tired commuters, nearby office workers and local residents. The food is simple and good, there's a sunny outdoor spot and they're open from 7am, but it's the thoughtfully sourced and poured coffee that's kept them here for the long-haul.1
• The Skinny (Jamie Dunn): A bright corner cafe serving killer toasties and knockout coffee with their own roasted beans.2
• Sprudge, on the roastery: Cairngorm Coffee roasts their own coffee and operates at the cutting-edge of roasting and marketing, and on the house blend, their Guilty Pleasures blend making the proclamation that a blend can be just as good as any single-origin.3
• Awards: none recorded. No coffee-sector programme has been queried against this business and the empty field is a gap in the search.

Good to know

• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme rates this premises IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED, from a City of Edinburgh inspection on 31 July 2024, FHRSID 1110993, with no re-inspection pending as at 11 August 2026. That is about 24 months old, so it is past the eighteen-month bound and sits on the watchlist as a disclosed finding. It is the thing to know before you go and it says nothing about the coffee.5
• Sites, and an open question: the venue's own locations page lists this as its only Edinburgh cafe, with Ralia on the A9 by Newtonmore and the roastery. The Food Hygiene Information Scheme holds three more Cairngorm records in the city, at St James Crescent, at Barclay Place in Bruntsfield registered on 23 July 2026 and awaiting inspection, and at the West Telferton roastery. Whether those are gone, coming or simply unlisted is not established here, and absence from a webpage is not a closure.54
• Hours: 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm on Sunday, which is a longer day than most specialty counters in this city keep.4
• Getting there: the corner of Melville Place where Queensferry Street meets it, five minutes from Haymarket and ten from Princes Street.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: Not one of my saves.

Verdict

could-visit — Four espressos on the bar at once and a rotating batch brew is a real offer from a roastery that cups its own coffee weekly, and it is the reason The List and Jamie Dunn in The Skinny land on the same verdict about a corner shop that has been open since 2016. The West End is short of anything like it, the room faces south through Georgian windows, it opens at seven for people going to work, and the toastie is good enough that both writers mention it. Set against that, the register is the reason to read before you go: this premises came out of a City of Edinburgh inspection on 31 July 2024 as Improvement Required and nothing has been queued since, which is two years of nothing on a rating that failed. That discloses rather than disqualifies, and the coffee case stands on its own, but it is the fact a reader most needs and it holds the rung down. The roastery itself is out by Portobello and shut to the public, so the craft is something you drink here and not something you watch.