Mary's Milk Bar.

Mary's Milk Bar

Mary Hillard opened this Grassmarket counter in 2013 and told the Evening News that for the first three years almost nobody came in.1

Why go

She was a chocolatier before she was a gelatiera, and she went to Bologna to train at the Carpigiani Gelato University before opening here.2 Both halves of that are on the counter: gelato she churns herself every morning until 11am, and chocolate work that runs to truffles and a gelato oyster set in a chocolate shell. Because she churns the batches that morning and holds nothing over, the board changes every single day, and by late afternoon it has changed again as things sell out.4 The flavors go where she wants them to go, which is how gorgonzola, cumin and mango ripple, and peanut coconut with fresh mint end up in the same cabinet as Sicilian pistachio.3 On what drives that, she is direct: I just make ice cream for my own pleasure. I make what I want in the hope that someone will like it.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the dark chocolate, which is the flavor a chocolatier should own and by Neil Johnstone's account does: it would turn any die hard savoury person sweet. He rates the milk gelato with the salted caramel ripple for its subtle flavours and the coffee coconut sorbet for its delicate texture.1 Ask what the odd one is that day. Mary's own example of an odd one is mango and cumin.
• Avoid: walking in with a flavor in mind. What is in the cabinet at eleven is different from what is there at four, and the summer months sell out.

What locals & experts say

• Neil Johnstone, Edinburgh Evening News (20 July 2024): he queued twenty minutes, ate four, and wrote that each mouthful was packed with flavour, and, I must say, memorable, concluding that the small team really know what they are doing there. He also discloses in the same piece that he is no specialist, which is worth knowing when you weigh what he says.1
• Mika Morava, The Skinny: The truffles have soft, gooey centres and unusual flavours, while the gelato is soft and oh-so creamy, and the shop is built on freshness, everything uses fresh ingredients with no preservatives.2
• The name points at a real thing. The Skinny places the format in the era of post-war government initiatives for nourishing the nation through milk-based products, which is what a milk bar was. Mary grew up on holidays in Scarborough, Whitby and Morecambe, all of which still have theirs.2
• The Skinny Food and Drink Survey 2014, Best Newcomer, Scotland. A reader vote, counted from The Skinny's annual survey, and the write-up names the shop among the best newcomers alongside Timberyard without stating a placing.2

Good to know

• Timing: the churning runs to 11am and the cabinet is refilled from that, so the fullest board is early in the day. Summer flavors sell out.
• The queue is normal. There are line markings painted on the pavement, and twenty minutes was the wait on a July afternoon in 2024.
• Booking: none taken, walk up.
• Getting there: the corner of the Grassmarket, under the castle rock, a minute from the foot of Victoria Street.
• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 12 June 2024.

Jeff's take (his words)

The case for it is the daily churn, the chocolate side of the counter, and two bylined writers who ate the gelato and said so.

Verdict

should-visit — One person churns the whole cabinet every morning until eleven and nothing is held over, so the flavor board is genuinely different every day and different again by late afternoon. That is craft as evolution, sustained daily for thirteen years, and it is rarer in a dessert counter than in any restaurant. The range says the same thing: gorgonzola, cumin and mango ripple and peanut coconut with fresh mint sit in the cabinet next to Sicilian pistachio because the owner cooks what she wants to cook. She trained as a chocolatier before she trained in Bologna, and both trades are on the counter, which is why the dark chocolate and the chocolate-shelled gelato oyster are the orders. It is a small room with a painted queue line outside and no seats worth planning around, so the room is never the reason. The reason is the product, and it holds up: two bylined writers a decade apart both rate the texture. It stops short of must-visit because the only current tasting verdict comes from a reporter who disclaims specialism, and no critic of standing has ruled on it recently.