The best bakeries to visit for delectable sweet treats to fuel your Edinburgh Festival
Here’s where to grab a cake and croissant to accompany your culture fix
The last few years have seen a boom in bakery tourism.
We blame lockdown, when cake shopping and sourdough making became our only pleasures. Now visitors to cities add a hunt for the finest croissant to the very top of their travel itineraries. It’s no different in Edinburgh, especially while the Festival is on, and folk are in regular need of a sweet treat and a caffeine fix between shows.
Thus, we have assembled our favourite nine of the city’s bakeries, see below.
Lannan Bakery, 29-35 Hamilton Place www.lannanbakery.com
It’s difficult to make a list of Edinburgh’s best bakeries without including this favourite, which is owned by Darcie Maher and won the La Liste global award for Best Pastry Opening back in 2024. We also have to mention the large queues. However, good things (and very Instagrammable content) come to those who wait. The takeaway pastries are like perfect works-of-art, with varieties including a medjool date and panela butterscotch bun, or chocolate and cocoa husk Suisse. This autumn will see the opening of their new business, next door’s Lannan Pantry. It will offer seasonal produce, including fruit and vegetables supplied by Natoora, and homemade products including pasta, dips, bread, sausages, pork pies and terrines, as well as homeware and natural and biodynamic wines. They’ll also take bakery pre-orders, so you might just be able to skip the line.
Bits Bake Shop, 38 Dalkieth Road, Instagram @bitsbakeshop
This tiny but perfectly formed bakery is conveniently located opposite the Royal Commonwealth Pool, so you can do your Edinburgh Leisure workout routine before spoiling yourself. They’ve got a great collection of cardamom or cinnamon buns, but we can’t say no to their perfectly sticky and malty slab of Guinness cake.
There are seven branches of this 10-year-old and much-loved favourite throughout the city, with one in Portobello, also Dalry, Easter Road (their Kitchen Table cafe), Leith, Stockbridge, Morningside and Brunswick Street. They also recently opened a new cafe in Melrose, if you’re out of the city, and you can now get hold of their own cookbook, Kitchen Table, by owners Rachel Morgan and Emily Cuddeford. At the outlets, every Edinburger has their favourite products, but, if available, we’d recommend the almond croissant, cheesecake brownie, and the millionaire’s shortbread, which has a layer of caramel about two metres thick.
101 Bakery, 101 Newington Road, www.101bakery.com
This titchy but very friendly Southside takeaway bakery is handy for venues including Summerhall, or House of Oz, if you want some pre or post show cakery. Their selection might include the sophisticated passionfruit raspberry meringue cake, brown butter marmalade blondie, or the crowd-pleasing chocolate chip shortbread. They also do coffee and cool drinks, like a peach and lemon iced green tea, or their house made fizzy Ribena, among other things.
The Pastry Section, 143 Great Junction Street and 86 Raeburn Place , www.pastrysection.com
We defy you to walk past either of this bakery’s Leith or Stockbridge locations and not go in. The smell is so come-hither, and the windows are always packed with cakes, biscuits, tarts, Swiss rolls and traybakes, of every sugary variety, to suit those who like a citrus tang, or chocolatey richness. There are some who refuse to deviate from their classic rocky road, and others who swear by their cinnamon buns, each of which are topped by a blob of buttery icing the size of a tennis ball.If you also want a seat and a coffee, there are more pews in their Stockbridge branch, but also a couple in Leith.
Kate’s, 116 Causewayside Instagram @kates_edinburgh
If you need to rest your swollen trotters, then you can sit in at the lovely cafe, which is off the main choc-a-block thoroughfares, but just a short walk from the Meadows. They’ve got a counter that’s stacked high with classic goodies, like strawberry shortcake; the stalwart bake that is coffee and walnut, or lemon and poppyseed muffins. The excellent Kintyre cheddar scones have been a fixture since day dot. For savoury fans, there’s also pork and herb sausage rolls with curried apricot chutney made by owner Kate’s mum.
The Bearded Baker, 46 Rodney Street , 0131 241 4096, www.thebeardedbaker.co.uk
This Canonmills venue specialises in bagels, as well as doughnuts that are filled with pistachio Boston cream or salted dark chocolate. They’ve also got a new-ish cafe next door, 71 Steps.
Mimi’s Bakehouse, www.mimisbakehouse.com
It’s easy to forget that this family business - whose original branch at the Shore is hitting its 15th birthday - now has seven branches in the capital. Thus, you’re never too far away, whether you’re in Leith, Corstorphine, Comely Bank, or at the City Arts Centre - where the current exhibition is John Bellany: A Life in Portraiture, until the end of September - from one of their head-sized fruit scones. They’re also serving a Tunnocks-themed hot chocolate at all their locations, throughout the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Sloe Bakery, 106 Leith Walk Instagram @sloelanebakery
We were sad that bakery Hobz packed up and moved to Fife, but it’s been replaced by this equally delicious two-month-old proposition, which serves coffee, cake, bread and what it describes as “honest pastries”. There are benches outside, and a couple of window seats, where you can watch the world go by with an iced coffee or soda cooler. We’re hoping that they’ll bring back a recent invention - the banana caramel croissant, which is a filthy mix of croissant pastry, caramelised banana, banana lime jam, sesame creme diplomat and salted caramel.
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