Pulse in Edinburgh

Pulse Plantbased HomeCooking is a wonderful small cafe in an old crypt of St. John’s Church. You read that right, an old crypt! It is one of several store fronts on this path.

We had finished a bike tour that took us all the way to Leith and the beach, which means we were super hungry. In our favor, Pulse was across the street from where we left the tour. Winning!

We walked into the cutest space with the nicest people. Eating off-time meant we practically had the place to ourselves and could talk with everyone. The owners lived in London during the pandemic and were disgruntled with their experience, so they took a holiday in Edinburgh. While exploring, they found an eco-friendly and all vegan shop next door (it was also wonderful). What a find! They had been building their Plantbased HomeCooking business online for some time but did not have a restaurant. This space seemed perfect with the like-minded shop next door. Pulse was born after building a kitchen in a storage space and setting up a lovely dining area.

They didn’t know we followed a traditional Plantbased diet and told us right away about the low-oil and no refined sugar approach to cooking in their menu. I was so excited!

We picked out the Savory Traybake, Red Lentil Bites, Green Lentils salad, and Fabulous Leaf salad. It was all delicious!

Still a bit hungry, we also each picked out a pudding. Pudding with Plum & Aprocot topping and Chocolate Pudding did not disappoint. They offered additional sweetener if we wanted it. The puddings were plenty sweet to us, but I get it. Most Americans want their sweets to be extremely sweet.

Mmm… Writing about this is making my mouth water. Finally satiated, we asked for the check and prepared to head out. But we had one more treat in store for us. I guess the owner really liked us and brought over their Intense Bites. These are small, sweet bites of intense flavor that we adored.

Our best meal in Edinburgh, hands down! And we did go to the “fancy” place that I’ll write about soon. Pulse gets five of five vegan cupcakes. This is a special place of delicious food and kind people. The food shines with its natural flavors, just the way it should. The restaurant has only been open since January, so definitely make your way here and enjoy when in Edinburgh.