Ehm, shall we say it’s still Monday? Yeah…

So anyways, yesterday was a rarely seen lovely day here up the North, and my partner and I decided to go for a trip to Leith (if you’re not from Edinburgh, this may just be the best introduction to Leith). We had a wonderful little day trip – just going to a different part of your city can feel like going to a different place all together! – and had tea at the popular Mimi’s Bakehouse.

This place is so cute you guys! It’s the kind of place to bring your mum to and girlfriends to – not that the clientèle is limited to that though. A group of lads was seated next to us, just enjoying some cake and a cuppa, a delightful sight! The interior is entirely in the pin-up, vintage 50s rockabilly style, complete with pin-up girls holding cakes on some of the wallpaper. Although sometimes the cutesy, vintagy style can be a bit much, here it is nice and subtle.

As the name may suggest, Mimi’s Bakehouse is specialised in baked goods. One of the ways you can see the difference between a place that focuses on food, and a place that does both, is if they have loose leaf teas or “just” tea bags. Generally, loose leaf teas have a higher quality than bagged tea – for a full explanation of the difference between bagged tea and loose tea, go here. As you may have guessed, Mimi’s has bagged tea – and not in those pyramid shaped bags that allow the tea room to unfold. That said, the tea is not terrible; it just lacks some nuance.

For tea I had the Spiced Winter tea, and my partner had a fruity, berry infusion. The tea is from the famous brand TeaPigs. The advantage of this brand is that they don’t use tea dustings to fill their bags, but fill them with whole leaves and leave space for the leaves to infuse. That said, my Spiced Winter tasted like a little bit of a generic cinnamon-orange tea with a Rooibos base. Warming and comfortable (I do love myself a good Rooibos), but nothing special. I didn’t dare try my partner’s tea, as it smelt extraordinarily sweet – but he liked it nonetheless.

That said, this is a bakehouse, so it all stands or falls with the quality of the food. Boy oh boy, do they know how to bake! I had the raspberry chocolate cake (I wonder why I’m not a swimsuit model…), and my partner the Oreo crunch. Both were perfect. It’s not very often that you find a chocolate cake that has the right levels of moist, dry, airiness, chocolate and fruitiness. Mimi’s Bakehouse nailed it. The Oreo crunch was a delicious little bar with a crispy rice base. Yummy!

Let me leave you with a beautiful picture (if I may say so myself) of the Mimi’s bit of Leith. And let me tell you – go to Leith. Go for a walk by the river and the port, and most importantly, go to Mimi’s Bakehouse.