Freemans Coffee Shop

This venue is now closed.

Needing caffeinated and looking for some bloody great coffee? Chill out - there's a ton of it in Edinburgh. Kilimanjaro and sister businesses Press Coffee and Wellington Coffee are all pretty gorgeous, but stick to one or two types of coffee. If you want to taste something new (and filtered expertly through all kinds of crazy pipes and tubes) Brew Lab is great - if a smidge intimidating. Cult is a pretty good compromise, offering up a couple of wicked espresso blends which are rotated every few days.

One of the original third wave coffee shops in Edinburgh, Freemans fitted right into its home in the heart of Marchmont's studentville. It was also pretty nerdy about coffee (they won awards for it too, but they certainly weren't pretentious). It does all the fancy stuff like guest espressos and guest filter coffees, but if you just wanted a regular cup o' the brown stuff, that was always fine too.  Plus, the décor was nice and homely, with big, wide windows through which you could quite happily sit and watch the world (of Marchmont) go by. It was also a winner with you, our readers too - quite literally. Every year, we host The Skinny Food and Drink Survey, and in 2014 Freemans was voted into the category of Best Place When Hungover along with the likes of The Vintage and Wannaburger. If you're feeling hangy and need to be rescued, check out our feature on the best places for takeaways, hangovers and dates in Scotland. If you're feeling extra diligent, you can also head on over to our full list of Food and Drink Survey Winners 2014 and 2015.

When Freemans closed, the venue began trading under the name of Cobbs. The coffee is pretty basic, but they've got their shabby chic interior (and traybakes) down to a T, if that's your kind of thing.