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Reviews — 8
Ooooohhh good find! Will have to come back as just got tea and a cheese scone! But man o man delicious cheese scone! Open early, for Edinburgh. Like that they don’t give out butter packets, less waste!
Exceptional local cafe that’s full of character for either takeaway or sit-in breakfasts, brunches and lunches. Great coffee and cakes and world class freshly made breakfast sandwiches. If you’re visiting the area, skip the dreary hotel breakfast and come here!
Honestly some of the best scones in the UK! The Treacle Scones are divine so much so that I had to order some to take away. Great atmosphere with a real independent, local and community feel. I thoroughly recommend. I look forward to returning when I am next in Edinburgh - thank you so much Laura 😃
We went two days ago. Very rude behavior from the young lady staff. Not much of a family place despite saying so. Also the smell inside is just horrible. It actually feels like you are sitting inside a kitchen, not a cafe. I thought it may be a one off thing, but reading the other review just before this one ( Nathan's) I think this pattern of behavior is the norm here. They treat customers as if they are enemies of sort.
Delicious cappuccino. I loved the cheese scones. Spectacular Scottish breakfast. 😃
My partner's name is Laura, so of course we needed to visit this place. The food was pretty good, on the basis of the food alone, I'd be happy to recommend it. The food is a bit on a expensive side, but tasty food is well worth paying for.
However, the food costs more when sitting in. This is not that uncommon a practice, but this place takes it to a whole new level. A cappuccino for £3.60 is just ridiculous. If you're more expensive than Starbucks and not a speciality coffee place (and this place is certainly not speciality coffee), then you're doing something wrong. It appears that there's a 25% surcharge on everything to sit in, which is frankly ridiculous. I'm sure sit in customers are more expensive, but we can't be 25% more expensive.
Besides the prices, the service was just appalling. I'm sure there's a reason for their policies, but the way the server acted just made us increasingly uncomfortable.
What we saw:
* A guy comes in and sits down. He then tries to order at the bar, and is told off by the server, and that she'll come to his table to take his order. There's no reason for her to act this way, he was just trying to be helpful by standing up to order.
* That same guy wanted to plug in his phone and is told that the electricity sockets are not for use by customers. This just seems petty, as it can't be a real expense for the business. I could understand if they want to limit people sitting and working, but just letting him charge his phone while he's eating seemed petty and ridiculous. It also made us feel incredibly uncomfortable.
* Another guy who's English was not very good comes in and orders take out. He then sits down while he's waiting. He's yelled at that he's not allowed to sit down and that this costs extra. He clearly didn't understand the server and just wanted to sit while he waited. Instead, he was forced to pay an extra £7 just to be able to sit down.
The final straw for us was when we tried to pay. I wanted to use the toilet, and I have my Laura my credit card to pay for our meal. They charged the card for the meal. AFTER they charged the card, they noticed the card was not her card, and refused to give it back to her.
They also needed to verify signatures, and my card doesn't have my signature on it. This has literally never been a problem, but the server refused to give me back my card until I showed her an ID with my signature on it. Like we were getting ready to call the police because she wasn't giving me my card back. Edit in response: the police have the authority to make me show my ID, Laura's Cafe's server does not have this authority, though she seems to believe she does. Plus, if this was a fraud issue, they would have checked the ID BEFORE charging the card. They were happy to take money from the card first.
I really liked the Scottish breakfast, and it was the best haggis I had while I was in Scotland. But the service is atrocious and unacceptable.
I want Laura-owned businesses to succeed for sentimental reasons. But until this place stops seeing paying customers as the enemy, you should stay away.
If you want an example of how they see customers, just look at their reply to my review...
However, the food costs more when sitting in. This is not that uncommon a practice, but this place takes it to a whole new level. A cappuccino for £3.60 is just ridiculous. If you're more expensive than Starbucks and not a speciality coffee place (and this place is certainly not speciality coffee), then you're doing something wrong. It appears that there's a 25% surcharge on everything to sit in, which is frankly ridiculous. I'm sure sit in customers are more expensive, but we can't be 25% more expensive.
Besides the prices, the service was just appalling. I'm sure there's a reason for their policies, but the way the server acted just made us increasingly uncomfortable.
What we saw:
* A guy comes in and sits down. He then tries to order at the bar, and is told off by the server, and that she'll come to his table to take his order. There's no reason for her to act this way, he was just trying to be helpful by standing up to order.
* That same guy wanted to plug in his phone and is told that the electricity sockets are not for use by customers. This just seems petty, as it can't be a real expense for the business. I could understand if they want to limit people sitting and working, but just letting him charge his phone while he's eating seemed petty and ridiculous. It also made us feel incredibly uncomfortable.
* Another guy who's English was not very good comes in and orders take out. He then sits down while he's waiting. He's yelled at that he's not allowed to sit down and that this costs extra. He clearly didn't understand the server and just wanted to sit while he waited. Instead, he was forced to pay an extra £7 just to be able to sit down.
The final straw for us was when we tried to pay. I wanted to use the toilet, and I have my Laura my credit card to pay for our meal. They charged the card for the meal. AFTER they charged the card, they noticed the card was not her card, and refused to give it back to her.
They also needed to verify signatures, and my card doesn't have my signature on it. This has literally never been a problem, but the server refused to give me back my card until I showed her an ID with my signature on it. Like we were getting ready to call the police because she wasn't giving me my card back. Edit in response: the police have the authority to make me show my ID, Laura's Cafe's server does not have this authority, though she seems to believe she does. Plus, if this was a fraud issue, they would have checked the ID BEFORE charging the card. They were happy to take money from the card first.
I really liked the Scottish breakfast, and it was the best haggis I had while I was in Scotland. But the service is atrocious and unacceptable.
I want Laura-owned businesses to succeed for sentimental reasons. But until this place stops seeing paying customers as the enemy, you should stay away.
If you want an example of how they see customers, just look at their reply to my review...
Good choices of breakfast. We tried the porridge with banana and honey , it was delicious and the hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream yummy ! The person who took care of us was very nice. I'd come back if I had more time in the city ! The place is beautiful and cozy , it feels really nice to be there.
