Bonnie & Wild — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

This review is two in one since I cannot write separate reviews for Bonnie & Wild and the restaurant/ food stand from which we ordered our food.

Let’s start with the food shall we?

Stack & Still I believe that’s what it is called, is a pancake food stand with both sweet and savoury options and the ability to create your own custom pancake. I chose a banana with chocolate caramel double stack(I’m a sweet tooth in case you hadn’t noticed it yet) and my wife a beef barbacoa double stack (she is more a savoury type). The pancakes were quickly served and were very delicious. If you were to eat here I would recommend this food stand. 4 stars.

Now comes the not so nice bit and thats why I’m a bit annoyed that I cannot write two separate reviews. The thing is that the service of Bonnie & Wild itself is rather lacklustre and appalling. When we arrived there was no queue or anyone of the personnel to appoint us a table. So we decided to pick one ourselves. After ordering our food we thought of moving to different free table because of the size of our first choice. While we were moving we got told that the specific table in question was for 4 people only. Fine. The waitress did point us to to a different place that was adequate so we decided to go there instead. While again moving our stuff to this bench we got stopped by a different employee who had too big of a mouth for his job and started to tell us we couldn’t sit at this bench for some reason. The reason was probably legit, but the tone and the way the teenager (I assume) behaved towards us was unnecessary and in no way how a waiter should behave. He told us that we were assigned a place and that we should stay seated there. This was not true since no one helped us when we walked in and we assumed to take place wherever we could find a seat. We were not familiar with this place since it was our first time and then to be treated like this felt even more unnecessary especially since I already ordered our food. Were it not for the fact that we already ordered our food that we probably would have left because of this situation. So the 4 stars are NOT for Bonnie & Wild, they can get one star for providing a...

This review is not for the food itself, but rather the marketplace and how it is run.

TLDR, rude staff, unclear and non-sensical set up, nice food but within "market" that tries to be a formal restaurant. Drink can be self service or table service, food is all self service, tables seemingly need to be allocated by staff.

Saturday evening, walked straight in from the shopping centre to have a look at what was on offer. About 10 mins later, sat down at one of the many empty tables around the market. A Bloom and Wilde staff member then came over to us and asked if we had been sent there. Confused, we said we had just walked around and sat ourselves, only to be told that there was a queue. Saying that we had just walked in where there was no staff at the door nor queue nor signage to queue, we were 'corrected' by the staff member that we would have been told by their nonexistent colleague at the entrance of the need to queue.

We went queue in order to avoid any further grief, by which time a queue had formed, and this staff member had materialised. The system only became more opaque, as certain tables remained empty despite there being people to fill them, with certain groups seemingly selected out of order and at random from the queue, and given vague directions of where to sit.

Sitting down, there is a menu of drinks which can be ordered via QR code, or can be obtained via attendance at the bar (2 within the market, but only the main one ever seemed to be serving). Told that we needed to visit any food location we wanted to order from, and be given a buzzer to alert when the food was ready, to be collected. Staff at the food locations we visited were very friendly, and no issues with the food - probably slightly overpriced, but very tasty and can't really complain.

Manager spoken to regarding the rudeness of the staff member who implied I was liar - given that multiple other groups seemed to experience the same treatment whilst we were there seems to show nothing changed...

These sorts of street food markets are generally very enjoyable, but this one has unfortunately been hampered by the way it is managed, to the detrimental of the food stalls...

Stood in a queue to get in, was taken to a table by a server. As we had never eaten here before we asked how to order food and drink as there seemed to be lots of different kitchens cooking different foods. Seems at the table you have a number, if you want drinks you can order using your phone by scanning the QR code, then the server will bring it to your table or you can go up to the bar yourself and get the drinks. To order food you have to leave your table and go up to one of the kitchens of your choice, order and pay for your food, you get a pager, then go back to your table, then when it goes off you go and collect your food. Now a couple of problems arise with this system. One, I would like the server to bring my drinks and food to my table, which I would then pay for (with a tip for the server if they deserve it). Two, I have to leave all my belongings at my table unattended until I return?, not keen on doing that. Three, (ok I know I said a couple of things) but what happens when everyone in your group orders from different kitchens?? Do all the dishes come at different times? Do the kitchens collaborate and cook it simultaneously so that they reach the table at the same time? To be honest we don't know because we left before any of that could be confirmed. We did try but when we went to one of the kitchens to order fish and chips and were told at 11.56 they don't start serving food till 12...... well we left. Maybe we're old fashioned and maybe were not down with the kids but to be honest this was not for us. The food could of been fantastic but to be honest all of the above put us off. The one star rating was for the door men who were polite and the server who greeted us with a smile and explained to us how...