Craigies Farming Deli and Cafe — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Lovely spot for a day out

We came here to check out the strawberries, but unfortunately we were far too early, like months early... Fortunately, however, the deli and café are fantastic and well worth the trip on their own.

First we walked around the deli. A lot of it is quite overpriced, which is a shame because there were some nice things on offer that we might be tempted to try if we didn't feel like they were trying to squeeze us for every penny (I'm looking at you, £6 bunches of asparagus...)

The meat counter, however, had a fantastic selection as they were literally in the process of breaking down an entire cow as we walked in. The butcher behind the counter, Olly, was an absolute top lad, gave us loads of helpful suggestions, answered questions and even offered to look after our purchases behind the counter while we visited the rest of the farm. We got,

Beef short ribs, 8/10, lovely and meaty, I turned these into a beautiful 4-hour slow cooked ragu for a two sheet lasagne verde inspired by Rolo's in NYC (check them out!). My attempt looked a bit lame, but it tasted so good wifeyface asked for it again 2 days running. Good times 👍

Beef bones, 9/10, Not only were these fresh as anything, but cheap too at only £2.50/kg. I cooked them down for over 24 hours and then with the resulting broth made ramen with all the trimmings. Wife was feeling a bit preggo-nauseous at the time, but after I showed her what I'd made, guess who appeared at the dinner table 5 minutes later 😂

Next, we went to the café for a well earned sit down. It was nice and airy with lots of light streaming in. Full of hustle and bustle, plenty of families with young kids have a jolly good time.

Freshly squeezed orange juice, 8/10, can't beat freshly squeezed, very refreshing.

Coffee, 7/10, decent coffee with just enough strength to get the conversation flowing without giving you the caffeine shakes.

Scone, 6/10 without the cream, 8/10 with. The scone itself was pretty good, felt they were a bit stingy on the fruit though. Jam was tasty but could have done being a little thicker in texture. Butter on scones is an abomination and we shall not speak of it. Sweet whipped cream made all the difference and I'm glad we ordered it extra.

After tasty libations we had a bit of a stroll round the farm. With the weather only just starting to warm up there wasn't much growing, but I could see this being good fun when the time is right. It was a nice walk around too, they have sheep and tiny little ponies which were all kinds of cute.

Overall a great day out, and if you have slightly older kids the soft play...

My wife and I agreed recently that on days off when we had time, we would start visiting farm shops for lunch and / or coffees within an hour or two of our home (must be an age thing 🙂). Just to see a bit more of the country, maybe buy some fresh produce, and support farmers who diversify.

First up was Craigie’s Farm because it’s quite local to us, and we had heard a lot of positives. There was loads of room in the car park because it was midweek. It was pleasant enough from the outside, but a bit tired looking. This didn’t really put us off because I can understand that in the recent and current economic climate, outside maintenance and refurb is low on the list of priorities.

We had the dog with us but we couldn’t take her inside. So there was a tired looking outside area to sit with her. It was a nice day but the “canine area” was shady and therefore quite cool, so we put her back in the car and went in to the shop and cafe. We were still feeling upbeat because we respect whatever rules re. dogs.

The shop was expensive but well stocked and we thought we might buy some fruit and veg. The cafe / restaurant was pleasant enough and the staff were very good. But we were left very disappointed with an order of lentil soup and sour dough and a latte. The lentil soup was watery and lacking in taste. The sourdough was more like a regular piece of nicely baked bread, definitely not the usual tanginess of sourdough. The latte was ok. I appreciate that with employers NI and the minimum wage increasing from April that overheads must be tight, but £7 for the soup and bread, and £4 for the latte, just felt like poor value for money.

We therefore didn’t really feel like buying anything from the shop and just went on our way. Overall pretty disappointing. Felt like a place that used to be very popular and innovative, that has somewhat lost its energy and focus, forgetting that quality of food is paramount 😐. Or maybe they just had an off-day,...

Bad experience at what used to be a great place.

We have been regular visitors to Craigies for the last 10 years and for us it’s always been a byword for a lovely family day out with great food and a fabulous deli. The kids love the animals: we’ve been to santa events so when I booked fruit picking for Fathers’ Day I thought it would be a lovely experience.

We went into the restaurant and the whole thing was shambolic. There were SO many staff but no one actually taking any orders: they all seemed to be wandering about trying to avoid eye contact. Eventually we got our food order done but it took almost 50 minutes to arrive. I chased it up twice and was greeted with a shrug and ‘we’re busy’. I explained the children (youngest is 6) were hungry but she again just shrugged and said ‘it’ll be at least 5-10 more minutes’

The restaurant was approx 1/3 full so I struggle to understand why there was such a wait. The food eventually came and the waiter offered quiche to my son as ‘here’s your macaroni’ so didn’t even know what he was serving. The quiche tasted cheap with huge bits of gristly bacon in it, the pastry was hard; the kids’ macaroni was overcooked and cold and the sausage roll was greasy and my son didn’t eat it.

The glasses were tiny; we didn’t get any ice; the tables felt sticky and the staff were wearing uniforms that didn’t look clean. None of this was what I wanted for Fathers’ Day and it certainly wasn’t worth £55.

We left feeling sad that we had had such a bad experience and no one was interested in making it better in any way.

How on earth has it gone so downhill? Really, really...