Down the Hatch — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

I strongly believe that just because someone has had a bad experience in a restaurant once, doesn't mean it'll happen again. I retract this belief from this place. Been here 3 times, and all visits have let me and my family down. First time, we reserved a table a week before our visit and when we got there they didnt have our booking, although having made the reservation over the phone a week before. Second time, they overcharged us for our order and took them 2 weeks before we received our refund. Our last visit was this past Wednesday, we reserved our table for lunch the night before, got there bang on time and noticed the place was relatively empty. Waiter took our order but after almost an hour wait our food hadnt come out, another waitress approached asking if we were ok so asked where's our food? She spoke to the chef who look completely lost and at that point I noticed we were not gonna have lunch for the day. Waitress came back saying they lost our order and that they were now preparing it. Yet the same waiter that took our order walked past us and delivered an order for guests that had arrived way after us. At that point, we just got up and the waitress offered to have us back for a meal free of charge. She asked for my contact details to arrange this and I am still awaiting for the call. Each time they mess up they blame it on a 'change of systems'. Very poor service considering this had been me and my wife's date without any of our children after almost a year. Ended up ruining this short and special time for us. If you appreciate your time with your plus one, steer away as far as you can from this place. Utterly appalling and horrible service. Get your staff some proper training on how to service and...

I don’t think I’ve ever left a bad review before the food at down the hatch today has warranted my first bad review. Decided to have a special treat for myself and the kids to lunch (meals out are rarity for us, due to the cost) and I had seen this place online and the food looked amazing and saw kids eat for free today! Perfect for a mum on a budget in the summer holidays, great food, even one kid free it’s a perfect combination. The food was terrible, the chips were so salty neither of my kids could eat them, said they felt sick after a few because of the salt level, I only managed half before it got too much, I had the hatch burger and honestly the homemade sauce was so overpowering and slightly gross it ruined the burger not to mention and massive wedge of garlic on the burger. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten but my stomach is still turning from the aftertaste of the sauce. My son (who eats everything but Stilton and pâté) couldn’t finish his burger because it tasted so dry and my daughter ate half the burger before giving up, and all this for a grand total of £47.80! Three burgers and fries, two kids milkshakes and a can of coke for £47.80….yep despite what it said online kids weren’t free or the waitress wasn’t aware. So walked out with two hungry children and me feeling sick from an overpowering sauce. £47 quid is a day out and a picnic for us. So much for being a treat. Very disappointed. No worth the...

I reviewed down the hatch a couple of years ago and gave it 5 stars. Since then, myself and my family have been regular customers. We were always impressed by the quality of the food and although it is reasonably expensive it was with every penny. Not now. Recently, we have seen a massive deteriation in the quality and presentation of the food, particularly the take away food. Tonight we ordered burgers, chips and milkshakes to the value of £80 for my son's birthday. We were extremely disappointed, for the following reasons: -the food was cold when we received it despite arriving 5mins before my collection time -the chips had no seasoning and were cold and rubbery -the burgers tasted as if they had been sitting around for a while -the bacon on the burgers was so hard it could have broke a tooth -the milkshakes, which we all used to love, were sub standard, more like a cheap mcflurry, than an old fashioned milkshake

All in all, a very disappointing experience. This is not the first time either. We got a takeaway a couple months ago and the food wasn't great then either. However, we put it down to a one-off, bad experience as we knew to how good it used to be. However, after tonight, we won't be back again. I'm not sure what has changed, but it's nothing like it was. It's still as expensive, but the standard of food doesn't match the cost. It's...