Fountain Cafe — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Not open on Saturday as posted on Google. No opening times posted on the cafe door/window. Disappointing to walk over for nothing; please cafe manager, be a tad more diligent with maintaining your opening hours to the public if you plan to use social media to promote yourself?

Update: Management replied to explain they post their updated times on Facebook. Two things: 1) it’s always a terrible sign when Management takes constructive feedback and blames the customer for a legitimate complaint and 2) Isn’t this Google? Why would Management tell someone posting on Google that even though they didn’t update their info on Google, they did on Facebook so the public should know NOT to trust the posted info on Google but rather check Facebook for accurate information.

It’s a bit ridiculous for any business to use a platform to respond to feedback about their poor communication on THAT platform with an excuse like “you were wrong not to check a different social media platform where we do maintain accurate public communication.”

Honestly, Fountain Cafe, if you don’t plan to update your hours on Google to be accurate, despite it taking less than 2min to do so (especially if you do it on Facebook anyway), maybe consider removing your listing on Google until you’re open to keeping your listing here up-to-date. It’s the unspoken agreement of using Google to promote yourself. I found you on Google. I believed your communication in Google was accurate. It was not, and I provided feedback to the inaccuracy on Google. And your feedback is to check Facebook and not Google without any acceptance of (or gratitude for…) the feedback. You could have left a friendly response simply thanking the public for “the feedback and pledging to work harder”, which would have made you look gracious and responsive. Instead, you seem combative and unwilling to hear constructive comments. What was a communications failure to start now shows a deeper issue with the mentality of this business and a lack of desire to be customer centric.

I hope this revised review helps you towards becoming better at maintaining your online presence. Remember, this interaction began with us trying to patronize your cafe based on your posted opening hours, which were inaccurate. Rather than being defensive about what was a simply mistake on your end, try and look at your online management responses as a way to show you respond positively to feedback. It’s a better look for a business serving the general public, even if you don’t really care about the feedback, looking like you do will create...

My wife and I went here a couple of months back. This place had been on my list for some time so was keen to give it a go. It was rather busy when we arrived one Saturday morning but thankfully they were able to a squeeze us in, literally. The cafe is small so it feels a little crammed in there with all the tables and chairs. There was one table available but in order to get to our seats we had to ask other people at the table next to us to budge along a bit to help us squeeze past. Once we were in we were comfortable and we quickly adapted to the close and ultimately cozy cafe. The cafe had an old school vibe which I quite liked. Almost felt like I was transported back 40 years ago. The menu has your classics and nothing you’ve not seen before. I had heard to pancakes were really good so I got the bacon and maple. My wife got a full Scottish. The service continued that old school vibes being very friendly and authenticity themselves. You get the impression that it’s family run and you have your regulars that pop in as it’s nice to see the relationships the staff have with their customers. The lady serving us was nice but we did feel a bit rushed. Not long after getting to our seats she came to take our order. I hadn’t even had time to look around at the menu on the wall (they don’t have paper menus). I told her to comeback in 2 mins. Within 20 seconds she walked to the other side of the room and came back and asked what we wanted. I was like “eh, ok, I’ll have the bacon and maple pancakes, please”. My wife got the Scottish breakfast. In fairness, despite the greasy spoon vibes, the breakfast itself was great! The pancakes were the best I’ve had in a long time. Very thick and absolutely drenched in syrup and the bacon brought a lovely salty contrast to the sweetness! Big portion as well. My wife also praised her breakfast highly with everything being cooked well. Maybe not the highest quality of meat but it certainly done the job and filled a whole. It was also a little cheaper than many of the other breakfasts. The nice lady also took a chunk of the price off as the wife went without mushrooms and tomatoes. A good experience and I’d recommend to anyone looking for an...

Saw the reviews and as the cafe was only a few minutes from where we were staying we decided to check it out for breakfast. It’s a small cafe but there is a real buzz. On our first visit they were super busy but quickly cleared a table for us that had the remains of a large party of builders breakfast on it, and while we were there lots of regulars came in which we took as a good sign. The large window table looked to be the local men’s meeting place on a Friday morning and there were some already tucking into their food who were soon joined by others who were greeted as old friends by the staff. Our order was quickly taken and individual needs accommodated with my friend asking for oat milk in her hot chocolate. Food was delicious with generous portions, I had scrambled egg on toast, and my friend the porridge which came with a dish of sliced bananas, a jug of honey, and extra warm milk if needed. Both were well cooked and presented ( I got to sample the porridge as my friend couldn’t eat it all). Lovely place to eat. We decided to stop again before our train home and while it was quieter on the Sunday morning it was still full, and again service was swift and friendly, they remembered my friend wanted oat milk without needing to be asked. Everyone who worked there took the time to speak to us and I would definitely visit again, if I lived in Edinburgh I’d be there every day! Prices are good and reflect the quality of the food as well as the excellent service. Treated like we were friends not just anonymous tourists....