L'Etoile Salon de Tea — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

My wife and I went here for lunch because the reviews seemed promising. Our first alarm was that the windows were all steamed up and it did feel a little stuffy and misty inside. The atmosphere was quite dark and gloomy. Perhaps that’s the vibe they are aiming for? We managed to get a table ok and the cafe was half full. There is a substantial number of items on the menu. You can get different types of cooked breakfasts, rolls and toasted bagels, baguettes, sandwiches, French toasties, plenty of French sweet treats. I was attracted by the French toastie (can’t remember the actual name) so I got one of those with salmon. My wife went with a full Scottish breakfast and a hot chocolate. I thoroughly enjoyed mines as it tasted great and the bread was toasted nicely. The hot chocolate was nicely presented and tasted ok. My wife’s cooked breakfast was a bit of a mix bag. It was a good portion and the tattie scones and hash browns were as expected. However, the haggis and eggs were very disappointing as they were mushy. The bacon and sausages were ok but lacked a bit of flavour. The beans my wife couldn’t eat because they were tasteless. The toast was nice. I did ask for an almond croissant but unfortunately they didn’t have any left. The girls that served us were young and it was clear that they were relatively new because lacked knowledge of the menu and didn’t appear too confident. One of the girls was a little too eager and collected my plate but my wife was still eating. This isn’t great service and in hindsight I should have mentioned something. The girls were nice enough though. Unfortunately, one of the girls dropped and smashed some plates whilst we were there. I also asked one of them what was in one of the sweet treats. She attempted to describe it but it was clear that she didn’t really know. Perhaps further training is necessary. We decided to get a few sweet treats to takeaway. Apparently they are all gluten free which is good for anyone that is celiac or gluten intolerant. The desserts all looked great and very unique. We ended up going with the white gold, this chocolate one and a fruity cream one (can’t remember the names). The manager/owner served us and she was lovely and described the cakes beautifully. She also presented them in nicely in a box to takeaway. We really enjoyed our treats. The white gold was the tastiest and had amazing soft texture in the centre. The other 2 were also good but not quite on the same level as the white gold. Overall, we felt our visit wasn’t as good as we we expected. The highlights are the desserts but I wouldn’t recommend a cooked breakfast and the service was not the best. Also, we felt that it wasn’t great value for money. Although everywhere is expensive these days, especially in...

I arrived in Edinburgh yesterday morning having travelled on the Sleeper train from London and during my journey, I did a little research on the best cafes in the area and this one came out very close to the job. Having walked all the way there with my rather heavy overnight bag I was looking forward to a lovely cup of tea. They weren't due to open until 8am and I arrived at 7.56am. There was a team member opening up so I confirmed that it would be open at 8 am to which I received a monosyllabic response. I get it. I hate mornings and I can see how annoying it would be for a customer to be early and then you feel under pressure. No problem. I made a phone call and went in at about 8.05. I was pointed to a table which would not have been my choice and given it was empty, I'm not sure why it mattered but again, no worries. I placed an order for my tea but when it arrived, it was at best tepid. I think that the hot water just hadn't come to temp when they made it. I explained the situation and the person I spoke to didn't really respond. They returned about 5 minutes later with a fresh cup. There were still no other customers. No smile. No apology. No nothing. Nothing worse than feeling like your very existence is inconveniencing people! Great welcome...

Delightful and so tasty!! We smelt the amazing aromas of wonderful food when walking by and just had to book a table, especially since they cater to gluten free as well

We were seated before our reservation time which was wonderful and even though it's quite a busy place, we weren't too packed in

Mirko was our server and he was attentive, helpful, and great when explaining the gluten free dishes, and I was ecstatic to find most of the items were non gluten containing ingredients as well as actually gluten free.

Of course they cannot guarantee non cross contamination as it's a small kitchen and Mirko explained that as well as the menu, but I had no issues after

I had focaccia with olive oil and rock salt, absolutely delicious, followed by a pizza that was - by far - the best gf pizza I've ever had.

My partner had the chicken and mushroom mains as well as garlic bread to start (which he said was the best garlic bread he'd ever had) and my son had the calamari for starters and a rich and creamy prawn and pesto pasta for mains.

We had no room for dessert but we saw several being brought out to other tables and they looked decadent and generous!

All in all we had a wonderful dinner and would...