La Plaza Bistro — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

The place was empty, which should have been a sign... We ordered and the food was served really fast. It was a burguer and a steak pie with mash. The burguer was really sad looking, little to no fillings other than the meat, but the issue was with the pie and mash: processed mash and store bought pie. All and all, the pie was ok (Tesco's is not bad either), but when the waiter/owner came to ask how everything was, I told him that the powder for the mash was not mixed properly (there was an inedible rock of dry potato mix), and he said that it wasn't powder. I should probably have said 'flakes'. He apologised and offered to make it again, this time "properly mixed", but I didn't want more of it. I would rather have to wait a bit longer and get delicious food than be served that fast eating that. Also, when the waitress brought the drinks, she left the tray on the table instead of placing the drinks? Odd. Overall they were very nice people, and offered a 20% off on the following day's breakfast, but I wasn't willing to try anything else after that... The place looks really nice, and prices are ok, but they reeeeally need to step up their food game if they want to keep the business running, as there are a lot of other good places to eat...

(Wouldn’t return for breakfast)

We stopped in for breakfast after seeing the 4.2/5 rating — but we can only assume those reviews weren’t for breakfast.

We both ordered the avocado breakfast, with orange juice, coffee, and water (triple drinks for breakfast — why not?). Unfortunately, things went downhill from there.

The “smashed” avocado was clearly store-bought and served fridge-cold, which instantly cooled the toast beneath it. The poached eggs had been cooked in one of those plastic moulds and were completely solid inside — no runny yolk in sight. The feta seemed straight from the packet, and, oddly, it was served on a bed of iceberg lettuce. For breakfast? A strange choice.

On the positive side, the bacon was excellent — perfectly cooked and full of flavour. The coffee was also great, though the orange juice tasted cheap and store-bought.

Overall, we were really disappointed — especially given the bill was nearly £50. Maybe the 4.2 rating reflects their dinner menu, and they have a stronger chef in the evenings. But for breakfast, we’d say skip it — we left feeling pretty...

Bizarre experience. Food was really good and timely - affordable, delicious, and not stingy with portions at all! But after this we were left for half an hour before service returned, the server tried to bill us even though we wanted dessert, and generally seemed like she didn't want us to be there for any longer. She spent a LOT of time chatting with a man behind the bar who had no discernable role before coming back.

When dessert was eventually served with drinks I may have been given the worst mojito I've ever experienced. It's my favourite drink... I thought the 'frozen cocktails' menu meant slushies... Instead, what I seemingly got was nuclear-green mint liqueur in ice cubed sparkling water. I have no idea what kind of toothpaste backwash I have put into my body. There was paper floating in it... It was a unique spearminty sadness. Like I said, the food was brilliant, but I have zero clue what the hell that last chapter was! A damn...