Laila, Cockburn Street, Edinburgh — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Party of three over the weekend. A polite waitress took us to our table, which was in a very cramped area to the left of the cafe.

We were almost instantly pressured to order a drink with very little time to check the menu by a male waiter. Asked for more time and the same waiter returned again very quickly to ask what we wanted. After placing the order out of slight pressure, another waiter who may have been a little mistaken as to what table they were covering asked us if we would like to order more drinks. After informing him we had ordered, he was very apologetic.

Our drinks (2 tap waters and a iced drink) came in around 10 minutes and once given we were asked to order our food. We placed our order (2 ruby waffle with buttermilk chicken and 1 Shakshouka )and we were then ignored for the 30-45 (probably longer than that as all our drinks were finished well before it arrived) minutes it took to provide our order. The cafe during this point looked to be steady, but not extremely busy, with many customers drinking outside and the odd meal appearing from the kitchen. During the time we waited for our meal, a table of four who came in after us were served drinks and their meal.

The chicken with the waffles were exceptionally dry, even with all the syrup provided drizzled over them. One of us noticed that one plate had reasonable sized pieces of chicken and the other has very small pieces. The waffles did not have much flavour either. However, the shakshouka was exceptionally good. While eating, no one asked how we were getting on/our thoughts on the food. Overall the assessment was we were paying for the aesthetic of the cafe, not for good food.

When finished, one of our party went to the toilet and during this time we waited/tried to catch someone’s attention so we could pay. We also watched a customer trying to flag a waiter get completely ignored despite being right beside them. A waitress then appeared and asked us if we had eaten. We responded that we had and she proceeded to, quite rudely, tell us that we need to leave because there was a queue of customers waiting. We told her that we had not been able to flag anyone for our bill as no one really spoke to us/showed interest since we placed our order and one of our party were at the toilet. She then proceeded to tell us she get our bill. About 2/3 minutes later she came back asking us to pay and we said we would rather wait for the person to return from the toilet but she then continued to ask how we were paying. We felt very pressured to get out so decided to just pay in one so we could move.

We did notice when leaving however there was no queue of customers as mentioned and the individual who rushed us to pay gave us a bit of a dirty look.

Overall, my party agreed it is not somewhere we would like to return to as staff clearly were not interested in customer service, just rushing certain parties in and out. The quality of the food was for me personally, not worth the price (£14.50 for the waffle and chicken).

I understand we visited during the fringe, but that does not excuse a complete lack of customer service...

Disappointing.

Although the pictures and videos shown online look aesthetically pleasing, the food did not live up to its expectations.

I paid 14 quid for one piece of toast, two streaks of bacon and a single egg. It looks big in pictures but I left feeling even hungrier after we had left. High quality products may have been used, however, it tasted below average. For 5.70 I also had the Lucky Charms coffee which was lukewarm, small and not worth it. It did look cute though!

My friend had a waffle which gave her the option to add chicken. She fell for the marketing trick (idiot) and chose to have the waffle with the chicken, it was quite literally a waffle with a chicken on top. I had a bit of her food and found that the waffle was stale, flavourless and could be used for the brick house in three little pigs. She took the words out of my mouth and called it cement play dough. The waffle was difficult to cut and hard to the point it made a snapping noise when I broke it a part. The chicken was bland and dry but to be fair it was a reasonable size for the price. Although it says to trust them that the waffle and chicken combo works, save your money, the combo does not work but of course this is for us. For the waffle, two bits of raspberries and three blueberries she paid 13.80, add the chicken 5.20, in total 19 quid. Her Irn Bru also had bubbles which I doubt was meant to be bubbly.

My other friend had a regular latte which was also lukewarm but maybe it was meant to be that temperature as they did have it poured in a normal glass instead of a mug. I imagine the glass would shatter if it was too hot. Still, would have never expected the coffee to be warm and not hot. For food she only had a carrot cake which was yummy! 6.50 for a slice of carrot cake is definitely on the spenny side but it was a decent size and wasn’t the worst.

Service was slow for a very small place considering there were 3 waitresses. Friendly initial interaction, however, the longer we sat the urge to leave kept rising. We were sat at a dirty table which was wiped after we had ordered. We never received a check back to see if we had any issues which made us feel like we couldn’t say anything. Our plates weren’t cleared until after we had left despite showing clear signs we were finished. Even at the end we were never asked how everything was. I also noticed that our food came before another table who had been sat longer than we were.

There is no doubt that the cafe is targeted to tourists as they focus more on the presentation to attract customers and the prices are far too high for the flavour quality of the food.

Overall, is it value for money? No. Photos would be instagram worthy but would not recommend to eat. Don’t fall for the cute aesthetic if you actually want to...

Worst customer service. I tried to book a table for brunch. To do this you must enquire and wait for a response. They responded to me the next day almost 2 hours after the time slot I wanted saying they have a table, I told them it was too late as I had to stick to a schedule for my trip. I tried to book again the next day and this time they asked for a holding fee of £50 for 5 people so I assumed they would book instantly and confirm. Again they did not respond to me until the next day. We ended up going to another brunch spot, I didn’t think I would be charged because they didn’t get back to me. But after checking my emails they had sent a confirmation for the table. I had booked the table for 13:30 and they sent me the confirmation for the 13:30 table at 14:30 and had said that £50 payment was received. Again this was an hour later than the time slot I wanted as we had to stick to a schedule for the day. At this point I had already eaten at another brunch place and was shocked that they confirmed my table so late and still took my £50 deposit. I contacted them via email explaining the situation and the response was extremely unprofessional. They responded with “so why did you pay the deposit then?” Ridiculous question because in order to secure the table you must pay a deposit. I explained this and asked for a refund but they have ignored me since. I have emailed multiple times and all my emails have been ignored. The lady’s name who emailed me is called Lisa. She was extremely rude, unprofessional and didn’t care to sort out my issue. To save your money and time, do not visit. It is not worth it. Edinburgh has many other great brunch spots to visit. Worst experience I have ever had considering I gave this place another chance.

The screenshot of the email below clearly states that they sent me the confirmation email for the 13:30 table at 14:27 and confirmed they...