Las Iguanas - Edinburgh — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Booking for 17 ppl for my sisters 30th.

I can’t not recommend the staff, the service and food enough.

Firstly when dealing with my large booking they were so patient in me gathering deposits and pre orders for food.

On the day of arrival I had still not managed to pay the deposit for various reasons and phoned the venue. I spoke to a female manager I believe who was extremely kind and put my mind at ease. Even offering our veggie of the group a bespoke meal as the one she had picked she had removed the bulk of the meal as she didn’t like the particular vegetable.

I arrived at the venue early so I could decorate the table with balloons and banners and things. The table was already set up half an hour before hand l to allow me to do this. Nothing was to much trouble as we even asked for sellotape to place a few banners on the wall behind.

The menu was checked over before the guest arrive with myself before the rest of the guest arrive who I must say was outstanding.

Once everyone arrived our drink orders were taken quickly by our beautiful server. (I’m so annoyed I forgotten her name) and we were asked when we would like the food. Before the food arrive my sister was given a make your own cocktail board which was a lovely touch as myself and her have had a particular difficult year and only have each other and my brother now so it was a beautiful surprise.

The service was outstanding. There were no shortage of our main server checking in on us for drinks and other servers also popping by to offer us drinks and clear drinks.

The food arrived and everyone seemed to enjoy it even though some of our varied age group had never been to a Mexican as the tapas allowed for this. Also the churros went down a storm.

At the end of the evening I brought a cake which was brought out by our wonderful server after our dinner was cleared and it was brilliant.

I cannot not thank each and everyone of the team who made a difficult birthday due to cirscumstances something really special. I want to give a special shout out to our server as she was exceptional. As a manager in this industry it is a tough job and even tougher dealing with a huge group who even after been offered drinks said no decided to order when other peoples drinks arrived at the table. I want you to know I truely appreciate everything you did last night. Also to I think was the manager I spoke to on the phone yesterday morning who put my mind at ease on various things including some people pulling out. I also want to mention the chefs who most forget. The timing the food came out for such a large group was excellent and your food was lovely so thank you for working hard in extreme heat with a large group. Lastly to the other servers who pop in and out during the night to ensure we had everything we needed.

I hope you share this post with you team as they are incredible.

Thank you once...

Things started so well but it quickly nosedived. We were sat fairly quickly and told we could order scanning the QR code or wait for table service. After a good 10 mins wait I was about to order using the QR code when we were eventually approached and order taken by a member of staff. There only seemed to be 5 staff in the building, 1 on the bar, 2 on the floor and 2 in the open kitchen. However, our drinks and starters came relatively quickly. Because of that I felt no need to check the time, and was in no hurry anyway, however our patience on our mains started to wear thin when 2 other couples that had come in after us had been served their mains and neither of the floor staff had even come over to ask if we wanted more drinks and to take our finished starters away. We must have waited approx 15/20mins between starters and mains. Our mains came to the table before our starter plates had been cleared away which is pretty disorganised and made for a messy service. The waiter apologised for our wait and my partner said it was pretty unacceptable. My partner ordered another drink and the waiter brought that back and told us he'd taken 20% off our bill for the long wait. We were asked if we wanted dessert but tbh I just wanted to leave as I didn't want to hang around in there any longer. They'd let in 2 big tables, approx 10 on each table so I can only assume if we'd stayed the waiting time and service would have only got worse. I appreciate 20% off the bill for the wait but I'd rather pay full price and have better timely service.

Food was mostly decent, really recommend the cheese and mango empanada starter, lovely. Nachos were fine. My partners Bahian chicken curry was lovely. My chicken enchilada was light on chicken and swimming in watery refried beans, not the best. My cocktail tasted watered down so I didn't bother...

Probably the fourth visit here but there won't be a fifth. Poor service started with a long wait for food order 15-20 mins approx. We were not in a rush so not counting initially. Attempted to give food order when giving drinks order. This was dismissed with, we'll just get your drinks in and come right back for food order. That didn't happen even after we asked the drinks server to take our order. Then having decided on burgers, the burger, all burgers were off the menu. In fairness it was around 8pm on a Monday but restaurant not able to serve main menu items really! So my friend went for chicken and I ordered chilli. BIG mistake. The meat shortage was clearly not confined to the burgers as the chilli was definitely not con carne. I mixed the pool of liquid and beans over the lumpy rice. Because I like sauce in the rice. But as I got to the bottom of the sauce puddle it dawned on me that it was all beans and liquid. No meat! So I went on the hunt and eventually found approximately two teaspoons worth of meat. In a rash decision which in hindsight wasn't the best choice I decided just to eat it. My friend was by this time well through his loaded chicken and it was his birthday treat day out. So I toughed it out. I thought at least I've got some rice and beans. Just like being in the jungle. Wished I hadn't as the nachos were like cardboard, only less tasty. So I decided not to do the British thing and say yes it's fine. So I complained. I was offered free churros which we didn't want. No offer to reduce bill. A 20% off voucher was given but I'd already said I wouldn't be back. There are too many good eating places in Edinburgh to be enjoying better service and food than to risk repeating that experience. Had they said the chilli is also off we'd have gone elsewhere, no harm no foul. But...