Mimi's Bakehouse — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

I'm reviewing this bakery specifically in relation to an order for a custom made cake for a 30th birthday. I chose a Nutella and Raspberry cake which was very tasty, although not exactly as I'd imagined. It had maybe 10 or 11 actual raspberries on the cake and the inside didn't have jam or fruit, but more of the buttercream filling. That wasn't really what I was looking for but I probably could have been more specific with the shop before ordering (I recommend you order over the phone, not via the website, so you can ask questions before paying). When I collected the cake, I asked if I could buy some balloons, and I ordered 2 bunches. They inflated them while I waited and brought me very ordinary looking small sets of blue balloons (about 3 in each set), which were perfectly sufficient, but they then charged me just over £13 for each of the sets! It came to almost £30 for two sets of pretty basic looking blue balloons. It really was criminally overpriced, especially in comparison to the price of the cake which was totally reasonable. I paid out of embarrasment, and then bought about 10 times the amount of balloons (in terms of both quantity and quality) from a high street retailer. So, overall 4 stars for the cake because although it wasn't exactly to my taste, it was still a good job and very attractive looking. For the balloons it's zero stars (my advice to the owner - please stop profiteering on the extras!). Overall I think three stars is fair. Personally, I would probably go elsewhere for a custom cake in future as there are so many other options in Edinburgh and the balloon incident left a bad taste in my mouth. However, I would say that the cakes are generally good quality and that there is a wide range of options to choose from on their online menu, so you may have a better...

This place does some of the best french toast in Edinburgh and they do some fairly good cakes as well - so if you have a sweet tooth it is worth checking out. They serve the usual array of hot drinks - the hot chocolate is good, but the coffee is pretty average. We have been a couple of times when we have been in that part of town and enjoyed the food but generally get put off by the attitude of the staff as they can be very abrupt and those who appear to be the senior staff are quite obnoxious. Booking is generally recommended due to the popularity of the place however on our most recent visit we hadn't booked in advance and the lady who greeted us audibly 'tutted' with annoyance at us when we said that we hadn't booked.

We were shown to a table and told that we had an hour to order and leave as the table was reserved - this was fine in principle as we knew what we wanted. However in reality it was a nightmare - It took the waitress 15 minutes to come and take our drinks order and she said she'd be right back to take our food order: 15 minutes later she came back to take the food order because 'she forgot'. By the time we got our food we had 15 minutes to eat it to be within the allotted hour slot. We were reminded that we had to leave soon by the unapproving looks we kept getting from staff.

When it came to paying we wanted to split the bill - They will not accept two card payments on one bill. If you want to split the bill only one of you can pay by card which is a bit ridiculous these days. When we questioned this we were chastised by the grumpy waitress saying that we should have read the sign (not visible from where we were sitting).

I like the food here and it is good quality, however the most recent experience with the staff means I would not be in any rush to return...

Staff were abrupt and not very friendly which left a bitter taste as soon as we entered. We arrived slightly early and were told we were early and that the table was not ready and were not given any option to sit down anywhere until the table was cleaned. No apology or anything.

We went outside and came back in and they asked for the details and brought up the wrong booking as they didn’t bother to check the surname. It was also my friend’s birthday which was mentioned in the booking comments and they did not bring a special birthday muffin for her like they did for another customer…which was both embarrassing for us and appalling that the booking was not checked properly. To add the cherry to the cake (pun intended) they did not provide the full selection of sandwiches in the afternoon tea (however we explained and they brought out another three with an apology, 15 minutes later). We waited a good 20-30 minutes before being asked what drinks we would like with our afternoon tea. The place was not even busy at this point so it was just embarrassing.

The staff did not say “thank you for coming” upon leaving and did not ask how everything was at the end. The vibe was way off.

I have been in 2017 and it was amazing but this time it was a huge let down. £25 per head for what you get is not worth it and definitely disproportionate between the number of sandwich slices and cake to the point we all felt sick by the third cake. They were nice but in its entireity, definitely not worth the money. I will not be coming back to this one in Leith due to the service and atmosphere.

I notice by the responses there is some personal offence taken by some negative comments and excuses made rather than take the comments as constructive criticism to improve...