Origano Cafe & Pizzeria — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

I really wanted to like this place! It's located in a charming part of Leith and looks like a sweet place for a date night. It has a legit-looking pizza oven and a nice atmosphere with good lighting that is not too loud or crowded. This being said, I was intensely disappointed (devastated?) by the pizza. I can't imagine the other food would be better because it was elementally bad. By this, I mean the basic elements were tasteless: dough and sauce. You may write me off or judge (at your own peril) because I'm lactose intolerant, and my partner is vegan, so we get pizza without cheese. I'm from Philly, where we have the most delicious tomato pies that will rearrange your cheese-centric universe. Pizza is simple, and it's about dough and sauce. Cheese is the icing on the cake. You don't eat cake for the icing do you? DO YOU? The waitress was kind, but hilariously brought us more pizza when we said we didn't like the pizza, and that it was flavorless and sad. Ha. She brought more sadness! This time, a smaller version of the mushroom pizza, with butter on the mushrooms, which she hoped would fix the tasteless problem. *Butter is not THE or a key ingredient to good pizza! We took a few bites to be polite, but damn, to complete this ramble with a question to humanity, how on earth are there so many glowing reviews? Are these people dead in the tongue? Note, I was in a good mood headed in to the place and left in a good mood, but poorer (expensive!!) and full in a bad way during my bike ride to the pub. We won't be back to this spot, and the search continues after numerous failed attempts for a good pizza spot in Edinburgh. Will this be a fruitless endeavor? I think I can't last long here without good pizza. It's existential. I hope this brings about a flavor/soul search for Origano. I don't write this in spite at all, just hoping for better food and real love and effort in the food to come from hearing my experience. Perhaps my partner and I are outliers, but also, maybe people are just being polite....

Pretencious, Rude staff, NOT children friendly. I am absolutely surprised by the currently 4.5 mark on this place because this is very far to reflect the experience I got there last Sunday, so far away. First of all not the best welcome we arrrive with a pram and ask if we ca get a table, the restaurant is very quiet so I do not really get the hesitation, maybe the pram fair enough. We are the easiest customers so you can place us wherever and we're happy so we end up behind the bar so the pram can get out the way. The menu : no pizza under £10 so I am expecting award winning pizzas, I am used to go to Paesano in Glasgow there is no pizza over £8 and they have been awarded best pizza in the UK several times this year which makes total sense when you've tried it; so I am suspicious that my £14 pizza will be twice better anyway we chose a place to sit with a good friend of us so let's have a good time. The pizza was definitely pretenciously priced ok but if Paesano would be there they would think they can charge £30 for a marguerita ang get 5 star reviews. The baby did not cry, we've asked nothing, so you would not expect the 2nd waitress to be angry, kicking the pram back to my wife's chair everytime she was walking by our table! what a joke if you are not in a mood to work on a sunday you just stay home or you don't work in a restaurant: hospitality is such a basic in this job? It's the first ever time I get this in Edinburgh. My wife's very fair play so she left a fiver for the tip despite me saying it should be a £0. She eventually regretted it when struggling to pass the exit door with the pram (2 members of staff watching, 1 right beside the door) not one moving... not even a good bye - I will send this address to Gordon Ramsay in...

I was expecting more from other reviews.

Seating was ok, and whilst we were in the corner it did feel like we were crammed in. Feels like there is maybe one table too many squeezed in. One pram blocked up food service and access to the toilets (which were fine).

Service was ok, a bit too stand-offish, I felt we were being processed through the restaurant clockwork.

Wine list is ok though staff knowledge was lacking - one wine was in-stock, out of stock then back in-stock. My friends enjoyed some of the drafts.

Menu is a far too long, offering what looked like every possible combination of the same ingredients, it looked more like it was from a 90's greasy Chinese takeout menu than something fitting the quality ambience. The restaurant offers a gluten free base which tasted great.

3 of us had different pizzas with chilli on it and it may as well have been the same pizza as the chilli was so overpowering that tasting any other ingredient was impossible serving only as different texture. 1 of our group got a pizza with a base that was definitely on the burnt side of authentic crispy.

The staff discounted our bill rather than return things to the kitchen.

Having had a pick at the others pizzas the ingredients varied in quality. The meats were great, the fish appalling, the veg was fine.

Overall a 'meh' experience. Feels like the management have taken their eye off the ball - staff need training in the drinks, the menu needs simplified, the ingredient's need to be balanced out for quality and flavour valance, the seating layout...