The Clock Cafe & Bistro — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Bad food hygiene and got our order wrong (both food and drink). Just been in on a Saturday morning and ordered two breakfast rolls and two coffees. Someone came in after us and got both their coffee and food (also two coffees and two breakfast rolls) first. While we were waiting we noticed that one of the guys in the kitchen (tall and roughly in his late 20s/ early 30s with facial hair) repeatedly wiped his nose on the back of his glove and carried on making food, both ours and other people's. The other (probably late teens/early 20s) was wearing gloves, but took them off, went to clear a table and then went back in the kitchen and started making more food without gloves. I got the impression he was less experienced, but neither of his two colleagues corrected him. Then the waitress gave us our coffees and one of them was wrong, so she had to remake it. When our rolls eventually came out they were both wrong as well, and my partner is vegetarian so she couldn't even eat the bacon egg roll they handed her. By that point we didn't want any of the food they offered though after having watched the terrible hygiene displayed in the kitchen so we just got a refund. Even that was a struggle though, as the waitress couldn't locate our order to refund it back to my card (even though literally two orders had been taken after ours and one other had added something to her tab). In the end she just gave it back to us in cash. In fairness she did seem sincerely apologetic which I appreciated, but she said she was confused by two orders coming in back to back that were similar, and suggested that actually the woman who came in after us and was served first must have had our food by mistake (so presumably they'd actually gotten two orders wrong). All of that is human error though, and I appreciate that people make mistakes. She did offer us one of the rolls after refunding it anyway, since it was only going to be wasted otherwise. At that point we took it but ended up throwing it away when we got home after seeing the poor hygiene. That was the bigger issue for me, and what mainly prompted me to leave a review. Wiping your nose on the back of your glove while preparing food for paying customers is just gross. I get that if you've got a cold or something it can be hard to work in a kitchen (I've done it plenty of times), but if you need to blow your nose (or touch your face for any other reason) then just stop what you're doing. Take your gloves off, blow your nose into a tissue, wash your hands, put fresh gloves back on and carry on. Clean hands is literally one of the most basic aspects of food hygiene in a working kitchen. I'm open to giving this place another go, but not until the...

Strange experience. The food looked delicious and the coffee was legit amazing, but when I was sitting in, the manager/senior member of staff (?) started arguing with a waiter about the rota or something, winding herself up and raising her voice to the point of shouting. If they are comfortable with shouting at staff when customers are around, what happens when they are not? I am rarely confrontational but had to tell the manager that it was unacceptable and they had to tone it down. There are civilised ways to handle disagreements. No issues with other staff members though, they were perfectly polite and friendly - really hope they are not stuck in an abusive workplace. Just sad and upsetting, really.

ETA: Just to respond to what you're saying in the section below, I never asked for any quiet time - I was the only customer inside, so it was quiet anyway, as you say. But can you even imagine how loud it must have got that I was able to hear the "internal matters I was not a part of" getting more and more tense and the person shouting "I TOLD YOU NOT TO SWAP SHIFTS!!!" while having an earphone in one of my ears, as you say? I coughed loudly a few times to attract the attention of the person shouting but she was too wound up to even notice that, which is why I had to ask her to tone it down - and she didn't even hear me at first! Mind you, no one in the café let me know that it was a misunderstanding and they were "only joking"— surely they would have if I were just rude for no reason? Also, shouting at someone for a period of time while they are largely quiet is not quite sibling-like banter, is it? Unless your family is straight up abusive, that is.

If the person here is the manager (?) in question, then I guess there's nothing I can do, you'll just try to insult me or whatever. If it is someone else though, I'd recommend that you have a look at the CCTV if you have one and get an idea as to why someone might have assumed that your staff were shouted at in an inappropriate manner in front...

I went here with my partner a few days ago. There was a table of 6 and two other customers when we were seated. The 6 were waiting on their food. A friend recommended this place to me so I was looking forward to trying it. We were served quickly but problems arose when I simply asked for the scrambled egg to be left off my plate. The waitress told me I couldn't order the french toast without it, I repeated I would like it left off my plate. The waitress hesitantly put my request to the owner after informing us that ,she,' does not like changes. We could hear the conversation in the kitchen and the waitress was spoken to in an abrupt and rude manner and told to tell us that any changes 'will not be made.' The waitress was shaking when I first made my request and came back shaking even more to tell me that I have to have the scrambled egg, We decided to leave as I have never had such appalling customer service in my life and I wont spend money in an establishment where it is clear that the staff working their are terrified of their employer,...