The Gateway Café — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

What was meant to be a nice lunch while visiting the gardens turned into a 2 hour fiasco. After about 20 mins from ordering it turned out the waiter hadn't understood that a soup and chips order was a meant as a main course and so we all found ourselves waiting for one person to finish their bland broccoli soup knowing they were about to enjoy a main course of....chips. I suppose we could have shared an extra bowl of soup that was mistakenly brought to the table. Indeed all that seemed to leave and then quickly return to the kitchen for about 20 mins was bowl after bowl of apparently incorrect soup.

After another 20 minute pause the waiter was called to find out what was going on, soon followed by the manager who explained it was all the waiter's fault and that some charges would be taken off the bill. Lunch eventually arrived and was overall OK. Two fish dishes were tasty enough, kids fish & chips went down well and the steak salad was just about passable. Salad was overdressed and steak, while pink, had been cooked some time ago and so was cold and a bit tough.

It transpires that the manager had cancelled our bill and we left without being asked to pay, drinks and all. However we didn't leave feeling satisfied. All that was needed was for the manager to recognise that things weren't going well, apologise up front and work hard to bring everything back on track. It seems this manager was a manager in suit only. Happy to blame his staff's lack of experience rather than take responsibility himself.

I don't think the gateway staff learned anything from that experience. A free bill feels more like a payoff rather then an apology. I just hope it wasn't subtracted from the waiter's pay because the manager doesn't know how to...

Over-priced food and agressive staff. Horrible experience on a recent visit. £11.50 baked potato was cold - we spoke to a member of staff who asked 'have you eaten it?', as if to suggest we were causing a fuss and were trying to get it for free. Later the same staff member delighted in aggresively admonishing us for taking salad dressing to our table stating 'its not to be taken to the tables, it's for everyone'. When we explained we had asked for condiments (mayonnaise etc which there were none) another staff member gave us these to take to our table, the staff member again, aggresively told us 'they're not for your table - they're for everyone'.

Went with my pensioner mother and disabled auntie and I'll never go back again. I emailed them about our experience but they never responded - they obviously don't care about their customers and there's clearly no management in charge. I've been once before and it was much better than this, so no idea what has happened but other reviews stae a similar experience. Atmosphere is good - it's a beautiful setting and view but my goodness what a horrible and upsetting experience.

£45 for 2 cold baked potatos, 2 coffees and 1 slice of cake to get this level of service. I'm absolutely fuming when these sorts of outings are a luxury in these times... and to get no response to a formal complaint...? Terrible value.

I would...

Was given a groupon lunch deal as a gift but couldn't make the original date. Phoned up to ask if it could get moved to a date deyond the expiry date. They said it was no problem. We arrive and are greeted nicely, until I explained the situation. The woman serving us was not happy and her face just dropped, asking who we spoke to etc, basically trying to work out if we were lying or not. She went away for a good 5-10 minutes and then reluctantly gave us a table. She then coldly told us that our deal only included 2 small sections of the menu and abruptly left us. A waiter finally came over who was much more polite and told us basically the opposite and informed us that we could order from pretty much the whole lunch menu. We had a our food, which took a long time, it was OK but the whole experience was soured by the way we were treated originally. If it wasn't a gift we would have just left and not eaten. Not a great experience at all, which is a shame as the Botanics themselves...