The Kenilworth — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

While strolling down Rose Street in Edinburgh in search of some authentic Scottish food, I found myself spoilt for choice—but nothing really stood out until I passed The Kenilworth Pub. I’ll be honest, I’m someone who always checks the lowest-rated reviews before walking into a place, and the ones for Kenilworth weren’t very encouraging. Most of them spoke about poor service, and let’s be honest—service is just as important as food in any dining experience.

So I skipped it… twice.

But the third time I passed by, something about the place kept pulling me back. I finally said to myself, “Let’s take a chance—worst case, I’ll end up with a sandwich or a panini for dinner 😜.”

When I walked in, no one approached me at the entrance. I waited a bit, then made my way to the counter to ask if I could be seated. They told me to pick any table I liked, so I chose to sit outside. That’s when I realised the ordering system was via a QR code. Not really my favourite way to dine, especially when you’re new to a place and want a bit of guidance. But I went with it.

Surprisingly, everything started falling into place from there. My beer arrived in about 7 minutes, followed by the starter and eventually the main course. The food? Absolutely fantastic. And what truly stood out was the server’s sincerity—he actually came by and apologised for the delay in starters, which I really appreciated. Being in the restaurant business myself, I completely understand the challenges that come with managing service during busy hours. This time, I was a tourist—but I could see both sides.

All in all, The Kenilworth turned out to be a fabulous experience. Yes, the service can be polished with better training and attention, but the food and the effort to make things right really shone through. I wasn’t planning to write a review, but I believe it’s important to give balanced feedback. Even when things start off a bit shaky, a little patience and understanding go a long way.

Some may troll me for writing it this way—but hey, that’s my honest opinion. And I’m glad I...

The staff and supervisor were rude, and it took 50 minutes to get your food! This bar was the first place that we visited in Scotland. Unfortunately, we have to say the experience was awful as follows. I asked for Scottish cuisine advice, but a female staff said directly that we could go to another bar which serves similar Scottish food to The Kenilworth. This response shows how rude of being hospitality can be. I asked again to another male staff about the recommendation of food. He simply asked me to look up the menu. We find the staffs have no passion for serving and being honour of their brand. After finishing online ordering, we waited for half an hour, but no food was served. We went to the bar and asked how long shall we wait. The male staff said 20 minutes longer. We cannot believe we must wait 50 minutes to get food. As we had an appointment an hour after, we decided to cancel the order. The male staff, who might be the supervisor, accused that it was our fault to order food with them if we had only a limited time to wait. Dude, we had one and a half hour to stay in a restaurant, including accessing the inconvenient wifi and unhelpful ordering. Moreover, is it reasonable to wait for 50 minutes for the food to be ready? Plus, does the staff have no responsibility to notify customers of such a long wait? After the supervisor tried to proceed with the refund, he accused and scolded me again that it was our fault to order food with them. Have you ever been to any restaurant where a manager accuses and scolds customers? Great hospitality! Great manager! Great team! We sincerely hope that our disappointing and frustrating experience would never...

Terrible experience! Booked months in advance for me, my wife and our 2 kids aged 9 and 13. We booked for 4.30pm and arrived at 4.25pm. The barman then told us our table was ready but we couldn't sit at it as we had kids and the kitchen wasn't open, I asked him how is that our fault as the kitchen should be open if our table was ready, he just gave a blank stare. He left and after a few minutes came back and told us they were "opening the kitchen especially for us". Giving they say their kitchen was open before this on their site when we booked I found that comment funny.

After sitting at a very uncomfortable bench at the table we asked at the bar for drinks as no-one came to ask at the table, he then came with 3 bottles of cola for my wife and kids but didn't bother coming with glasses so again had to go back to ask for the glasses and ice, the barman didn't seem very happy and we were asking too much when asking for glasses for my kids drinks, he really did seem more interested in talking with the barmaid than serving the customer.

My advice would be if they don't want to open their kitchen until later at night then maybe they shouldn't take table bookings for food until later at night!

As for the reply from the owner below there was no inconsistencies in the story and I explained that to her and got some random excuse. It happened as I...