The Little Bakery — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Myself and my partner booked to go the little bakery to celebrate my birthday today. We turned up and didn't have a very warm welcome by the waitress. We were then seated at a table which felt a lot like Harry Potters bedroom under the stair case. After sitting for about 10 minutes trying to gain someones attention, they eventually took our order.

The drinks however took half an hour to arrive after asking the waiter where they were. Then the waitress came from the kitchen with the coke, we mentioned that we've been waiting a long time just for the drinks! We explained that other people arrived after us who were seated, watered and fed before we received any form of service.

The waitress asked if we wanted to see the manager who turned out to be the waiter. After a few minutes, the "manager" came back with prepared answered for us and wasn't willing to accept our feedback from the poor service that we received and tried to justify the long wait as we didn't order bruschetta. But how long does it take to crack open a bottle of coke and bring it to the table? At that point the manager didn't know what to say and asked us "what do you want me to do" whilst opening his arms. And didn't bother to ask if there's anything he can do to improve our experience. But nothing.

We decided to leave and take our services elsewhere as we do not appreciate being spoken to like as if we've done something wrong. After charging us for the coke that we couldn't enjoy at leisure as they arrived a few minutes before the bill was issued, the manager made a face whilst walking behind my partner. Never ever again. From the bottom of my heart if you're not ready to take criticism on the chin and can't accept that things can go wrong, then hospitality isn't for you. Also we didn't get any form apology which isn't

If anyone wants a decent meal in South Queensferry, consider going to Down the...

Not dog friendly - I dog sit and I have twice been told that I couldn’t give water to the dog I was with as it would make a mess which would upset the other customers… One of these times the cafe was nearly empty, I was sitting at the back surrounded by empty tables, and had a small bowl of water, untouched, on the floor, with a perfectly behaved dog lying by the table - neither of us bothering anyone. The other time it was busier and the dog I had with me was the best behaved dog in the place - quietly sitting beside me. Both times, the male owner (female owner has been friendly to me in the past) came over and asked me to lift the water - and said that dogs should drink from the water bowls outside. On both occasions, the water bowls outside were empty.

I questioned the owner on the second occasion and explained that I disagreed with the approach of allowing dogs inside the cafe but not allowing them to drink water - given drinking is a basic requirement for their well-being and lots of dogs will have come to the cafe after a walk or having been at the beach… His argument was simply about not wanting to upset other customers who might complain about water on the floor… I asked if he would create a policy that said young children could come into the cafe but weren’t allowed to drink…

You can’t say you’re a dog friendly cafe if you only allow dogs inside in order to bring in a wider variety of customers, but don’t actually care about the dogs’ most basic needs…

The younger staff are nice and one young guy was very apologetic about the water situation after the owner instructed him to come over, get my water bowl and pour it out outside…

I’ve bought a lot of coffees here over the last couple of years but I won’t be back - plenty of other truly dog-friendly cafes in South Queensferry that are...

We visited the bakery on a Tuesday afternoon to get some coffees and goodies. The place was quiet, maybe 2-3 other tables filled but no more than that. None of the people behind the counter so much as looked at us, let alone greeted us. When we finally caught someone’s attention (from other reviews I think this may have been the manager?) we had to repeat our order at least 4 times - 2 lattes, one salted caramel brownie and one raspberry and white chocolate blondie. I wish I was exaggerating. It really seemed he was preoccupied and wasn’t interested in our custom at all.

When my partner finally picked up the lattes they were scolding hot. The scalding coffee seems like such a weird thing to complain about but we were parked just outside and had to wrap our drinks in our sleeves to carry them out because it was burning our hands. It took a good 20 minutes or so of cooling it down to be able to drink it! Again nobody said a word to us when we left - not “thanks! see you soon”, nothing. I’ve never been into an independent cafe before with such little interaction from staff.

I’ve given an extra star for the salted caramel brownie but that’s it. It was quite tasty although the texture was a little off. The blondie was horrific I’m sorry to say. It’s akin to very dry cake - not a “blondie” at all. We ended up throwing it out because it was that bad. Would not recommend. The coffee (once at a drinkable temp) was decent.

I hope the feedback will be taken on board - based on other reviews it seems the customer service aspect is the biggest issue. Our order came to £15 which is on the more expensive side so understandably your expectations will be higher.

S. Queensferry has lots of lovely independent cafes and restaurants so at the moment I’d recommend looking elsewhere if you want a...