Victor Hugo Deli - The Meadows — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Nice coffee, nice baked goods I believe (word of mouth) however, as a vegan I am not a fan of their vegan options. The lack and taste of their vegan options does not contribute to my scoring of Victor Hugo's as I do not feel as a vegan I am their target market. I frequently attend Victor Hugo’s for coffee as it is conveniently on the same street my boyfriend frequents. On several occasions I have been taken aback by the managers apparent rudeness when serving me. On one occasion I felt she actively avoided serving me. The rudeness was something that frankly did not bother me, as a young professional in the city I am used to working with the public and subsequently used to being exposed to rudeness. Today however, “took the biscuit” or should I say chocolate twist. On a day like today one was not only very unwell with a flu but also in the space of 10 minutes the apparent target of 3 fracas craving members of staff. Firstly, I was ever so slightly miffed that the waitress serving me at the counter spoke over me on 3 separate occasions while I was trying to croak out my order. Secondly, as I waited for my order the manager barged into me and hit me with her clipboard without acknowledgement or apology. I must add that the cafe was not crowded nor was there a lack of space for her to get past. Thirdly, the man making the coffee reacted badly when I innocently wanted to confirm that my flat white had indeed been made with oat milk (I am not only vegan but also have a dairy intolerance) sarcastically held up the bottle of oat milk and sharply said “here is your evidence”. I feel that while I continue to reside in the local area I may continue to buy coffee from Victor Hugo’s but for my convenience only. As a local home owner (Morningside) I do not feel the same warmth about Victor Hugo’s as I do about other independent local coffee shops. I am an individual who will deliberately support local businesses but I certainly do not have the drive to support Victor Hugo’s anymore. I think it may be worth the manager reflecting on this review and looking at the training that she undertakes with her staff. In my profession I would be likely to face a formal complaint for such an attitude and rightly so. It is people such as I that contributes to your thriving business and ensures that your wages are paid every month. Some consideration about your engagement with the public may improve customer experiences and subsequently prevent them from sharing above opinions with friends, family and on forums...

I've been going to Victor Hugo's for decades with family and friends, and have always enjoyed the food and coffee there + having a great catch up. Recently, a friend of mine and I visited and were having a good time with good service, coffee and lunch as usual (we had a few coffees, a pastrami sandwich toasted each, chocolate cake and cinnamon bun during our visit - all delicious!). One person in particular was really warm and friendly - I didn't catch her name unfortunately, but she was behind the counter taking our orders. The only thing that negatively impacted on our visit was one of the other servers. She was very abrupt and rude to the girl serving us, telling her off in front of a line of customers (very loudly) that she needed to give her more time to prepare orders + she was causing her problems. Having worked in hospitality for years myself, I understand how stressful the job can be, but the level of rudeness was really unnecessary and pretty off putting whilst make our order. This same person proceeded to literally shriek at various points during our visit behind the counter to the point that other severs were calling her name across the cafe to indicate she was a bit loud (Gabi I believe) and it was so intrusive it stopped our conversation in it's tracks a few times. To top it off, she came and announced to the customers indoors that they had to 'get out' in 15 minutes....again, it wasn't the fact she told us this, it was the rude, abrupt way she did it. We, along with other customers, were clearly put off. It's a shame, cos Victor Hugo's is usually a good place to visit, so hopefully this was a one off experience and things will be...

I have been to Victor Hugo Deli many times over the past year of my living in Edinburgh and had excellent service. The menu itself is diverse and delicious and friends have relied on it to find comfort on a down day.

However, today I took visiting family there as a treat and was faced with the antithesis of my former experiences there. Two out of five orders were delivered to our table after twenty minutes, and after waiting another half an hour, to respect the staff pressure on such a busy day in the cafe, we asked after the other orders. We were told that we had ordered 5 scrambled egg on toasts, which we just hadn't, and that we had been told that the waiting time should be at least 20 mins. I told the manager (who had been the customer interaction for our time there today) what our orders had really been, and how only bits of it had arrived, and was told that there was a mistake and that it's because of the busy environment. We were also told that we wouldn't have to pay for it, which is a small acknowledgement of how we'd been let down. There was no sincere apology, or suggestion of how they had let us down. It was clearly not understood that a table's orders are served together with no major wait between them. When leaving we expressed some disappointment and despite this still had to pay with only a 30% discount.

I would have been entirely understanding if there had been a greater compensation for the mistake and a sincere apology, but the utter absence of either these left me with no choice but to warn other cafe goers of the arrogance and poor communication of the...