Burgh Halls in West Lothian

I wouldn’t have know this cafe was there as it is so well hidden from sight, but it is well worth looking for if you are after somewhere with all the basic essentials. It is more works canteen than top end coffee shop, but it’s spacious, warm, and is inexpensive. A great place to take children without fear of them upsetting anyone or breaking something valuable! The staff are worth a special mention. Friendly, cheerful and helpful.

My family and I had a fantastic afternoon tea today. Cakes and sandwiches were so fresh and the sausage roll was very tasty. Unbelievably good value for money and a lovely setting. Would highly recommend.

Good food and service with reasonable prices. There was a workman drilling something near the front door. The noise never seemed to stop and we couldn’t hear each other well at the table. I think it best that works like this are completed outside of business hours. A poor experience.

We visited for lunch. This place has a very pleasant ambience and comfortable surroundings. It was nice and warm on a cold day. Toilets were modern and spotlessly clean. We had soup, sandwiches and panini. Food was very good and reasonably priced. We were served by Mharie who was very welcoming with a nice smile and great personality. Thanks to her and Ellie in the kitchen/ cash desk who was equally charming. This was a very good experience and one that we will repeat often. Well done and thanks to the staff!

Dropped in for a latte and scone this morning .A nice setting looking onto a patio and grass garden . Good meeting place for locals and visitors alike nice selection of sandwiches and toasties available

Very pleasant all round experience. Clean, tidy, homely cafe with very good facilities, decent menu, where we had lunch and drinks. Tasty food, very friendly staff.

Called in for lunch and ordered soup, soup with sandwich, hot chocolate, soya latte and a slice of cake - £14.60. The young girl on the till was pleasant but slow in taking the order. Cake and drinks were served at point of order, the soup and sandwich followed about 15 mins later. We sat outside with our dog and enjoyed the garden. The drinks were ok, the cake was lovely and the minestrone soup and sandwich were tasty. Toilets were squeaky clean. Shame a group of annoyingly loud new mums had to make their presence known to all.

Well patronised by locals with a small but tasty menu .we dropped in and had a bowl of home made soup followed by a Tuna mayo sandwich just the thing on a wet day . Cafe was half full when we visited but had filled up by the time we left . A nice outdoor area for better weather with an interesting statue in the garden of the 1st Marquis of Linlithgow John Hope

Dopo la visita al castello di Linlithgow in novembre una sosta in questo locale con una bella luce e un buon tè accompagnato dai mitici scones inglesi è una cosa unica. Il servizio è buono anche se spartano ma penso quello che ci vuole per immergersi nella cultura inglese/scazzese.

Convenient location next to Linlithgow palace. The indoors room does not have something special but the view to the garden is nice in a rainy day.

Good central location for Lunch with friends Lovely soup and roll followed by a bit of home baking Able to sit and talk without being rushed . Nice outlook onto the grassy banking from the full length glass window/ doors

We popped in on the sunny May Day Bank Holiday to grab a bite of lunch and use the toilets while visiting the Palace next door as it has no facilities. The Café seems an ok size and many people were sitting out in the garden in the sunshine. There is a small counter where you order and pay then the food is brought to you. We ordered a cone of chips (to take out) and some soft drinks then sat at the reception area to wait. There seemed to be one lass serving and a lad and woman cooking behind. There were about another 4 people after us. I saw their food being taken out to them and then suddenly the lad dashed out passed us, down stairs returning with a bag of frozen chips. After waiting around 20 minutes I asked the server if there was any sign of our chips - she said they were coming. I think they'd forgotten about our order! I spotted loads of dirty plates piled high on tables and it was a while before anyone went to clear the tables. When the chips arrived they were bought frozen catering chips and edible - just. They arrived in a plastic lidded box which started to melt as we took them away to find a suitable spot to eat. It was £2.15 for the chips Wouldn't rush back!

The entrance to the Burgh Halls is at the side of the main building so is easy to miss unless you’re heading up to the Palace. However, this café is well worth a visit. The café is located at the back of the halls with a lovely view out to the enclosed garden. Also, it can be a struggle to find child changing facilities in Linlithgow so if you have children then this is an ideal place to visit. The menu is simple enough – soup, sandwiches, paninis etc but everything is freshly cooked with good quality ingredients. There’s a children’s lunchbox deal as well which is great value. On my last visit, the Sweet Chilli Chicken Panini was excellent with a good portion of salad and crisps to accompany it. The service is quick and efficient so no complaints there. A slight nit-pick is that while the service is good, its sometimes lacking a little bit of warmth (nothing majorly wrong, just a smile now and again would be nice). This is probably due to it being a young staff at weekends so I can understand if they’d rather be outside ;) A huge plus point is that, unlike some of the rip off cafes nearby (Strawberry Café!), the Burgh Halls is very reasonably priced. So if you’re looking for a decent simple lunch in a quiet relaxed setting then this is well worth a visit.

After exploring the beautiful Linlithgow Palace we were more than ready for something to eat. Dropped into The Burgh Cafe and had a delicious bowl of homemade Leek and Potato Soup with a fresh bread roll. Husband had a scone and he said it was perfect. The young people serving were chatty and pleasant bringing out our lunch which was lovely and warming on a rather chilly day! The cafe (and Burgh Hall) have been modernised and the whole area (including loos) are clean and welcoming. The garden looks very attractive but it was too breezy to sit out! We were just wanting a light lunch but the menu looked to cover most options.

Visited the cafe in the Burgh Halls by default when visiting Linlithgow Palace and all the other cafes seemed busy. However, service was quick and efficient and the staff were friendly and helpful. The snacks were freshly made and good value for money. The enclosed garden outside the cafe is a delightful sun trap on a sunny day. All in all a good experience.

We often visit the glass cafe. There is always plenty of room and you can go outside if the weather permits. They don't have a large selection of cakes to hand. Certainly worth a visit.

The building has lovely interior. There is an exhibition upstairs and historic facts about the building downstairs. The venue is family friendly, with many highchair, buggy parking, toys and colouring in. The cafe has recently had various home baking for sale which is a nice touch. There are many choices on the menu, with a good soup and sandwich deal.

Very poor. Strange choices in sandwiches, watery coffee and the girl serving was extremely sullen. Would not recommend. Could do better

He estado aquí un par de veces con niños pequeños y adultos. El personal es muy atento y la comida es sencilla pero sabrosa. El patio exterior es genial en el calor y las instalaciones y los inodoros cambiantes son muy limpias. Bien vale la pena dejar después de un paseo alrededor del lago o Palacio.

Go here with my daughter usually for lunch on nice days, there is a great area outside which leads onto a garden. The food is nice and very reasonably priced, staff are very friendly.

Un excelente servicio personal de mueble. Servicio Sencillo, con una buena variedad de bebidas calientes y elaborar bandeja alta.

Hay un montón de lugares para comer en Linlithgow pero uno de mis favoritos para un almuerzo ligero o café y pastel es la Burgh Halls. Luminoso y se abren hacia el jardín de rosas es agradable y relajante. Hay a menudo una exposición sobre arriba también.

No podemos agradecer al equipo lo suficiente por la cálida bienvenida que recibimos cuando nos organizó un evento en los pasillos. Todo llegó a tiempo y todas nuestras necesidades dietéticas especiales. se cumplieron! Incluso teníamos un huésped de último minuto de productos lácteos, y atendieron esto rápidamente y sin ningún problema. Si sólo cada hall fue llevado como este!

Attended Wedding - food excellent. Service excellent. Definitely requires air conditioning in main hall as everyone was overheating!

The staff here are lovely, welcoming and very helpful even if you go to them for something that's not in their remit.

We enjoyed a meal at Burgh Halls to celebrate a significant wedding anniversary in the family. This means that the restaurant/caterers had to work around about 80-90 people. The food was very good, served hot and tasty. I think this is a very suitable location for such an event. Not sure it would be suitable for a romantic meal for two though.

We are regular visitors here, love the food, staff, view from cafe price etc. In fact we only have one issue. It's the kids that are allowed to play on the floor. There are toys for the kids and we have no problems with them playing but several times we have been in the kids are playing in between tables with food and hot coffee on them. It's not safe.

Went to a wedding here in April. After the wedding at the Chapel the two halls worked seamlessly together throughout the day for drinks, dinner and a dance. Great to be so close to the Palace. A well presented and well modernised historic building.

We'd gone ages ago when the cafe first opened but have tended to forget about it since because it is set back off the High Street. However, we decided to try it again because it was a lovely day and we would be able to sit out in the courtyard. It was hard for us to find a table outside because the ones not already occupied were all dirty, with plates of half eaten food, cups etc, lying on them. We were forced to clear one ourselves so we could sit down.The cafe is counter service so you have to go back inside to order. There were several people in the queue in front of us and several behind and one girl serving at the counter so it was pretty slow. What caught my eye, however, was the floor in the kitchen area which was clearly visible from the counter. It was dirty too, with bits of food scattered around. It struck me that not only was it not clean, it was also quite unsafe, with staff members walking around with hot food, including soup. It remained that way for the duration of our visit when a couple of minutes with a brush would have tidied it up.We ordered 3 portions of stovies, 3 soft drinks. then 3 coffees and 3 tray bakes, which cost approximately £24. It was fine but we frequent the cafes in Linlithgow often and there are far better and far cheaper.The tables outside remained uncleared (by staff) for the duration of our visit, with each new set of customers clearing them onto another table until there was one bulging table holding all the dirty plates! The staff just seemed a bit disinterested in general - two were holding a conversation with each other while serving us. This visit has not inspired us to go back any time soon, there is definite room for improvement.

The Linlithgow Burgh Halls were refurbished to a very high standard in 2011 using high quality materials and architecture. It is a shame that the cafe fails to reflect this ambition. The food on offer is unimaginative. Worst of all, the standard of cleaning simply isn't good enough. A quick superficial wipe is not sufficient; too many of the table surfaces were sticky and the floors unswept. The exterior area still has last year's dead leaves (as of April 2015) and the outdoor tables are showing signs of rust. This lack of maintenance is shameful given that the refurbishment was completed less than four years' ago. Hugely overstaffed, but only one person seemed to be doing any work. With some attention to detail the cafe could be wonderful, but instead it shows complacency and inefficency. Sad.

Transformed after a major re-build. this historic building in the centre of Llinlithgow now has a good cafe and exhibition space with good wheelchair access. Well worth a visit as it has exhibitions by well known artists throughout the year.

Great cafe for catching up with friends with a lovely outside seated area. My kids love to run about the outside space and there is car park nearby - perfect!

I have walked past the Burgh Halls on the way to St Michaels C and The Palace without noticing. The fact that it is on the far side of the halls has something to do with it . I was in visiting the excellent art gallery and popped in for lunch on a cold day .Mince stovies fit the bill . Quite a busy wee café filled with locals only one young Laddie running the place so the service was slow but I must say he was working hard . The café has large windows on to the Garden at the back so there is a pleasant view. A small limited but pleasant menu. Very central for popping in with plenty of car parking all around

Today I had lunch with some friends at the cafe at the Burgh Halls. The food was absolutely delicious, the service was fantastic and we could not have asked for more. I'll definitely be back.

Nice place to stop for a coffee. Good service but not much variety.Best public toilets I have ever been to.

I visited Burgh Halls as a wedding guest and found it to be a fantastic venue. The food was provided by a catering company so I can't comment on the restaurant itself.

Attended a wedding reception here and it was amazing. The staff were very caring and attentive. couldnt fault the place or the staff. Thank you . Beautiful building inside and out. Would definately recommend it for a wedding reception.

Beautifully renovated building with lovely gardens in a prime location just down from the Palace. There were plenty free tables but they were all dirty so we sat on the steps outside. The service was very slow and they had run out of rolls despite it being early lunchtime. We finished our drinks before the food arrived so I had to queue for another 15 minutes for refills. Rather sad bacon sandwich. It reminded me of the kind of service that was standard in the 1970's. You'd think with it being Father's Day and the Commonwealth baton relay happening 100 yards away they might have made more of an effort.

Had a lovely meal here with my friends- big open spaced cafe with a well priced menu. The staff where extremely helpful and attentive. Would highly recommend the Linlithgow burgh Halls Cafe for all!

Cafés in Linlithgow are usually busy on a Saturday afternoon. The Burgh Halls cafe wasn't and I now know why. The food is very basic and limited with mass catering type ingredients. The panini was cold whilst the baked potato was scalding hot from being in the microwave. The service wasn't great despite the place being empty.When I queried the lack of coleslaw with my food, the waitress felt the need to disagree with me despite it clearly being listed on the menu. If I recall correctly, she said 'we've changed the menu and it doesn't come with coleslaw anymore'. She did bring me a hotter panini with coleslaw to be fair however that wasn't really the point. I wasn't desperate for coleslaw, I just didn't feel it warranted her response. All in alI, it's a real shame as it has a lovely outlook onto gardens and the Burgh Halls is a lovely venue. We won't be back. There are so many other great cafés in Linlithgow.

The service and food was ok just. It could be so good with a lovely setting and plenty of seats outside but to be honest i have had better quality from a van in a layby on the A9.

This cafe should be the best in town because of its location with a beautiful garden attached. I have been there three times, twice for coffee and once for lunch, On each occasion I have found the serving staff off-hand - for example 3 of them standing behind the counter chatting to each other and ignoring me waiting to be served. The coffee is ok but nothing special - and there are other cafes which serve superb coffee within a short distance, Lunch (baked potatoes) was a disaster. The spuds had obviously been done in a micro-wave and the skins were 'uncuttable' with the cutlery provided.

This is a lovely restaurant offering a varied and interesting menu. Our lunch-party tried several alternative courses, all were superb in composition presentation and taste. As another reviewer has stated the standard must be close to Michelin, however given how competitive the world of fine cuisine is these days ( maybe not in Linlithgow) I thought the menu was pricey at £30 for three courses and a glass of Chilean Sauvignon blanc. One of our party was vegetarian and there was nothing on the menu suitable. One suggestion by the waiter was proferred ( butternut squash and gnocchi ) without any alternative which would have been enough to sway a Michelin judge in the wrong direction, however the veggie thought it was really tasty. Given that portion sizes are tailored for those watching their waist line I can't in all fairness award five stars for what was in all other respects an excellent dining experience.

This is up a side street but well worth a visit. The cafe is very suitable for old and young alike. Lovely outdoor area all very safe for children to run around and also supplying toys for children to play with. Big grassy area with trees. Good fast, and polite service and very clean toilets. (What a lovely change) Good helpful advice from the information staff at desk.

A lovely cafe with good food and pleasant service. In good weather there is a wonderful outdoor patio area at the back which is sheltered by the building and the garden walls. It looks onto a substantial garden area that is grassed and an ideal place for children to let off their excess energy when parents want a bit of peace and quiet. There is an art gallery in the building that is superb and rooms that can be hired for functions and events. A lovely place for a break.

recently went for a walk down the Peel, and stopped off at burgh Halls for coffee.Good cuppa and tasty piece of traybake. Very pleasant patio area for outdoor seating. Probably one of the best in town if you want to sit outside.Will return with family/friends

was very close to St Michaels church, and was very spacious, wedding reception was very well organised

Lovely clean and well staffed cafe. Staff were lovely, and our meal very tasty. The girl at the travel information could'nt have been more helpful.

The Burgh Halls were refurbished fairly recently and a welcoming space has been created behind the facade of the the original burgh halls. There's a well-used exhibition space upstairs with some large rooms for functions, i.e. weddings etc. On the ground floor there's a smaller historic exhibition area and a bright cafe serving all the usual cafe fare, in the summer it has an outdoor space set within a walled garden - lovely on a sunny day.The only downside is that the cafe has become extremely popular with mothers, babies and toddlers and it can be difficult negotiating around all the buggies to find a table. The room is mainly hard surfaces too, so the noise from so many young children can be very annoying if you've popped in for a quiet coffee and a chat. It must be off-putting for others, besides myself, as the clientele now seems mainly to consist of mothers and small children - a pity.