EL&N Edinburgh St James Quarter in Edinburgh, City of

I’d love to rate this higher as the place is beautiful, I’ve tried the food 3 times now and it’s awful. Every time I’ve walked away so disappointed. Tried eggs, cube pastry, coffee and seasonal cocktails (all gross).Wouldn’t recommend for anything other than a photo

Pass ! Only one person serving and full place ! Chicken sandwich was awful taste ! Cake dry and honestly the selection of food is pretty poor ! Regret coming ! Will pass by next time

Absolutely awful. Really disappointed as we are here on holiday and I saw the place online and it looked amazing!!! Nothing on menu was available only sandwiches which were freezing and tasteless. I couldn’t even bite through mine. Did wonder why place was dead when rest of eateries in surrounding area were busy. Really ruined our day!

I went here when it first opened and they did table service with hot meals. They don’t do that anymore. It’s a few cakes and some sad looking sandwiches at the counter which you pick yourself, pay at the till then pick a table. There was one member of staff, who was friendly enough but mentioned it was his first day. My friend has a peanut allergy and asked what she couldn’t/couldn’t have. He basically said they couldn’t guarantee anything could be nut free so we left. To be honest, we were glad to leave because the place was dead and had a crappy vibe. I wouldn’t bother going. It looks a lot better on instagram.

Loved my visit. Perfect place for cute instagram pictures and the drinks and desserts were amazing too and presented beautifully.

We arrived at EL&N on a Monday morning at around 11am to get some brunch. There were only 2 people in the café when we arrived and 2 members of staff stood near the door waiting to greet us. We were a group of 8 so were fully prepared to have to wait for a table or go elsewhere, so we were pleasantly surprised to see the café was fairly empty. The lady who greeted us (I'm assuming she was the manager as she was dressed more formally than the other staff) asked us how many, we replied '8 of us' and she audibly scoffed. Not a great start. However she led us to a table and gave us the menus to look at. Then she asked 'Do you have any allergies or dietary restrictions?' to which I replied that I was gluten free due to an intolerance. Without even missing a beat she said 'Well we cannot make you any of the hot dishes, the only thing we have for you is a slice of the pistachio cake'. Then walked off. I looked at the menu and discovered that said slice of cake was £9! Absolutely not. This was incredibly frustrating as a number of the dishes on the menu could have easily have been adapted to be gluten free. The Turkish eggs could have been serviced with some gluten free break, the eggs benedict the same. It just seemed like they didn't want to have to deal with the hassle of it. However it does state on their website that dishes can be adapted. Just apparently not here. I also overheard a lady in a group who was there for afternoon tea say that she had spoken to their team on instagram about gluten free options for the afternoon tea. The manager said to her abruptly 'The instagram team is not us, we are separate!'. All in all, a very disappointing visit. I ended up having a latte and then going elsewhere to get some food. My friends seemed to enjoy but also felt the place is very much a style over substance cafe. They found the food to be lacking. If you want nice instagram photos, then by all means go and waste your money. If you want to eat something decent, go elsewhere.

Came here for a friends Birthday celebration, we had afternoon tea. We were looked after by Bea a lovely lady , she gave us a perfect experience. The food was beautifully presented in a gorgeous setting the attention to detail is impeccable, a pleasure to sit in here we were in awe the whole visit. Staff were friendly lovely hospitality skills . Spoke with a lovely guy when we were leaving he worked on the front of house counter sorry didn’t catch his name ,he had a short beard , again great hospitality. I would highly recommend EL&N to all my friends and family. It’s in St. James square please don’t visit the shopping mall expecting to find it in there . It’s outside of the main entrance up the side of the outside building you can’t miss it once you’re there .

Hard to recommend a visit. Definitely a case of style over substance. Service painfully long for a simple order of coffee and cake. Smell of cooking food spoils the whole experience.

I had booked a table to celebrate my friend having a baby weeks ago for this weekend. I contacted the venue immediately after making the booking with some questions about the room (I was aware there was a small private room available) and was told that bookings weren’t open yet. I them replied and explained that I had already booked the table and had received a confirmation. This was ignored. Eventually my friend found a random mobile number to speak to a member of the team (although they answered like it was their personal phone so was pretty unprofessional) and was told that it was fine and to contact them in a couple weeks to make sure we could get the room. I did this via email and have been completely ignored. Yesterday I received an email from Open Table to say my booking has been cancelled with absolutely no communication from the venue. I’m aware this is a new venue and that there are always teething problems but these would could easily be forgiven with simple, honest communication. It’s unprofessional and just plain rude. The venue might be beautiful but that and a good reputation from other venues in the chain won’t carry it. As my auntie would say it seem it’s all fart and no poo.

this place is unique and the food is fantastic, it’s quick and efficient yet the staff are very rude and i suggest some customer service training. We’ve been here before so have it a shot again - our party was sitting on two separate tables one table was right in the way of the door and asked to move the the sheletered table, they made a fuss and stated they had a strict table policy and we’re extremely rude to the table, half of our table had to leave due to the fuss. Some of the staff are lovely but most are passive aggressive and seem like they have no common sense. overall good amazing, staff poor.

Bland food, high expectations but poor results. The servers tried their best but the food was just awful.. I ordered a chapati with mozzarella however what arrived was two pieces of puff pastry with a piece of cheese on each. To say it was tasteless but would an exaggeration. I was so disappointed. I did notice most people didn’t finish their plates which maybe should have told me something. A very disappointing visit. I would not recommend. It was expensive but not worth it. The place itself is very pretty to look at.