Grand Cafe Edinburgh in Edinburgh, City of

Excellent restaurant/cafe Excellent menu and bar

The best scones ever! I loved the caramel flavoured one! The service is exceptional! Very friendly staff! Thank you Sam for the wonderful hospitality!

Shanu and Calien were fantastic! We'll be coming back for sure!

Shannkh was excellent! Quietly very entertaining while providing brilliant service!

My 4 friends and I from Australia called into this amazing cafe in Edinburgh for lunch today, thinking it was just a cafe with a fancy name. We stepped through the door and were immediately immersed in beautiful and elegant architectural splendour. We were quickly greeted and shown to our table. Shanmukh, our waiter, soon appeared with more greetings and menus. We ordered a range of food and drinks between us, and when it arrived, everything was hot and fresh. We have been travelling for just over a month, and this is often not the case. Each dish ordered was delightful, and Shanmukh was polite and attentive. The prices too were very reasonable. I highly recommend the Grand Cafe to anyone looking for a dining experience rather than just a coffee and a meal.

Shanu + Calien are the best and are very cool! We stopped in for some cocktails and they were very welcoming and gave us great recommendations.

Food was fantastic! excellent customer service delivered specially by Luca and Shanmukh who made my daughter’s pre-wedding celebration special!

Shanmukh was excellent- I would tell everyone to come here!!! Jen

Decor amazing. Food average. Service ok.

Shanmukh was fabulous- very friendly, courteous and helpful!

Great sercuce by shanmulk drinks wete great too will be back

Wonderful evening shanmukh made our nigty with his wonderful full service will be back

Great service by shanmukh loved it

Shanmukh was a great server and we enjoyed it very much

Beautiful location. I have been there before but I have to say the service has improved a lot.. Shanmukh was fantastic.

Great food & surroundings. Service great until we wanted to pay. It was very difficult to pay individually as a group.

Extremely disappointed with the Burn's Night celebration at the Scotsman Hotel. We had issues from the start – our reservation for four was incorrectly listed for only two people, and we struggled to find our table. Despite explaining, we ended up seated in an undesirable location with no proper signage, feeling like second-class guests. Our food was served last, further diminishing the experience for my friends visiting Scotland for the first time. The only positive was the kindness of the staff, but overall, this event fell far short of expectations. Despite emailing the manager afterward to explain the issues—incorrect reservation, poor seating, delayed service—I never received a response. To make matters worse, a year later, I received an invitation to attend Burn's Night again. I replied to decline, reminding them of the unresolved issues from the previous year and the lack of response from management. This lack of follow-up and customer care speaks volumes. Would not recommend.

Very relaxing and the pianist made it special! 🙏. Shanmukh was very attentive Well done hopefully back soon

Nice place and not overly expensive

Great food and service. Shanmukh was very friendly and attentive. Great stop for a coffee or a date night.

Excellent not rushed shanmukh was very friendly with excellent service and manners

Lovely place for good honest food.

Shanukh was great! We had lovely time in Scotsman Grand Cafe. I definitely come back. Thank you very much😊

Service is really bad. Shown to table and given menu the waiter vanishes for 15 minutes. Not even asked if we want anything to drink. Impossible to catch any other waiter, they seem to hide behind large pillars or rush to other tables and away again. Waiter who seated us finally appears but then proceeds to serve a family who he seated 5 minutes after us. Finally flagged him down to order food 5 or more minutes after he's done with them. Left before could ask for anything to drink. Managed to get another waiteresses attention while she was dealing with her tables and managed to get drinks. Long waits between courses. No waiter around to notice we are finished and to take away plates for next course. 10 to 15 minutes later managed to beckon our waiter over. Finally asked for bill which had 10% tip applied. Then he disappeared again. Another 12 minutes during which I see a waitress give her patron her bill and then a minute or two come with the machine. Nothing like our waiter who we still see no sign of. So I have to call out to catch her attention so we can pay. Promptly asked to remove the cheek of a tip from the bill. Needless to say we are never going back again.

Lovely venue. We stopped for a drink. Lovely staff but service was slow and the place was not busy at all. Management needs to refine the waiting staff's training to bring it up to speed.

Shanmukh was fantastic! Super kind and helpful. Even recommended some local places to visit.

Great service by shanmukh will be back

A wonderful cafe with a lovely waitress who was very friendly, helpful and helpful with choosing dishes. We really enjoyed it, the food was delicious. Chic interior. The only thing is that the oat milk in the coffee was not very good, apparently it was a brand of milk, but it was my fault for not asking the brand of milk. Very cozy! We liked it Sincerely, a family from Russia who loves to eat tasty and beautiful food:)

Great service by shanmukh And Emma

The worst restaurant experience of my life. We ordered a salad as a starter to share (this was ok, but nothing spectacular). The main course arrived an hour and a half after we were seated while the restaurant was basically empty (only 8 tables, of which only 3 were ordering food). After all this waiting, my steak (£36) finally arrived. This was a tasteless plate full of freezer fries, along with a salad with no dressing and worst of all, the steak was very tough like a shoe sole (even if it was cooked to medium rare). Impossible to eat and absolutely not the quality you expect in a place like this for that price. Very low quality with prices that don't match. Nobody came to ask how the food was. When I finally got the attention of a waiter (more than 10 minuts after I got the plate on the table), I told him that the steak was not good, the waiter very kindly apologised and offered me to change it for another dish. Then the manager appeared, who told me that the new dish (hamburger) would take 20 minutes... my partner had already finished his dinner. This same man spilled water all over our table when he was serving us (probably on purpose) and didn't even apologise or bother himself to clean it up… We saw other customers complaining, no wonder… I think that the food and the organisation of the service are not in matching with the place. You can get better (and cheaper) food at any pub. When we ordered the starter, we told them it was to share, when it arrived they had no idea about this and we had to repeat that it was to share and we asked kindly for those plates. When we finished the starter, the waiter asked us if we wanted the dessert menu while we still had to get the main courses... Positive points: the place is very nice.

Very nice place but the food is not worth it

Shanmukh Very good experience Lovely conversation

Food was good top notch service by shanmukh will be back

Great service by shanmukh will bebback

Great professional friendly service by Shanmukh - food was good too 👌 Thank you Shanmukh !!!

Great café our server shanmukh was great

We are staying in the Scotsman Hotel and love this cafe! All waiters and bartenders have been fabulous. We just had Shanmukh who was great and talked to us about how the spooks of this city! Love it here!

Great food and service from Shanmukhi. Thank you and I will be back again.

The food was great and Shanmukhi gave us amazing service!

We had the vegan afternoon tea at the Grand Cafe. I’m not 100% convinced that they didn’t confuse “vegan” for “vegetarian” and accidentally include some dairy. Regardless, the ambiance is lovely, and the staff are very accommodating. A true Edinburgh classic.

Food good apart from under -seasoned soup. Service didn't match the food. No overall waiting responsibility for the table, salt and pepper had to be requested, long wait between courses, no attempt to see if we required more drinks or dessert. Main waiter enquired twice in a very disinterested way whether everything was okay and clearly did not care about the answer, as totally ignored the fact we said 'not great'. Not inclined to return.

Very comfortable and nice classic afternoontea - thanks to Debora for the great Job!

The Grand Cafe is a STUNNING restaurant! The decor, the live piano music, the DELICIOUS food and great service. It is the poshest place my friends and I dined at in Edinburgh this week on holiday from the United States. All three of us enjoyed every single thing we ordered…every single one! Our server/waiter Shanmukh was wonderful, very attentive to our questions and dietary needs. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Shanmukh was amazing server loved him will Be back for him

The location and old elegance of the building are very appealing. The live singing and piano gave it great atmosphere. The house music later was too loud. The seats were plush and comfortable, but visibly old and worn. The food was mediocre (standard Ceasar salad, not well mixed with too much pre-processed dressing, at least it came with anchovies) and bland (green soup). The cappuccinos were smooth and served at the much appreciated Italian ready-to-drink temperature. The service was poor at every stage from delay in seating, order taking and bill paying. I felt ignored and had to ask for the bill twice.

Me and my partner stayed at the Scotsman and had a lovely evening at the Grand Cafe last week. The room is beautiful and had such an enchanting atmosphere. We ordered the fish and chips and the goat cheese salad which was brilliant! Special thanks to our server Irina who was lovely and quickly took our drinks order and came back to check on us throughout our meal. Thank you!

Shanmukh was very helpful, attentive and made our experience lovely.

Amazing service by shanmukh he looked after us with a smile will be back

Amazing! Shanmukh was a great host.

Food was not good at all. We had the venison burger and the meat tasted very cheap and dense. Chewing it was like a shoe sole. Service was slow, we waited for 1,5 Hours for the Main dish. They also were not attentive. One Star for the pretty interior

Had a lovely lunch here, excellent food, beautiful interior and above all excellent friendly, welcoming service from Deborah and her colleagues. Thank you!

Good place Shanmukh was amazing

Oh the vibe here is just it. I met the waiter, Shanmukh! He’s super great, and the other waiter/waitress was very friendly and nice. I love the food. The LIVE MUSIC. 5 stars.

Great food Shanmukh was really nice will be back

what a wonderful lunch i had here - between the amazing food, the gorgeous ambiance, and the service from shanmukh and aleetzia - an incredible experience. made my first day in Edinburgh a perfect one!

Perfect place for an afternoon tea, the food is great! And Shanmukh was the perfect host.

We had a blast. Shanmukh was such a kind soul. I recommend the afternoon tea with champagne.

Shanmukh was amazing will be back

Great service by shanmukh will be back

Amazing service by shanmukh service with a smile

Afternoon tea top notch our server shanmukh made sure everything was in order will be back

Shanmukh was an excellent waiter. Funny and attentive. Food was nice too.

Shanmukh was great , fantastic service.

Bit disappointed to be fair. We booked to have coffee and cake after work. Arrived to be told we couldn’t have any cake 🍰. They appeared to be short staffed and the service was intermittent throughout the evening. We ordered the Venison burgers which were slightly overcooked. The prawn cocktail was pleasant. Desserts were disappointing, the banana bread was dry, and the cheesecake was bland. The decor and high ceilings are beautiful.

Food was ok service by Shanmukh was fantastic will be back

Shanmukh was great! Very helpful with what to try and very friendly!

Amazing place our server shanmukh was really nice and knowledgeable and friendly pancakes was top notch loved it will be back hopefully

Best service by shanmukh will bebe back

Good food fast service by shanmukh very friendly

Had fun shanmukh was really amazing will be back

Went for a birthday afternoon tea, delighted with the service and the time we spent there.

A real grand cafe, like from a previous century. Friendly and quick service. The best Caesar salad I've ever eaten!

Beautiful venue with great food

the place is beautiful and shamukh was the best server I've had during my visit in edinburgh

We came here our first night in Edinburgh. We did not have a reservation but the hostess was very accommodating and squeezed us in. The food was very good but the service was slow. The next night we had a reservation. What a disaster. Our server took our order and that was the last we ever saw of her. I ordered steak frites medium rare. It arrived well done and impossible to cut.There was no way that it was the cut advertised. I waited patiently for ten minutes but never saw another server, let alone ours. I finally had to go up to the bar to get help. The bartender was very empathetic and placed an appetizer order for me so that I could get something to eat quickly as my husband had already finished his meal, Then a guy in a suit showed up and questioned every aspect of my story (rude) and then the bartender showed up and asked me if I would like him to "try to get my steak comped". The steak that was inedible that I did not eat! Seriously! Meanwhile, my server (who I could see from a distance) NEVER RETURNED. As we were leaving I noticed that every empty table in the restaurant was still filled with dirty dishes. Clearly a problem here!

We popped into Grand Cafe for brunch on our daughter’s 30th birthday. Deborah provided a fantastic service and offered suggestions for drinks, both non alcoholic and alcoholic. Deborah was polite, professional and friendly. To top off a lovely brunch of French toast and pancakes, coffee and Prosecco, Deborah gave us a plate of 3 pieces of tablet with Happy Birthday written in chocolate. Would definitely come back and will recommend to friends and family 😀

Special thanks to the host on 15/09/24 for seating us despite no booking made in the evening. The service; as well as the food were equally lovely. Also, Shan for the polite & delicate approach. We Loved the lip gloss. Thanks again, we enjoyed our time dining here & Edinburgh as a whole. Would recommend the Malbec.

Shanmukh was excellent . He was attentive, polite and very professional. He made our visit all the more special. The food was excellent also.

Loved the place our server shanmukh was best will be back

Perfect evening our server shanmukh was lovely will be back

Great service by shanmukh loved him the food ok but he made up for it

Had an wonderful night our server shanmukh was amazing delightful friendly great hair loved his service will be back Nevada

Shanmukh was a wonderful and attentive server. I stopped in and enjoyed the atmosphere and the food was delicious.

Shanmukh did a great job today with our afternoon tea service! Thanks!

Deborah was awesome! Food was great! From the Canadiens!!!!

This is a total pass for afternoon tea. The food was mediocre and only a few things from the menu were actually served. The price for what you get is greatly exaggerated--for example, the tea is a tea bag, not even loose leaf tea. While the servers were friendly enough, it was impossible to catch their eye to either order or get the check to pay. The environment is great, and I feel like it's a wonderful spot to grab a cocktail, but look elsewhere for your high tea.

It was quite delicious. Great atmosphere too

Great ambience. Friendly and very attentive service and excellent food. The best meal so far in Scotland. Highly recommended.

Limited menu meant that having eaten there once you were not sure you wanted to again. Some daily dishes would help a lot. Seemed as though they were short of staff

The speakers used for the piano is too loud and the service was very slow

Absolutely brilliant experience. We were served by Brodie who was super charming and informative on the menu dishes / drinks and current events in Edinburgh (Fringe)! Highly recommend this restaurant.

Great Service by shanmukh Loved hin

Frindly service by shanmukh loved him he left a very good taste in a mouth will be back

Excellent service very kind and friendly service by shanmukh will be back soon. Matt was a Great manger excellent service

Great service by shanmukh had an amazing evening loved him

Great service loved the atmosphere our server was shanmukh loved him

Very delicious food & nice service (from Deborah)

Shanmukh was an excelente Host and servicial with us.

Shanmukh did a great service ! The place is beautiful

Had a great time our server shanmukh was amazing loved him will be back