The Nether Bow Port Cafe & Bistro in Edinburgh, City of

The food is not bad but the price is excessive just for being on the Royale Mile. Additionally, they charge you extra for serving you at the table, and that must be taken into account.

£11.20 for a can of pop and a milkshake (colour of Nesquick without even that level of taste for £7), yes it’s the Royal Mile so expect to pay a bit of a premium but this was not good. Better off at at many other places

Very good dirty chai latte and the soup was perfect for the cold rainy day! Nice cozy atmosphere inside with a view of the street.

The food was amazing, the French toasts are the best I've ever tasted. I would definitely have breakfast there again.

Our party of five had breakfast here early on Sunday morning. We had the French toast and pancakes and it was really delicious and good value for money. We left stuffed! The staff were lovely and it was relaxed and a great place to chat and catch up. Thanks for having us and we’ll definitely pop back when we are in Edinburgh again.

Expensive tourist trap but open late so it served a purpose. Wife enjoyed her chicken.

Perfect place for breakfast. We had a traditional English breakfast and an egg Benedict. The sausages were juicy, the bacons were just-right crispy. The hash brown was tasty but not greasy. And the egg Benedict was perfect! Ah, and the Irish Coffee was authentic. Clean place, polite waitress, lovely place to go.

Just happened upon this place and had an unexpectedly good breakfast. Don't let the plastic flowers decor put you off.

Pleasant and welcoming restaurant, fast service. Nice staff. The food was good and we had a good time.

We had a great breakfast here. Great atmosphere. We came here after having poor service at another nearby location and our experience here really saved the day. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit again.

It’s a perfect place for enjoy some dishes of Scotland. I was very well attended and I hope to come back more often!

This is a tourist trap! Do not go!!!! We’re here on vacation from the United States. We were a party of 2 that sat down for dinner. Food and service were great to start. One of our phones had died so we asked the server if they had an iPhone charger and they explain they had no charges. No worries. We went to pay the bill to leave and they told us the credit card machine wasn’t working and we needed to pay via cash. The bill was 49.50 pounds. We only had US dollars. We had no cash so he demanded we leave one of phones there while we found an ATM to get cash for the bill. We left the phone that had died. He asked us for the passcode to the phone. We didn’t give it to him. After 15-20 minute walk to find an ATM we come back to the restaurant to pay and he was charging my phone!!! Remember he previously said he didn’t have a charger. When we went to pay with cash he asked for $65. When previously the bill was $49.50 he tried to charge us more thinking we forgot the previous total. These people are scam artists. They were doing the same thing to another group of people as we were walking out. The guy in the picture is the scam artist!!!

Amazing pasta and great service highly recommend

We had a nice breakfast with very nicely presented sweet options - pancakes and french toast. The smoothie and the banana shake were also nice. I was kind of surprised that my sweet pancake comes with beckon, but next time, I should read the menu more carefully. 😉

Located right by water. A little cramped inside. Seafood is the majority of the menu. Staff were great. Fish and chips were very good.

Delicious excellent and a very nice place.

The place is really pretty and warm the Manager is the kindest person I ever met in Edinburgh!! The food is the best thing. This is the best restaurante in Edinburgh👌

Exquisite taste, wonderful service!

The food was excellent, and the staff was very friendly. 🙏🏻✨

great atmosphere, delicious food

Served our coffee in a wet plate…. I think they haven’t got enough dishes left to use , strongly not recommend.

I saw it by chance when I visited the area and we were very pleased. Everything was delicious, our orders came very quickly and everything was very hygienic.

This cosy little bistro is the perfect place to stop for something to eat while sightseeing - the staff are extremely welcoming, the food is delicious, the atmosphere is great. I highly recommend!

Great place for breakfast!! Some reviews bringing it down, but give it a chance. Great coffee and the French toast was awesome!

Stopped in by here, quite late in the evening The service was excellent staff were polite,helpful and very attentive,Attention to detail was exceptional Food was amazing had the smoked salmon salad (highly recommend )& the fish & chips would definitely recommend

The most delicious French Toast I have ever eaten in my life. Highly recommended.

A scam! Tasteless and frozen food. Borderline humor from the boss. But the worst was when paying the bill: strangely the payment terminal didn't work, until we told them that we didn't have a physical card, magically the machine worked again …

What a great service and food. Kindness with a big capital K.

Such a lovely place! The food was very delicious, the staff was very kind and polite, the place was very clean and we had a great breakfast!

We waited a long time for our food, despite the place being almost empty. We could not pay by card, because the machine is not working. Seems that customers of over a month are having this issue. So we had to go withdraw money to pay the bill. They forgot one of the dishes, so we had to wait extra for that. In the end, they charged us 10 pounds service charge.

We escaped from the rain and didn't check the reviews first. A mistake. Service was very friendly and our dog was warmly welcomed. Unfortunately, the food was really unexciting and even the fries would have needed a few more minutes in the deep fryer. Afterwards we were pretty annoyed about having eaten there. It's a shame, because the store looked really nice from the outside. There's more to it.

The place is more of a café than a restaurant. We went as a group and unfortunately all the food was horrible. The pasta was the most bland and microwaved tasting food. Everything else was quite bland and served with cheap cutlery. Looking at other reviews it looks like we shouldn't have come here in the first place. It's really over priced for what you get. In summary, the food was REALLY BAD. Just read other reviews. Also their card terminal doesn't work/ no connection so told us to get cash from ATM. Avoid this place!

I loved my stay at this quaint little cafe, the atmosphere amazing, the service unbeatable, the food outstanding, I just want to say a huge thank you to all the workers. It was truly amazing

Too busy and noisy for me (but what did I expect during the festival). Also I was a little disconcerted at the sight of my ham and cheese omelette. Not much ham in it either. Efficient service - not unfriendly but not friendly.

It took them 25 minutes to bring me a coffee! And after waiting more than half an hour I had to leave without having breakfast. There were no people, half the tables were empty, they just forgot about me. Instead of apologizing, they attacked me and blamed me for everything. Very disappointed with the terrible service and treatment.

£4.35 for the worst Americano I’ve ever had

Excellent Carrot Cake accompanied by a very hot ginger and lemon tea! The cake was really good and super soft, also in flavour, I am fully satisfied. They also serve other dishes, I will definitely try them next time! Quick service and really nice place.

Not bad food, I had a hot sandwich with tuna, mayonnaise and cheddar, accompanied by french fries. The worst comes when it comes to paying: the POS doesn't work by chance, we don't know how long it will take to fix it, 10 minutes or 10 hours, who knows. We have to go and collect. We go out, we collect, we come back. And here's a new surprise: he's already done the calculation, so we can't do separate calculations. Among people you've just met, it's not the best. What I assume to be the extremely rude owner.

A great place to eat and feel cosy ! The crew and the owner are so kind !

The owner is nasty person I. Celiac.the dude let her use toilet .but the boss come knocking knocking while she doing her thing . And say get out . You are subhuman and have no manners. Even I'll people out while having diarrhea.service rude and ignorant . atmosphere greedy feeling.

I had coffee and desserts. Both were amazing. This cafe shop is recommended 👍🏼

We had a delightful dinner at Nether Bow, chancing upon it quite by accident, and I'm so glad we did! Some of the negative reviews are surprising, as we couldn't really fault anything with our experience. Between us we had a delicious glass of Malbec, a San Miguel beer, sea bass and chips, a fantastic, perfectly cooked, succulent and juicy, chargrilled ribeye steak, roasted veg and salad, and a really yummy, not-very-sweet, gluten free carrot cake for dessert. With two decaff double espressos to finish things off, this was a wonderful meal at a very conveniently-located little cafe, with very friendly and attentive service, and very reasonably priced. Maybe others have had some one-off, less-than-ideal experiences here, but this was not the case for us, and I highly recommend this place if you're in Edinburgh :) PS. The music was excellent too! We really enjoyed the 60s-70s playlist with the likes of The Animals, Jerry Rafferty, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Johnny Cash - truly the icing on the cake :)

Went here for a pick me up breakfast the day after my daughter’s graduation. Breakfast morphed into a bottle of wine (or 2) with the family. We were treated like royalty, looked after, teased and just had the best time. No one tried to hurry us off or want the table back. The main man was on a break when we went to say goodbye but finished it early to see us off. It was a fantastic end to a lovely couple of days. Would recommend. We had paninis to accompany the wine and they were spot on.

Fine food (varied international kitchen), friendly people. Enough vegetarian options.

Not good! Avoid eating here. Food very bland and unappealing. No cutlery given, had to ask. Also had to ask for condiments. No opportunity to give feedback, no one asked how our meal was. Very expensive for what was served. One person at our table was still eating and all other plates were removed, so she was left eating alone. A 10% service charge was added without our knowledge - there had hardly been any service. We asked to split the bill between two of us and we're told that they couldn't do that. I spoke to someone who seemed to be a manager about the food and was told that it was personal taste, that everyone else likes it was my problem. She couldn't have cared less, I said I'd write her a review - she said only to write if it was constructive. So, Improve the quality of food served Train staff in hospitality basics Stop being rude to customers Go somewhere else, give this place a miss.

Great home cooked meals and the staff are friendly too.

Two days ago I went to dinner with my son, and when I went to pay, the card machine wasn't working. He told me cash, and I didn't have anything. So he told me to go get it from the ATM, and he didn't let him leave. my son from the bar and I had to go alone, in case I left without paying. It is known that he didn't trust me. And I had to go alone looking for a cashier, with my son alone with them in the bar. It was a way for me to return. What nerves and a bad feeling it gave me. I don't know how the person who did it to me doesn't feel bad inside, because I wouldn't have a clear conscience. I don't recommend it. And I'm sorry to give a bad review, with young people, who seem to be just starting out. But what they did to us was very ugly.

Didn’t accept credit card and didn’t even tell us before we ate. No sign was up either. The employees were rather rude and indifferent about the issue and sent us to a broken ATM. We had to pay in euros, which ended up costing us more. It’s unfortunate because food wasn’t bad. Will not be back.

A lovely little cafe with a nice menu. The prices for breakfast were very reasonable. The staff were friendly and accommodating.

We entered by pure chance (they sent us away at the most famous pub nearby because we were with a small child). So lucky! The staff is uniquely kind, the food excellent and the prices absolutely reasonable for Edinburgh. they have both child seats and a changing room for little guests. Absolutely recommended!

The vegetarian pasta dish was very basic. It was advertised on the menu as having asparagus, but this was barely visible. I felt ripped-off, but couldn’t be bothered to remonstrate. In a word, disappointing.

The owner is very nice: his name is Livanti. He has a smile and an overwhelming energy. Good food and well served with attention and punctuality. Small but very welcoming place. In the kitchen, Livanti's wife is good and smiling. Honest prices. A little gem not to be missed

The two woman waitress were very rude and were not welcoming at all ! Coffee came out cold and also sausages came out cold. To make matters worst they forgot one of the orders and made it out we were the ones that didn’t order it and didn’t even apologize for any of it !!!!

Amazing experience, I'm living in Edinburgh for about 1 year and I try to come the nether bow coffee every weekend to drink delicious hot chocolate and eat amazing foods. Also, the employees are very polite and have a lot of jokes.

They tell you the card machine doesn’t work only AFTER eating. They made us go and withdraw cash while being supervised by one of the waiters. They blamed bad network connection because “many people are in the city for Taylor Swift concert”. The other reviews are stating that this is common practise instead. Also 24£ for a ONE portion of very average food (frozen fish and chips). Do not recommend

It was really delightful pasta with cheddar and mince, which makes me feel like at home. The staff is so friendly and atmosphere is quite peaceful to have a good lunch.

Lovely lovely joytown lovely. Food great, nice aspect to people watch. Big enough selection of food. Drinkies too. Fair price for good food.

One of the best places to eat out! The paninis are over the moon! The staff are very friendly, attentive and seem to have genuine passion about making your visit enjoyable! I will definitely be back!

En balade sur Edimbourg, nous nous sommes arrêtés ici pour le déjeuner. Nous avons été bien reçus et installés immédiatement. Commandes prises rapidement et servies assez rapidement aussi. Nous avons choisis 3 burgers différents; ils sont servis avec une dizaines de frites clairement sorties d'un sachet surgelé. Pas mieux pour les burgers: le pain est plus que tout simple, 2 minuscules rondelles de tomate très fines, une micro feuille de salade, quelques morceaux de rondelles d'oignons rouge et la garniture choisie: haggis, angus et chicken et puis c'est tout, aucune sauce. Résultat, vraiment pas terrible, sec en bouche et aucune saveur. Et au moment de payer l'addition, on a la désagréable surprise de devoir payer le service, correspondant à 10% de la somme à payer, première fois en 4 semaines en Ecosse que cela nous arrive. Autant vous dire que dans ce cas, on ne réfléchit pas quant à laisser un pourboire puisqu'ils le prennent d'office. Nous avons mangé mieux et avec un dessert pour moins cher en début de semaine à Falkirk.

Great place to sit and talk and eat.

The staff were super friendly to me. I was in Edinburgh for 5 days and every day i came here for my mocha. They have such a delicious hot mocha. For my last night i had the fish and chips with a calamari appetizer. It was so good, nice and crispy fish with delicious chips. I loved the atmosphere and the staff, they were so kind and welcoming!

Come to have a pastry in the afternoon and drink tea. Very fast and pleasant service. Limited menu but there is something to satisfy all tastes. One detail… a very strong smell of fried food the day we came, really not pleasant. Fix the ventilation 😃

So we stepped in to this little cafe. Nothing fancy about it actually. What drew us in was the funny signs posted outside. A must read. By 0900 we walked 4 miles and wanted second breakfast. I ordered for us the pancake paradise. It’s described as “Served with bacon, fresh fruit salad, maple syrup and sprinkled with walnuts.” Sounds like Dennys or IHOP menu. But the unexpected twist. We received an exquisitely plated pair of pancakes. It had us flabbergasted. Amazing and worth the visit I can assure you. Look at our pictures.,cappuccino coffee and hot chocolate were also fantastic.

Fantastic, generous food portions at value for money prices. Friendly staff and service, you can't go wrong here 👍🏻

While traveling with my daughters on a short trip to Edinburgh, we stopped by this beautiful place. We liked it very much and recommend it to everyone.

Lovely friendly cafe. Staff were great. Pannines were great, value for money and quality food on the royal mile. Walk in at 1pm without reservation and were accommodated easily.

Delicious beautiful food, extremely friendly staff with quick service. Blow away!

Had fantastic eggs Benedict with smoked salmon here, lovely friendly service, would recommend!

Very expensive, terrible service.

What a lovely place....scones were moist and delicious, great cuppa too...just what was needed on this cold day. Staff very friendly and helpful.

Great services, good coffee, the cake is delicious we had a very nice time with my friend thank you 😊

My eggs were covered in hollandaise sauce as my friends poached eggs were over cooked. When we asked to return and redo they did but it took a lot of time to fix. There are better places around.

We stopped for a breakfast Which was very overpriced. £36 for 2 breakfasts, a tea and a mocha 2 bacon, 1 sausage (not nice) 2 small mushrooms a spoon of beans a hash brown and a potato scone didn’t warrant the price. For that price drinks should have been included.

Delicious foods. Perfect atmosphere 👌

Great food and even better coffee! Kind people form servos, highly recomendation😊👍

The best of the best, I recommend it wholeheartedly... Everything is great

Great place to eat! The food was really good and delicious. Staff were friendly and super kind I would highly recommend to visit this cafe.

Lovely cup of coffee great service.

Small, intimate and very nice family-run Caffè Bistrot restaurante, very kind manager s, eccellente solution for lunch. Eccellente tagliatelle with meat sauce, exquisite Fish and Chips, a single scottish dish with beans, eggs, sausage, potatoes, vegetable-burger + Chips + toasted bread, all wonderful. A big hello tò the managers, from Max and Nadia from Milan.

Came to enjoy our first breakfast in the city and we should have checked reviews... Staff gave off an awkward vibe and we didn't feel welcome. The price did not match the meal and it arrived warm/cold. Went to pay but then the card reader didn't work, had to leave the premises to pull cash out to pay.

Awful. Should be called the never go there port cafe. My parents ordered the poached eggs on toast with avo and tomato and bacon. Now I wouldn’t call this bacon I would call this leather… I myself ordered the bacon cranberry and Brie panini however at first the chef forgot the bacon and the cheese so I had to send it back as I was not going to eat toasted bread with cranberry. Still the chef forgot the cheese. Again this bacon was not bacon and was instead pure leather. Photos attached are of the panini. I would not recommend this place to anyone as the only good part of my meal was the fries (not the unwashed lettuce)

We visited yesterday for breakfast, unfortunately it was a poor experience. Service was not the best, quality of food was not good in particular the sausage which was very poor and inedible. Along with being poor quality food was really overpriced....one of the party ordered one peice of toast with small amount of scrambled eggs and 1 sausage and was charge £12.80 for this!! Out of the 4 of us the only thing we enjoyed was our tea and coffee....Around 50% of the food was left as it was so poor. Such a shame as the cafe is in a great location but they are charging premium price for really substandard food.

me and about 8 others went here for our dinner one evening and it was clear there was a language barrier between the waiter and ourselves. The Food was below average despite the premium pricing. My food had not been prepared in the way I had requested and to top it off we had to pay a 10% service charge at the end. I don’t mind tipping if the service and food is good but I hate it when we have the tip forced upon us at the point of payment when we had not even been informed. As a nation it is not the standard practice for a service charge on the bill as employees in this country are on a living wage unlike other countries. Why am I paying the staffs wages? The prices are expensive and the food was below average. If I had a really good experience I could understand to a degree and probably would have tipped of my own accord but to force it upon me by just “expecting” me to pay it is not ok, not in this country. I won’t be returning there.

I think it would have been more fitting if the staff served the food with balaclavas. The food was so pricey, I was expecting a bigger portion for the price I paid (14.95) for some fish & chips. Total waste of money :/

Excellent option for tourists, the food is served quickly and to the point

Small, intimate and very nice restaurant, family run, very kind managers, family atmosphere, excellent for lunch. Excellent tagliatelle with meat sauce. Exquisite fish and chips, a single Scottish dish: beans+sausage+potatoes+eggs+vegetable hamburger+french fries+wonderful toasted bread.

Excellent Chicken Salad! Perfectly seasoned chicken pieces on a delicious fresh greens, cucumber and tomato salad. The lemon ginger hot tea with honey was a great addition! Waiter was attentive and cordial.

Although the food was good it was a total scam …19£ for a cappuccino and 2 salmon eggs Benedict ( no salad on the side ), it’s even more expensive than London , or maybe it’s a tax because I’m black? I fell to understand how a soya milk coffee with Hazelnut syrup is even more expensive than a Starbucks. And I have never have my receipt.. so there’s that . I’m going there again . I

Best salmon Benedict I’ve ever had! Hot smoked salmon - totally delicious! Also have great salads. Surprise of a little place!!

Terrible food, we had burgers and chips. They tasted like cheap supermarket burgers and frozen chips. Very expensive as well. I wish I had just walked out

Great food and lovely coffee. Service was great and would recommend a visit. It’s quite costly in Edinburgh but I found this cafe was good value.

DO NOT RECOMMEND! all sandwiches are pre made, fish and chips looked like frozen food and taste awful my panini had a hair in it! And was burnt chips awful not nice experience staff ignored us as we tried to call them over multiple times! Only good thing was I didn’t get charged for my panini

Fantastic food and great service.

Owner of the restaurant was very agressive.

6 degrees outside and they didn’t had the heating on. I ordered an americano and the spoon was dirty. My boyfriend ordered a bagel which was very small and my brother ordered a lentil soup which was ok. The worst part was that we couldn’t pay by card and we had to go outside and look for an ATM.

Owner adds service without telling

I ate at Nether Bow café, the burger was correct, the waiter was friendly. I ordered a glass of wine and they did not serve me at the table, they brought it directly to me, that is a lack of professionalism, I could not check if it was the type of wine I ordered. There was no toilet paper in the bathroom, but the worst of all was the aggressiveness and incorrect manners of the lady who apparently runs the establishment. Of course, I will not return and if they accept advice it does not benefit at all to have people like that running a place.

Delicious! Really enjoyed it, very hospitable and the owners were lovely! I reccomend it to everyone who visits Edinburgh and even residents! Its worth a day out! UPDATE - 8 MONTHS - Still delicious! Visited again around a week ago and found it had changed a bit... for the better, didnt even know it was possible! The food was delicious and they were just as welcoming as usual! Thanks to the owners! Still highly reccomend

Great food, great service and a warm and enjoyable environment - couldn’t be happier with the cafe, food and waiters, would definitely recommend, can’t wait for my next visit!

Beware, they have a no drink-only policy, despite being called a "Cafe". And their POS machine didn't work, so cash only.