Victor Hugo in Edinburgh, City of

Young white guy with blonde hair was so rude the moment I walked in. He was the only one at the counter and took forever to take my order even though he was doing nothing. I ordered a pastrami on rye dine in and got it toasted. After patiently waiting 30 whole minutes at my table, no sign of my sandwich (which was already made and all he had to do was toast it). I walked up to him and asked where it is and he looked like I was an inconvenience to him. He asked annoyingly “what did ya order again” and then took a sandwich from the bar and started toasting it. He then rudely plopped it on my table with no real care. Not once did he apologise or admit his mistake. The sandwich itself was okay but definitely not worth the price. There were barely any pickles and it was toasted so poorly - it was as if he put it on the toaster for only 10 seconds. While I was there, I also witnessed another incident where an older woman politely told the same waiter that her food was served cold and he didn’t apologise and begrudgingly took it back to the kitchen. He brought it out again and the woman complained that although her food was hot now it was a mushy mess that looked inedible. He looked so annoyed but thankfully the manager took over and apologised repeatedly with great professionalism. In summary - average and expensive food, extremely rude and uncaring waiter, but manager was empathetic and caring.

This is a great cafe in a great location. Only minor issue is the lack of obvious local and Scottish produce. Service is excellent.

Pastrami taste is quite ok and the portion is very generous. It's essentially 2 sandwiches for 7.5£ Ham and slaw also comes w rye, it's well balanced from the mustard sauce. Unfortunately they don't press the sandwiches so it doesn't have the grill marks it used to have(apparently), now it's just toasted in an oven a little so not very crispy

Had the breakfast plate here . The mushroom quiche along with salad was really good

This place it is not what it used to be. The customer service has dropped hugely. Is like another place totally and this has been in the last 3-4 years. I dont recognise it, at all.

You feel like you're in Paris, best croque monsieur ♥️

Inconsistent. Never sure how good or bad the coffee will be.

Good quality deli/cafe and great coffee. Would have given 5 stars, but charging £4.50 for a croissant is just silly- particularly as everything else is reasonably priced.

Nice light bite. They don’t skimp on ingredients, coffee is on the strong side, but good.

Some lovely food and pastries- enjoying frittata for the first time, but not amazing flavours. Staff are gentle and assisting but could do with a little more pace and engagement.

Coffee is nice, good range of cakes and pastries and some excellent sandwiches. Used to be a regular haunt for me.

Very bad experience this Sunday, completely ignored by staff, girl behind the bar was on the phone, after asking if they still have our favourite sandwich on the menu, we received annoyed no, then she went back on the phone, after standing there for while waiting to be acknowledged, I had to ask if we can order something else, after serving us, it was just dumped on the counter with no thanks or saying that that's your order ready, straight back to phone. Super arrogant and unpleasant, for the price of sandwiches you'd expect at least basic manners.

Amazing food, nice fresh orange juices and good coffee, great setting by the park and outdoor seating. Classic venue, can be quite busy but service is slow and the only let down, but won't deter me!

I must say I have never eaten their food but I have had their coffee and that was gooood but while I was there there food looks amazing

The staff seem deeply unhappy which for me raises big questions about their conditions. Service is exceptionally slow and that's definitely not down to time given for polite chitchat with customers. Still the same great corner location overlooking the Meadows. Coffee was scalding unfortunately. Sandwiches looked as full to the brim as usual. But it definitely feels chain like in its vibe. Wouldn't rush back.

What is the point in having a phone number if you don’t let us call? had an urgent enquiry about an order you are currently making and have no way to contact you.

I recently had lunch at Victor Hugo Café in Edinburgh, and it was a delightful experience. I opted for the Parisian baguette, which was an excellent cheesy sandwich, perfectly crafted. The service was smooth and efficient, enhancing the overall dining experience. The café's nostalgic decor evokes a charming Parisian ambiance, making it feel like a little slice of Paris in Edinburgh. Additionally, its great location on the meadows makes it an ideal spot for a casual lunch while exploring the city. Highly recommend!

One of the best café in Edinburgh, the food is fantastic, I got a freshly squeezed orange juice and a vegan blueberry wholemeal croissant and sat in the lounge. I will see you soon as I will come back for more 💕

It's a large restaurant with lots of seating. You have to order at the counter and then they'll bring your food. The different areas to sit have different vibes - busier near counter, quieter in the back, on the street.. there was space everywhere. Lots of sandwich and salad options - honestly all seemed delicious. Good coffee; had a root beer which was tasty.

I come to Edinburgh a lot and this used to be a favourite stop for me. Returning to the city this summer, I was eager to go back to Victor Hugo and to enjoy the view of the Meadows from there. Gosh. So disappointing. I could only eat one of the four items I ordered: the red cabbage. The broccoli frittata was bland and dense, with a rubbery sliver of eggs; the side salad dressing was recoil-worthy; and the potato salad was mediocre at best (undercooked potatoes, too much dressing, and too sweet). I had a few spoonfuls of red cabbage and left the rest on my plate. I won’t be going back this summer – heartbroken, because I used to love this place.

Probably A good Place to go when hungry. The food was pretty Great And the Staff is pretty nice. I would recommend if you go here for Lunch.

Excellent sandwiches and hot food. Also good selection of sweet baked goods. Nice to sit outside.

Good location. Great for something quick while waiting for kids to finish school/sports. Food's ok.

Very expensive, but what ain't nowadays? Nice comfy seats in which one can laze. Coffee and cake go down a treat, seated inside or out on the street.

The food and drinks were awesome but overpriced. 23£ for two sandwich, one brownie, one cinnamon bun (which wasn't put in the bag) and a coffee is like shopping in Switzerland. Paying for five items and only getting four, how can't no that be a con? The staff didn't even ask for a receipt. I'll never ever go in there again

Nipped in to pick up a normande baguette and some sweets.

The food is overpriced at best. 7.45 for Pastrami sandwich on rye which is not even on rye bread anymore. Always used to come here when I was around. Not worth it anymore

Elitist deli for posh folk. Very good but bring your credit card and most generic public school accent.

So slow to get served and then no sandwiches left. Feels like need more staff and more food...

This place never fails to bemuse me. The staff seem to be perpetually disorganised. Ordering a coffee and a couple of pastries should not cause such confusion, take so long, required multiple confirmations of the order or take so long. The pastries are yummy, the coffee is nice and it's convenient so I'll keep coming to VH but I don't eat in anymore cos its always a shambles.

Fine enough. It's a push to call this a deli though - the food is not prepared freshly on site. Cakes look suspiciously like they have been shipped in from Costco and are sitting drying out on the counter for days. A shadow of its former self.

Why is the service so SLOW !! 🐌

Quite an expensive place to have breakfast, or food in general, but it is good for sure.

Great eatery - highly recommend!

I've been in here before and it was fine, nothing special but a good option. Today my daughter was doing bike club on the meadows and I ended up having 25 minutes free. You'd think that would be enough time to get a coffee right? Well no. Paid for coffee but there was such a big backlog that I had to leave again before my drink turned up. The dudes in the cafe looked really rushed so they were probably short staffed. Err can I say anything positive? I got a warm seat while was waiting for my coffee that didn't turn up, that was nice but it wasn't worth £3.49.

Really good cafe we passed by chance. The food was good, reasonably priced and the staff were very friendly. Only negative is that the sambos are all made up ahead of time so you can't add or remove anything before ordering

Low quality, over priced food. We stood in line for 10 mins looking at food behind the counter, made our choice and were told at the till that none of our choices were available. My frittata was heated up but arrived dried out, and more potatoe than egg. Tasted of very little. Side salad uninspiring , limp lettuce.

Visited by chance for breakfast and left very happy and wanting more. Spoilt for choice for breakfast and lunch. Highly recommended. Also they were playing cracking music in the kitchen......although this could only be heard visiting the loo.

lavish interior with a glam red, gold and black theme and nice atmosphere. Service was a bit slow - staff made eye contact with me waiting at the till to order but decided to full put away all the cheese, utensils and clean the entire deli counter before serving me - but the coffee came fast once ordered. Very fair price and lovely tasting coffee, latte got a 9/10 from me and the americano was a 6/10. Definitely will come back, but it’s always very busy so might have to sit outside

Good food, but the staff are extremely rude, customer service non-existent.

Lovely cafe but my god are they slow to make the drinks

We waited 30 mins for two coffees. They were overpriced and the cafe itself is grubby. It's a shame, as this place used to be great.

£2.99 for a double espresso for which I then had to wait over twenty minutes. At least it was ok.

Great place for a pleasant coffee on a cold Winter day.

Good customer service. Had the eggs and feta on toast which was well made and delicious. The manager really wanted to make sure we had a good experience.

Smashing wee find on the corner in Edinburgh! Terrific tasty food - the Croque Monsieur served with delicious coleslaw and potato salad is an excellent choice. Kind of busy but well worth the wait!

My visit to the restaurant was an average experience. I arrived with great expectations, drawn by the appealing brunch photos and the advertised serving time until 3:00pm. However, the kitchen closed earlier than advertised, leaving only sandwiches as an option. I suggest the establishment adhere to its stated hours to ensure customer satisfaction. As a diner, I expect restaurants to maintain their advertised serving times.

we were in Edinburgh, and looking for lunch. Happened across this deli/cafe. We each had a sandwich and coffee – all delicious. Staff were very helpful. It was very busy (12.30) but we were served quickly. Have seen various comments on cleanliness of toilets: the Ladies was clean; the disable dtoilet was a bit grubby. There weren’t a lot of uncleared tables. Price: £18, not cheap, but worth it, particularly when you compare it to eat all you like pizza/pasta at £22 each. And considering that nothing in Edinburgh is cheap!

Food perfect but toilet 🤮🤢🤮please clean every day

A simple order of eggs on toast and coffee was met with (a) a very long wait and when questioned re. the wait was told it was because they were busy...so how come the food was cold?! (b) when the food arrived the toast had no butter and dry as sand, I had to leave my,table and ask for butter, (c) then I noticed there was no cutlery!!!.....and again after trying to get staff attention wad required to go to the till and request cutlery. Overall a rip off - not cheap (which I accept in the city centre) but equally value for money very low due to appealing service. I strongly recommend Contini round the corner - similar prices but far superior food and service. Oh ....and no salt & pepper in sight but I just didn't have the energy to ask...

Really enjoyed the sandwich (with a quality coffee) lunch. Would definitely return if in the area.

Charming place for sandwiches and coffee or tea. I've been to many deli's. This is one of the best I've visited while traveling. People friendly and offering help and suggestions. Don't miss out!

Slowest service ever to receive a macaroni cheese that just needed heated up. Took 20 mins to get the food, sitting in, wasn’t overly busy either.

My friend and I had a bad experience with our hot chocolates: they were tasteless and didn't contain chilli nor salt as we ordered. It was basically plain milk with very little chocolate.

Decent coffee & great sandwiches!

Visited The Shore branch. Absolutely shambolic. Place was busy , only a few tables left but they were stacked high with dirty dishes from previous customers. 3 members of staff who didn't know what they were doing. 1 member of staff taking orders to tables, and was asking every table if it was theirs. Didn't once take any dirty dishes on his way back. Waited over 20mins for coffee and pastries to be delivered to table after watching same waiter do the rounds of the restaurant asking if it was their order. They were so slow and lethargic looking serving the customers and not one smiled.

Once again my go to restaurant for their Pastrami sandwich and double expresso coffee. It's always a pleasure never a chore going to Victor Hugos. I'd recommend visiting here. Thank you 😁☕👍

Really poor service. About an hour just to get drinks. Sunday late morning, no doubt busy but they didn’t even acknowledge it. As bad as we’ve experienced in Edinburgh

Cute café tucked away in the meadows. They do great sandwiches and coffee at a decent price.

Coffee and croissant were fine but at just under £22 for two coffees and 4 croissant (with coffees that took ages to come) it is not good value at all.

Incredibly friendly team, delicious and affordable breakfast and great coffee. Also picked up some really good sandwiches for lunch. Go here now!!!

Has been always a go to place for the delicious food like sandwiches and lasagna.

Wonderful spot for a delicious lunch! I had their special, a ham and cheese croissant, which was very tasty. Lovely seating and very friendly staff. Would definitely recommend as a lunch spot.

Stopped off here for lunch. Had the pastrami & turkey cranberry sandwiches. They were very tasty and well made. The salted caramel cannoli was a treat

Don't waste your time visiting this store, advertised opening time till 6pm but arrived 5:15pm and they have already packed up and refusing service. Shocking customer service.

Waited 25minutes for 1x takeaway sandwich to be toasted. Sandwich was so full of onion chutney you couldn’t taste anything else.

Food was mediocre for price and service soooo slow. Better elsewhere shame as used to be good

Some confusion over order, toilets lacking. We're chalking the experience up to August in Edinburgh...

Soooooooo good 👍 excellent flavours in all the sandwiches and toasties.

Good quality filled baguettes, but shambolic service. Despite lots of staff being around and it not being particularly busy, we waited 27 minutes for one baguette to be cut in half and 2 other baguettes to be heated. Staff did not seem to know what had been ordered. The management need to train staff better on the basics.

In our 6 days visiting Edinburg, we went here twice. Great little cafe, good Coffee, good waffles, short wait, lovely place.

Delightful server with lovely cake and coffee. However once you try to access the facilities downstairs you are greeted by a bank of storage cupboards which are filthy as is the Ladies - to the extent I could not use them. The stairs themselves are also filthy. Very surprised an establishment like this should be so poor cleanliness wise. Not good when they are surrounded by excellent establishnents

Nice staff, food OK, service a little slow

Hugo if you want to, but I’ll not be back! Oops! What a bad day we came on… and to be fair it is peak festival time! but salad cream and cheap pre-grated rubbery “mozzarella” with something advertised as avocado and poached eggs on toast has no excuse…. lucky it took an hour (we were told 20 minutes) as I needed the time for my mouth to recover from the scalding burnt coffee that was freshly ground in the 90s! It’s a tough time to be a cafe. But these are rookie errors. It’s was genuinely the worst eggs on toast I’ve had since… er… maybe ever…. Wasn’t nice to be grumped at by the chef too… ”what do you want me to do about it?”… I’ll leave this one unanswered… and I’ll stop going on as if you’ve read this far then good for you! Plenty of GREAT cafes in this wonderful city…. This ain’t one at least on the day we came. Perhaps you’ll get lucky!

Great food and coffee, as always. Very busy but service was amazing - a welcome change from the terrible service over the last few months.

Extremely disappointing… no organisation. Not told had to order at till. Cups dirty, and cracked. One order was wrong & other one had fluff & hair on it. Food not piping hot and unremarkable.

Very helpful and friendly staff

This is a great deli a short walk from Princes street. The service is efficient and friendly and the deli is clean and welcoming. We shared a Croque Monsieur and Turkey and Cranberry on Rye and both were delicious and packed with filling. My wife...

Wonderful continental café by the park. I had some Belgian waffles with poached eggs and streaky bacon, with some maple syrup, of course. It was a refreshing breakfast after a few days of eating mostly Scottish food. But the best thing about this café is that you get to admire all the pastries on display. It is my deepest regret that I did not try the Basque Cheesecake or Portuguese Nata. Do not turn your back on these.

Great little cafe in the meadows. Recommend the Croques and the Pastrami sandwich and my partner rates the coffee which is always good.

Post cycle coffee and cake with friends. Wht more could you want. Great team running the cafe

Nice deli next to the meadows park. Good spot to pick up a quick sandwich and picnic.

Slow with poor customer service, tables uncleaned, wrong orders. Lack of management and people skills. Foot not bad. Shame as has potential to be really good

A favourite place, everything is great

Sorry to be a bit negative. Didn’t see the recent comments just visited looking the stars and photos. I believed my guts buts I guess UK is UK? I had two breakfast dishes : 1. Egg not seasoned 2. Waffle tasted a bit mild? No butter and felt like made with water instead of milk. 3. Brioche Also not buttered for a egg Benedict. 4. Hollandaise sauce was not that impressive. Not really seasoned. What I think is this place is a less salt place. The look of the food is good. Price is very nice for its food. Nothing is more that £12. Most egg sandwiches are £6 +/-. Love the atmosphere. Front of the park, open windows from the inside. I will try there sandwich and some sweets next time if I come back. Thank you for the kind Sevice.

The best deli! That pastrami is the best!!

Generic breakfast at best, ordered eggs benedict, pouched eggs were overcooked, muffin wasn't toasted, paid a lot of money for something that was poorly prepared and presented.

Nice place/food but won't be returning due to dirty toilets

Great for outdoor seating in summer

The service here is shockingly slow and the coffee tastes sooo bad. No one seems to be in charge and everything takes so so long. After waiting for them 10-15 minutes to make one take out coffee, don’t then be surprised when it tastes bitter and burnt. I keep trying to give them another chance because everyone can have an off day, but it’s been 5+ times it’s been similar 😫. It’s a shame because the pastries and sandwiches are fantastic (although pricey ++). Given how much they charge, are they paying and training their staff properly? Not good, not worth the money. Plenty better cafes around.

Excellent lunch stopping point great service. Some tables out on the street which was nice. Quite pricey although not outside of expectations. £8 for a toasted sandwich.

Something very wrong with how this place is managed. It's been a slow decline but the service is now always disorganised and painfully slow. Food is still ok when it (after chasing it up) finally arrives.

Felt like i was in the depths of France. Incroyable.

Very good staff this time and coffee and cakes excellent.Could do with different sized cups I like a big cuppùchino anyway it was pleasant and quite sitting stareing at the park Will go back again .

I’ve been coming to this deli cafe as long as I have lived in / near Edinburgh. Way back when it was a small deli with one table I’d come each week after my daughter’s therapy at the sick kids hospital we would order coffee,...

Scrambled eggs on toast , simple ? Cold plate and no butter on the toast . It’s not rocket science. Not going back. Last visit was poor too. Old owners were much much better

Used to be one of my favourite places, now a shadow of its former self. Hygiene seems to have been forgotten about. Sat in the annex and asked for two glasses of water when ordering. They weren’t delivered with coffees/food so the waiter went into the cleaning cupboard and appeared with two glasses of water served from a hand washing sink. Still a great pastrami sandwich, but don’t think I’ll be rushing back.

The food hygiene in this place is shocking. We watched staff touch our and other customers' food with unclean hands, wiping cutlery on dirty cloths and our food was not heated properly. I honestly doubt they would pass a health inspection from what we observed today.

Poor service, most expensive croissant I've ever had 4.15 GBP

Visited today for brunch. Whilst I applaud the selection of sandwiches available and understand that this is the main appeal for the deli, I was totally gobsmacked that ordering brunch that do not cater in anyway at all for Gluten free with no GF bread...