Loudon's Café & Bakery

I thought I would post a review as the first post is considerably negative in a place that does not deserve it. Loudons is great. Clean, friendly staff and busy, busy, busy. In fact the minor inconvenience for me (but not the business obviously) is that it is virtually impossible to get a free table on a Sunday afternoon, the place is so popular.

I have visited Loudons at least a dozen times and never found anything negative to say about the cleanliness of the place. It seems absolutely spotless to me.

The coffees are amongst the best in Edinburgh and as for the home-baking, absolutely heavenly. The carrot cake is simply the best and most luscious I have ever eaten.

Must mention a member of staff who works there who is extremely friendly and always notices us and speaks to us whenever we go since about the day it opened.

On Sunday 14th August my husband and I went for our lunch at 1.45pm. When we tried to order we found there was no eggs benedict , no spinach and no smoked Salmon eg a third of the menu was ' Aff'. Most of the occupied + unoccupied tables were covered in leftover china / food glasses etc. We cleared a table for ourselves and reconsidered our menu options. The cakes were amazingly tasty + nice selection + fortunately that kept us going untill the eggs arrived.

We asked if they could do brown bread toast + scrambled egg and ordered drinks. I said brown bread twice.

We sat at a wobbly table outside and the scrambled eggs came beside 2 slices of barely toasted cold white bread + no butter. We asked the waitress for butter but it didn't arrive so we ate the very small portion of nicely scrambled eggs then my husband went inside and saw some leftover butter on a table of dirty plates and thought that was probably the best bet as a large group of tourists had arrived at the counter. We were thirsty so went to take a glass + water jug from the table but all the glasses though placed upside down wet on the table next to the nearly empty jugs were very grubby. It looked as if the dishwasher water badly needed changed. It is very unhygienic to have dirty + wet glasses sitting on the table in a warm day so I had to go back up to the cake area and get two paper cups.

Another 20 mins later our drinks arrived with chipped cups + no saucer/ spoon for husbands coffee + when I poured my tea a pubic type hair came out the teapot If the tea hadn't been scalding hot I certainly wouldn't have just picked it out + drunk the tea. My husband had to go back inside + search for sugar + spoon as the waitress hadnt brought it with the drink. It had taken so long for the tea to come I couldn't bear to start again.

Every time the waitress came our to deliver a drink / plate of food she walked back past multiple tables strewn with lots of dirty dishes/ cups + leftover food that was attracting pigeons. Is it not sensible for her to attempt to pick up even a cup rather than go in empty handed again + again.

We like the airy space and idea of what you are trying to create + cakes were fab but general poor hygiene + chaotic service etc let it down. We had a very dissapointing experience and though we go out for brunch every sunday + love your airy place + cakes I dont think the overall experience was up to scratch/ good value.