The Glasshouse Edinburgh

After reading lovely reviews about the afternoon tea served at The Glasshouse, I booked the 'Scottish Afternoon Tea ' for 2 as a treat for my daughter in law 's 30th birthday for her and my son. As I was in Edinburgh the week before, I called in and paid for this in advance. Unfortunately, on the day, my daughter in law who was 32 weeks pregnant, was unwell and unable to travel to Edinburgh, so the booking had to be cancelled. I emailed the duty manager on 2 occasions to ask if a refund would be possible. If I hadn 't prepaid there wouldn 't have been an issue about a refund and the hotel would have simply had to acknowledged the cancellation, which I 'm sure happens from time to time. I had an initial response from the duty manager saying he/she would look into it but on sending a second email a week later, I have yet to have either a response or a refund. I appreciate last minute cancellations must be annoying and costly for hotels but sometimes they are completely unavoidable. Top tip don 't pre pay for services unless you have to!

My mother saw this restaurant on a list of best afternoon teas in Edinburgh so we booked a table. Wish we hadn’t. The sandwiches had clearly been in a fridge and were very cold, and the fillings tasted unseasoned. The bread was spongy and bland. The scone came without clotted cream and some of the food on the stands simply did not match the description on the menu, or simply weren’t to be found. The actual tea was nice to drink. Although the view of the restaurant is nice, the atmosphere is sterile and awkward, a bit like in an airport. We will not be coming back.

We booked the restaurant for a Birthday meal. We arrived with a 90yr old frail lady and prebooked a wheelchair to save bring my mothers own wheelchair in the taxi. On arrival a lady who wasn 't visiting the hotel had collapsed outside and was sitting in the 'ONLY ' wheelchair the hotel owns!!! (5 STAR??? The doorman was extremely abrupt with my wife when she advised we were looking for a prebooked wheelchair. As a result our taxi meter was going up and my elderly mother was becoming distressed. The duty manager did provide £10 towards our taxi fare, however, given the stress caused, I would have thought a full reimbursement would have been more thoughtful. On booking the restaurant to we asked to be seated with a nice view. However, we were sat at table looking down a corridor. Not only that, the hotel is so badly designed we had to take my mother through a maze of lifts, including a staff only lift to reach our destination not very 5 star if your disabled? The dining experience was just as bad. There service was extremely slow, portion size small and food and drink overpriced for what you receive. I had fish and the next day I had severe sickness and diahorrea. I should have reported it too the health inspectors but I was too weak and couldn 't be bothered. I 'll certainly never dine here again! On the plus side the reception staff were very attentive, but the waiting staff need retraining and possibly speak better English. I 'm sure the management will either ignore this review or post their standard response, sorry to hear your visit was not a happy one, etc. etc. etc. Why not act on the critiques, rather than standard responses. It may show that as a company YOU ACTUALLY CARE!!! YOU ARE CERTAINLY NOT FIVE STAR!!!

Booked in July to come in Feb for afternoon tea .... looked on line for the menu and it appeared delicious and very excited! Imagine our upset to find it had changed tho not on line?! Very disappointed to be given aubergine sandwiches, a slice of carrot cake with no topping which actually tasted more like cinnamon! Macaroons and coconut bombes , both of which I m allergic but since we d ordered from the online menu were stunned to see! Mentioned the misunderstanding to the waitress who offered us 20% off but we won’t get that moment back on Valentine’s Day. If you have allergies check in the day by ringing ahead!

We could not fault the whole experience. We were greeted and shown to the restaurant, which was a lift and a walk through the whole hotel, which only made us wish we had booked a room. We were here for a pre theatre meal, so it was quiet at the time. I had noted on the booking that my partner was lactose intolerant and we have never been more catered for. They had already spoken to the chef and decided what they could offer us. This is rare, usually its a lot of backwards and forwards when ordering. The staff were so helpful and professional. We also really enjoyed the music. We had calamari and a terrine to start. With duck and a mushroom polenta stack (vegetarian) for mains. we were also served with gorgeous bread (i forget the flavour but nothing like I've ever had) and an amuse bouche which was a spicy tomato soup. Also the price for these 2 courses was reasonable £18.50 per person. Maybe slightly larger portions would be preferred, but i understand fine dining isn't this way most of the time. Recommended and will be visiting again. I wished we could stay longer and we really want to book a room next time!