Breakfast Nomination #17, Hemma in Holyrood

Breakfast Nomination #17, Hemma in Holyrood 

Nominated by Russell Simspon - who was eager for us to give Hemma a second chance 

Originally reviewed September 18th 2016

Gary's score: 4/6 
My score: nowhere near as bad as I expected 

Gary ate: the Hemma breakfast (cooked breakfast) (£8.50), a tea (£1.60), an orange juice (£2.60!!!) and a small chocolate cake (£1) 
I ate: French toast with salmon and dill (£7.50), a tea (£1.60) and also a small chocolate cake (£1) 
Total cost: £23.80 

Our pros: good vibe in the café; very bright and spacious inside; not *too* expensive; pleasant service; food delivered quickly; nice big cups of tea and sweet little chocolate cakes offered with our drinks. 
Our cons: staff a little nervous and sometimes overbearing; slightly burnt French toast; food not very flavoursome; no sauce for cooked breakfast; staff hard to spot as they're all in plain clothes, and not very many breakfast choices on offer. 

Our experience: I have to start off this review by saying that we actually originally tried to go to Hemma a year ago. That's right, we tried but were unsuccessful!
Long before this place was recommended to us, Gary and I went through a stint of not doing our breakfast nominations and just trying places for breakfast to just... you know, eat, for sustenance rather than to review for Facebook. And every place we went to, we had a bad time. 

Around this time was when we went to the God awful Bruno's 7-7 diner and were insulted by the manageress - and I will mention the awfulness of that place as many times as I can in my reviews because it should be avoided! DO NOT GO! 
Anyway, so one day we were walking around Holyrood looking for a place to eat and we stumbled across Hemma, but we didn't even get as far as eating here before we had to leave and go somewhere else.  

We stood hovering around the front with no one paying us any attention and we weren't sure if we were to seat ourselves or wait but I think after a few minutes we seated ourselves anyway but were then ignored for another 10 minutes or so. Gary got fed up and went up to order at the counter but a waitress walked past and told him he could have a seat again and she'd come over and take his order. 

Gary sits down again, another 5 minutes or so pass and then she comes over to take our order - we mention the food we'd like to order and she says "Ah, ok. Well it's going to be a 40 minute wait for food so....". 
We glanced round Hemma, maybe a quarter of the tables actually full but still the place is near-empty, and we think "fuck this" and we leave. 

So, after that experience of waiting 20-odd minutes just to have someone attempt to take our order only to tell us it'd be another 40 minutes to get some food, we weren't keen to return. 

However, Russell (the nominator of this challenge) visited Hemma at a later date and tweeted about it himself, we had a little conversation about it via Twitter and it wound up on our nominations so Gary and I had to return - I simply cannot back down from a challenge, plus it's always good to give places a second change. Except Bruno's 7-7, they can fuck right off. 

Anyway, we went in with low expectations and with the experience of last year still fresh in our mind but they were a lot more on the ball today, if a bit nervous or unsure at points. They now have a sign with "please wait here to be seated on it" so that cleared up that issue. 
We got bright, attentive and friendly service upon arrival, got to pick our own table (from the non-reserved ones) and were given menus right away. 
Our orders got taken for our drinks and food within about 5 minutes of sitting down and our food was delivered maybe ten minutes after that. 

Everyone that served us was friendly though one of the waitresses seemed a bit nervous, tripping over her words and repeating our orders back to herself as if she was worried she might forget them, but everything came as we ordered it, and aside from being congratulated on finishing our arguably not very big portions of food -"Well done!!", and being asked how were, how we'd spent our morning, what we were up to next etc - the service wasn't too over the top, which was nice. 

Neither of us were too impressed with our breakfasts in terms of flavour and my French toast was a little singed round the edges, but the food wasn't the worst we'd had. 

I thought considering we'd have two breakfasts, three drinks and two cakes that £23 didn't seem a lot to pay at the end but I don't feel that £2.60 for orange juice is right, neither is £1 for a mouthful of cake or £7.50 for a small bit of French toast. 
However, we have ordered two breakfasts and two drinks before and wound up paying £30 elsewhere so it didn't seem too bad overall - just individual things seemed more expensive than they should've been.  

Hemma is part of a chain of Scandinavian bars/cafés/restaurants (they seem to be all three at different parts of the day) and we actually have another nomination from the chain it belongs to coming up in future, Akva at the start of the canal, so we shall see how that one compares to this (hopefully it's not the exact same). 

The place could do with more breakfast options but it's such a nice, spacious place and we had the choice of sitting on big plush sofas or at a large table (finally we had enough space to eat!) so I reckon this one would be good enough to be recommended for people to try if they were in the area but it wasn't anything spectacular. 

What's next: the Caffeine Drip in the West End, nominated by Erin Whyte