Breakfast List #1, Breakfast #8, Roseleaf on Sandport Place

Breakfast #8 on the list

Roseleaf on Sandport Place

Originally reviewed on April 26th, 2015

His score: 6.5/6 (yes, you read that correctly - this is what happens when Gary gives a place full marks - Piece Box, then finds somewhere better than it!
My score: excellent

He ate: French Toast (£5.95) which came with bacon and maple syrup, and added extra banana (£1) and Scottish Breakfast tea (£2.75)
I ate: eggs Benedict on the shore (poached eggs on homemade bread with hollandaise sauce and added smoked salmon) (£7.95) and Scottish Breakfast tea (£2.75) 
Total cost: £20.40

Our pros: excellent service; amazingly tasty food; lovely atmosphere; good variety of food on the menu; delicious tea; very personal feel to the service, and did we mention how tasty the food was? 
Our Cons: expensive tea. That's it!

Our experience: I have to start this review by saying this was both our favourite breakfast spot so far, by a *long* way.  
We thought we'd be hard pressed to beat Piece Box but this place was excellent. 
We got amazing, personal service from someone who turned out to be the co-owner of the place who told us about how he and his wife met (they have a personalised framed mural on the wall that tells the story of how they met and came to own Roseleaf - he talked us through it when I was photographing the hats beside the picture) and he also spoke to us about the food we were ordering and how much his wife liked to eat what Gary was ordering, so our experience felt personal and it really made a difference.

We reserved a table for 12pm which was lucky as the place was full when we got in but I think if we hadn't reserved a table, we'd only maybe have to wait 10-15 minutes to get a seat. 
The place didn't feel rammed despite having all the seats occupied. They have a bar/pub area in the front and a more intimate café/restaurant area in the back where we were sat to get our breakfast. 

The menu was very varied and they did things like roasts and full meals if you were to go there for lunch or dinner. 
In terms of the breakfast menu, they had a lot of eggs Benedict variants (I obviously picked the one that came with salmon and it was amazing) and we were starting to think eggs are a very Leithy thing as Nobles Bar (also in Leith) seemed to focus a lot on their eggs in the menu. 
They had a full cooked breakfast on the menu and Gary was dithering between this and the French Toast, eventually he settled on the latter and it was spectacular. 
You wouldn't think eggy bread, bacon, banana and maple syrup would go together but it really, really does. 

I couldn't fault this place - the only thing that bothered me a tiny little bit was that Gary and I both ordered tea each and we were given a pot that gave us about 2 and a half cups of tea each but we were obviously charged for two teas which came to £5.50 which seemed a little steep for one pot of tea. Oh, and the menu said "drinky poo's" on it. Not a fan of that use of language!

However, the service was the best, friendliest and most genuine we'd had so far and the food tasted perfect so I would absolutely go back here, even though it's miles away in Leith! 
And I absolutely loved that the owner was out there taking orders from customers and clearing tables whilst chatting away to everyone. It felt very genuine and very friendly, and I was very surprised to find out he was the owner as I just assumed he was a waiter there. It was obvious that he (and his wife) really cared about this place and were passionate about the levels of service and quality of food that they were delivering.
The place had really bizarre toilets where the cubicle almost had saloon doors that you pulled shut behind you and locked with a latch in the middle. The toilet also had a blackboard behind it and a pot of chalk as well as a sign on the wall that said "ladies, please remain seated for the entire performance" which I thought was strange yet amusing.

Also, the menus came inside copies of National Geographic and initially I thought we were being given reading material while we ordered until I opened it up and found the menu inside.

Safe to say this place was pretty quirky but in the best way and everything about the experience felt quaint and pleasant, like pouring our tea through strainers into lovely little teacups - it was just lovely and enjoyable all round.
They also had a huge array of hats up on the wall that I photographed and asked the owner about. He said that they do a Mad Hatter's tea party every now and again which involves a set menu with sandwiches and cakes, as well as (optional) hat wearing.
Round the front of the bar they had a cabinet with lots of hand-crafted things for sale like handbags etc so it seemed like quite a versatile place.
Can't say much more than - go here, eat the food and enjoy the service because it was perfect in just about every way possible.

What’s next: Clock Cafe and Diner in Dalry.