Breakfast Nomination #1 - Urban Angel on Hanover Street

Breakfast nomination #1 - Urban Angel on Hanover Street 
nominated by my Assistant Manager, Ally.

Originally reviewed on June 7th, 2015

 "It's party time!!" (this quote will have relevance later in the review) 

His score: 4.5/6
My score: good food, poor service

He ate: French toast with bacon and maple syrup (£9!!!) and English Breakfast tea (£2.70!!!)
I ate: Eggs Benedict on English Muffins with smoked salmon (£7) and also an English Breakfast tea (£2.70)
Total cost: £21.40(!!!)

Our pros: very tasty food and nice tea; they had sugar on the tables(!), and the café had a nice layout and atmosphere.
Our Cons: service lacked or was too much at times; I practically had to oil myself up to squeeze into the table they sat us at; the toilets were minuscule, and everything was quite expensive for what we got.

Our experience: So, I was put off within 30 seconds of going into the café as we wandered over to the "please wait here to be seated" sign to the right of the tills and a sullen-faced American employee pretty much barked "Yes?" at us as if our presence in the café was somehow unusual or confusing for him.
I asked if we could have a table for two and he gruffly told us it would be a 10-15 minute wait so we said "ok".... then he almost aggressively told us to take a seat.

After a few minutes they said they had a table for us and we had to scuttle after them as they sped through the few slightly confusing hallways (one of them mirrored, yes this is confusing for me) to our seats where I practically fell over the table leg trying to squeeze into the cramped seats.

The waitress took our drink order immediately before we'd even had a chance to look at the menu (we always get tea for our breakfasts so it was ok this time though had we wanted to browse first this would've been annoying) then disappeared and no one returned to take our food order.

Maybe 5-10 minutes later, as we were still waiting for our tea, the same waitress approached us and basically said "I'm not going to take your food order yet because we've got a lot of order dockets up already" then walked off again.
I couldn't understand why they didn't just take our order then explain there would be a wait due to it being busy. Outright delaying to take our order just seemed rude and we would've fully understood if they just told us there'd be a wait for our food after they took our order.

Anyway, the waitress eventually returned again a few minutes later after deciding it was now ok to take our order and declared "Ok, it's party time!" (everyone here was very American and this enthusiasm over breakfast is very distressing for me).

While our waitress was hideously over-enthusiastic and declaring everything was 'awesome' with a big smile on her face, the waiter who had 'greeted' us at the door was walking around throwing menus on the tables and delivering lattes to customers with a face like those people had wronged him at some point in his life. What the hell was going on here?

 The food arrived after not too long a wait and both Gary and I enjoyed our respective meals. I couldn't fault mine at all and all Gary said was his could've done with some added fruit, like, say, a banana (*cough cough* like Roseleaf café *cough cough*) and that the syrup made it a little *too* sweet.
Also, we both agreed the prices were ridiculously high for what we got but I think this café is into the organic and locally sourced scene so that does tend to add a bit of price on.

Ultimately, the food was good, though pricey; the service was too lacking on one side (though the waiter enthusiastically said goodbye to us when we left...) and too much on the other "IT'S PARTY TIME!", but we both agreed we'd go back for the food if we were in the area and I would recommend going at a less busy time and stay clear of the dour-faced bearded man (that is the waiter, not Gary).

What’s next:  Our next nomination is also from Ally. The Cross and Corner in Canonmills.