Breakfast Nomination #16, Montpeliers in Brunstfield

Breakfast Nomination #16, Montpeliers in Brunstfield 

Nominated by Mr Mark Strevens - his second nomination (the first being the Ship On The Shore in Leith) 

Originally reviewed on July 31st, 2016

With our sixth guest reviewer, the one and only Kirsty McVean 

"Those were the Holladaise..." 

Gary's score: 4.7/6 
My score: I was robbed of my free tea! 
Kirsty's score: 7.3 Snotlings /10 (this week's review is brought to you by Warhammer)  


Gary ate: the Full Monty (massive full cooked breakfast + grilled chicken and steak??) that came with toast and orange juice and was *supposed* to come with a tea or coffee, yet didn't (£11.95) and a hot chocolate (£3.10) 
I ate: the Monty (the same as Gary, minus the steak and chicken) and an English Breakfast tea (£2.75) but they didn't include my tea in the price even though it's supposed to come with the breakfast.
Kirsty ate: Eggs Royale (eggs Benedict with salmon) (£6.95), and orange juice (£2.40) and an Americano (£2.70) 
Total Cost: £39.45!!! or £27.40 for me and Gary, though it should've just been £24.65 with my tea included with my breakfast, grr. 

Our pros: nicely decorated restaurant with a good view from our window seats; friendly enough service; loads of breakfast options; good salmon for the eggs Royale and nice toast with the Monty breakfasts. 
Our Cons: really watery orange juice; not being offered the tea or coffee with our Monty breakfasts and me being charged my tea separately was pretty bad imo; really slow to get our bill; tables were far too small for three people to sit at with food; felt boxed in by the window and some of the food was pretty average - some even flavourless. 

Our experience: I was initially pretty excited about this place - it had a huge swathe of breakfast options and most importantly they did breakfast until 5pm (amazing) and it's a mere ten minute walk from my front door - time for a Sunday lie-in finally! 

Kirsty, carboot sale fanatic

Except no, that did not happen. 

In order to add to our breakfast challenge experience, Kirsty suggested that Gary and I join her at 10am to go to the car boot sale in the Omni Centre car park which takes place each Sunday. 
Safe to say I was not particularly awake for the first few hours of our day together and spent an inordinate amount of time yawning loudly and struggling to keep my eyes open whilst we wandered round endless piles of rusty old tools, awkward looking framed pet portraits and any other random belongings people had dug out that cupboard in their home they've not gone into for 47 years and decided to bring along to the sale. 

dozing off (probably)

Once we'd done the Kirsty circuit around the car boot sale, we grabbed a bus straight to Montpeliers - yes, food time! 

Montpeliers looked pretty busy, as it always does when I go past on my way to work, but we managed to get a seat after just a few minutes. 

We deliberated over the copious menu choices for a while before deciding what would be best to satisfy our hungers - Gary wondering why the hell a breakfast would come with a chicken and a steak but thought "fuck it!" and ordered it anyway. 

The wait staff that dealt with us seemed friendly enough but we didn't really get checked on at all and we were sat there for 10-15 minutes at the end waiting to ask if we could get the bill. 
However, this seems to happen annoyingly regularly these days when we eat out so I'm not sure if this is just normal procedure but I find it kind of off-putting feeling like you're being held hostage until you make the sufficient pointed eye contact with a nearby waiter in order to get the bloody bill finally. 

Kirsty really enjoyed her food and even had a few bits and pieces of mine and Gary's leftovers as we'd had more than enough food, especially with the rack of toast we got with our cooked breakfasts.
She said the salmon was good, the Hollandaise was acceptable and thought the pea shoots on her dish were a nice touch. 


Generally I liked my full cooked breakfast but I've got more for less in other places (*cough cough* CJ's Café, seriously it's so cheap) and Gary and I both agreed our poached eggs tasted far too watery with not much of a runny yoke going on and our sausages were too herby. 

mm, toasty toast

However, the haggis and black pudding were both cooked well and not greasy. I liked the added toast, but the OJ that came with our food tasted mostly of water and less of orange juice and I really can't let it slide that we didn't get our tea or coffee included with our breakfast - neither of us were offered either drink when we ordered food and I'd already ordered a tea at the start of the meal before we were asked our food orders, so I wound up getting charged for it anyway which I thought was pretty bloody cheeky as it specifically says on the menu that the Monty breakfasts come with "tea or coffee and a glass of orange juice", gah. 

Only one of these drinks was complimentary, humph

It's a lovely place but there was a *lot* of people bustling about and a lot of noise from the bar - mainly lots of smashing glass (not sure if it was intentional or not) and clinking so it was a bit too loud for me and we were really struggling to fit our plates on the table to eat. 

we're gonna need a bigger table

My plate was actually hanging off the table and I was worried I was going to end up with a lapful of food if I wasn't careful so I'd suggest only going there alone or with one other person to make sure you have adequate table space! 

I'd say this place is worth visiting on a nice day - especially as there's outdoor seating, and because there's probably about a dozen or more exciting breakfast options including pancakes, Mexican wraps and filled rolls as well as what the three of us ate today, so there's really something for everyone and lots to try. 

However, it's expensive (it's Brunstfield though, hardly surprising) and the food quality doesn't really measure up to those prices so I would probably pick a cheaper place over this one for the same or better quality of food. 

Nice but not great. 

Where's next: Hemma in Holyrood, nominated by Russell Simpson.