"The metropole is having an identity crisis..."

A review of Metropole Coffee House by Madeline Kennedy written on Sunday 3rd of April 2011

The Metropole used to be my favourite cafe to sit for hours on end, with my laptop doing my uni work, drinking lots of coffee. It's a little bit out of the way and it's big enough to do this without being a nuisance. The food and drink was fine, coffee not kilimanjaro standard but good enough and they had an awesome selection of loose leaf tea which you'd get in your own pot with a little strainer. The atmosphere was great and there was always a nice mix of students, parents with young children and OAPs in at any one time.

The last time I went though they'd introduced table service...table service for a Newington cafe? Very strange and completely unnecessary for lunch time in the area where most people are looking for a relaxed place to sit and have a coffee. They seem to have got rid of their wireless connection for customers and the whole effect is to sort of, have you out the door as quickly as possible when you've finished eating, even when the place is empty. Not nice.

The lovely loose leaf teas are gone, the friendly, relaxed staff are gone. I'm not really sure what they're aiming for. The food has turned into bistro, gastro pub fayre, with limited options for vegetarians which is always a bad idea in Edinburgh.

We got some sort of platter, which was nice, but very stingy and was brought to us without plates...(if you're going to insist upon table service, at least get it right). This was bar nibbles, all very well, but not in a bar, in a cafe! There seems to be less attention to lunch time food like sandwiches etc. more focus on bangers and mash. I don't have a problem with this in itself, but I think the new managers don't get that if their customers wanted pub grub, bar nibbles or bistro food they'd go to, you know, one of the many lovely local pubs. Similarly with the table service, awkward!

Essentially they are shooting themselves in the foot by eliminating a huge portion of their market. The Metropole is now too expensive for the elderly, there's no selection for kids and the atmosphere's too uncomfortable for students. What does that leave? Pretty much nothing. Maybe this sort of approach would work in the west end or off George Street somewhere where the atmosphere is less casual but in Newington it felt so confused and odd.

If the owners of the place read this, my advice would be to bring back the lovely tea, stop alienating the existing customers and get rid of the bizarre table service, at least at lunch time. If you want to push for a change in direction, that's fine, but you cannot march in with no knowledge of the area whatsoever and give people the opposite of what people want. Why not stick with the laid back Cafe approach during the day, then emphasise the bistro food and atmosphere in the evening? I really hope someone pays attention to the reviews that are appearing online, because it's such a waste of a lovely space. .

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