The Tea Rooms At Edinburgh Castle

The savory part was good, my husband thought the bread was stale with one of the sandwiches. The dessert were not great one out of 4 was good, the macarons tasted stale. The scones were ok but the clotted cream had a thick yellow crust on it. The espresso martini, tea, and server were excellent. I would not recommend spending money on tea here

The afternoon tea at the Edinburgh Castle is lovely AND delicious! Having the opportunity to stop here and rest awhile was perfect after climbing up to the castle and exploring. The selection of teas was excellent (I had mango strawberry) and the sandwiches, scones, and desserts were great. They don't rush you so you can sit and enjoy the view as you leisurely dine. Combine it with your visit to the castle so you won't have to climb up there twice!

We attended Edinburgh Castle Tea Rooms today as a pre booked group of 5. Our ticket told us to arrive ten minutes before the reservation time, which we did. We were told to return at our booked time of 2pm. This was fine and we did as asked. We arrived at 2pm to be told to wait. We waited nearly 15 minutes before we were seated. We were taken to a table where three of the chairs were covered in crumbs and when one chair was pulled out the floor was covered in crumbs and mess. The staff member went and got a brush which removed the worst of it. We then were seated but one of the chairs was on the end of the table where there was a bar. They could not get their legs under the table so had to sit sideways. We were told that tables of six sitting in that position had already been in. Irrelevant as this person was uncomfortable. We asked if we could change tables but were told no as there were other bookings. Another staff member then said we could. We moved the crockery to the other table as the staff members did not do this. We were asked what drinks we wanted and we then waited over 20 minutes for the food to arrive. One serving was missing a scone, which was delivered. We were not offered tea so had to ask. We had asked for water for the table when we ordered our drinks, this never arrived. The tea took around 15 minutes. It arrived when we were nearly finished the food and was very stewed as it had clearly been sitting for a while. The staff member put the milk on the table holding the top rim of the jug rather than the body of it. With regards to the food, the ham, egg and mustard sandwiches had very little ham in it. One of the leek and cheese puffs had no filling, the others were stale. The menu stated strawberry and pistachio Battenberg, we got a vanilla cake with pistachio and raspberry, the sea blackthorn meringue pie was lemon meringue. We were told when the food was served that we were getting what was on the menu. In general, the food was nice. We were asked if we were ok, we were however not asked if we wanted anymore to drink. Whilst the staff were pleasant, service was poor and the experience was not one we would repeat. We paid £203 for this, and it was definitely not worth it.

We saw afternoon tea at Edinburgh Castle promoted in an Historic Scotland Friends email and thought ‘Why not?’ This meant a special trip to Edinburgh from Glasgow on 28 December 2023 as a festive treat. We had a good time walking past the shops (and going into some of them) on the way up to the castle. However, that was the highlight. We got into the castle with no trouble at our allocated time just after 1:30 pm. There were no signs as to where we had to go or information on the ticket. Guides from the castle were able to point us in the right direction and we arrived at 1:45 pm for our allotted time of 2:00 pm. We were told we couldn’t wait indoors and had go out into what was not a very pleasant afternoon. We came back at 2:00 pm but it was still about ten minutes before we were shown to our table. It then took ages for someone to take our drinks order and we finally got our tea and coffee at 2:35. And then the food didn’t arrive. After reminding the staff that we didn’t have anything to eat, it was eventually delivered to our table fifteen minutes later. Another couple, who were visitors to Scotland, were on the table next to us had to wait even longer. The food was variable in quality. The sandwiches were disappointing. They appeared to have come out of the chiller, had little taste, and looked to have been made from ordinary sliced bread. The rest of the food was satisfactory, and we appreciated the changes made because of my wife’s allergies. The staff were all very pleasant but the whole afternoon seemed disorganised. Maybe we were unlucky and there were staff shortages on the day we went. Whatever the reason, having made the trip, we were disappointed with the whole experience. We couldn’t recommend it.

We arrived at 1.20 for our 1.30 pm slot and was told very rudely to come back as we were too early. We sat inside by the bar area to wait after assuring the waitress we were happy to wait for our allocated time. She did not redeem herself with a smile or a nod she just ignored us and made us feel most unwelcome. What a terrible first impression. Heard the same waitress speak equally rudely to 3 other groups. We were then sat down (by a lovely waitress) and waited for 20 minutes before any food or drink arrived. The room was cold, food very average and my wife had to ask 3 times for milk to go with her tea. By the time it turned up her tea was cold. The rest of the staff were fine but it was the same Asian waitress who was rude and then kept on forgetting what we ordered. Overall not a great experience particularly given the cost. So disappointed as this was supposed to be a lovely treat to enhance our visit to the castle but unfortunately it managed to taint our whole day.