Dobbies - Midlothian

This was my first visit to Dobbies cafe and I can confidently say that I will not be returning anytime soon, if ever. We were seated promptly, even though it wasn't very busy. However, we waited for 25 minutes with the menu down, trying to get the waitress' attention so we could place our order. We watched as she served people who arrived after us and completely ignored us. We even politely mentioned that we had been waiting before them. We decided it was best to leave. Instead, we went to Farley's garden center, which was excellent. I highly recommend it.

I'd overlooked how busy it can be in Dobbies at the weekend and so apparently had the restaurant manager. There weren't enough staff for the number of customers. We were sat very quickly but then had to wait 20 minutes for a member of wait staff to take our order. This was in spite of asking for help a couple of times and being told that someone would be with us in 2 minutes. The staff were clearly under pressure and not dealing happily with it, they were a bit brusque and surly. When the food arrived it was tasty and an appropriate size portion. I will go back, just not at the weekend.

Booked place at soft play. Coffee bar in soft play unmanned and no staff were in attendance for full hour+ session. Did this meet minimum safety standards? And device at main coffee bar was slow. 2minutes to get two coffees. Not a good experience

I booked a softplay session with 3 children under 4, thankfully I got in early and got a table, others that had booked were not so lucky as people that hadn’t booked were just walking in and taking the tables of pre booked people. I would have normally had a coffee and kids juice and crisps when the softplay was manned but as it was unmanned I couldn’t leave 3 children in the softplay while going out to the coffee bar and if I had taken them out they would have missed their play time and I certainly wasn’t going to stand in a very long queue with them either.

My friend and I went for coffee and cake today. Long queue to get served as only 2 people serving. We both ordered a scone and a drink. Both scones were simply the worst scones we’ve ever had. They just fell apart when trying to put jam on them because they were so dry. We saw a few other tables having the same issue. Both scones became crumbs. There are so many better places for cakes in Dunfermline so we won’t be back.