Eteaket in Frederick Street is one of the numerous tea based cafes popping up around Edinburgh.
I first went when it intially opened as I am offically a Tea Jenny. I wasn’t impressed the first time I visited, nor the second. Reviews I read were mixed, mainly complaining about bad service, but the management had responded saying they were short staffed and the problem was now rectified. My friends who had eaten there were not impressed either.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt and went back a third time, where this review came from.
Eteaket, Frederick Street
It was my American friend who begged me to go for afternoon tea there as the place ‘looks so cute’. Take away the blue and pink furniture, then you have an average decorated tea shop. The wall pictures are so small, they drown in the space and with Ikea frames, they’re never going to grab your attention.
I am not denying that they have a good selection of tea, but their staff in all three visits could not recommend a good tea for me and you are not allowed to smell the tea before you try unlike places like Tea Tree Tea, where good advice is in abundance.
We were encouraged to hurry up with our order, but with no assistance, I plumped for the afternoon tea for one at £9.85 with a 40 pence supplement as I chose Jasmine Pearls, a rare tea.
My friend chose a cream tea for one at £4.95 including 2 cream scones, again with a 40 pence supplement for White Peach.
A normal pot of white peach is £2.65, so in effect she was getting 2 scones for £2.70, not a bad deal at all.
Cream tea for one
This was delivered to our table, 5 minutes ahead of mine and it was explained to use the timer for optimum brewing and taste.
The scones were ok, nothing to write home about. Not served warm.
My afternoon tea for one arrived, after the waitress came back to ask what type of sandwich I wanted (I thought it was a ‘selection’ as per the menu as is often the case in afternoon teas).
Afternoon Tea for one
Not many marks for the presentation, I thought they would have individual sized cake tiers rather than space it out over one meant for two. Anyway, I got stuck into my sandwich having not had lunch and was disapointed to find the bread slightly stale (also didn’t get the choice of brown bread, that’s what I was given) and the chicken filling nothing special.
The scone, again was ok, but the 3 little cakes were extremely tasty.
Mini cakes
Overall, I was disappointed with the afternoon tea for the price I paid. If you equate these 3 cakes to an extra scone like my friend had, then the stale sandwich was £5 !!
I brewed the Jasmine tea as instructed with the use of the timer, but it had obviously been sitting brewing before it was brought over as it was slightly bitter when I drank it (a sign of over brewed Jasmine).
The overall service was not good, plates cleared as the last crumb was being swallowed and encouraged to leave as soon as we’d finished. ‘Do you want anything else ?’ – not at the moment thank you – ’I'll just get the bill for you’. I understand that this would be necessary if the place was really busy and there was people waiting (I always leave quickly if someone is wanting a seat) but it was a quiet Tuesday afternoon. No time for a girlie blether at Eteaket.
I know that there will be readers of this article who disagree with me and perhaps had a better experience. But with other wonderful tea places in Edinburgh offering far superior afternoons teas, that are not rushed, it’s safe to say I will not be back to Eteaket, no matter how cute their chairs are !
Suitable for disabled ? No, the cafe is down a set of stairs, although on a nice day, there are seats outside, so you could eat then, but the toilets are inside, down the stairs.
Thanks for this info – had thought about popping in here before but will try somewhere else now!
I ate here back in the Spring and the service was very slow and haven’t been back. I like going to Clarindas for afternoon tea or Toger Lily
I had a similar experience with the service and average tea and cakes will not be back. I would rather take the bus up to Morninside to Loopy Lornas
I had read your review weeks ago and agree – the service is bad and unless you know your teas and which ones to pick then this place is not for you. I actually walked down to Coffee Angel that you reviewed for afternoonn tea and cake and absolutely love that place now, can’t wait to go back !!!!!!!!!
As a regular to eteaket I find the following comments on the website biased from the founder of spotlight. The fact that you have put a link on the eteaket page to Tea Tree Tea because you are a friend of theres is a real low!!! I find the eteaket staff to be very helpful, friendly and efficient. The Afternoon tea is also a real delight at a great price. You really should take a visit again and see what you are missing.
We are completely unbiased and not friends of ANY places in town, whether it be food or tourist attractions. We review independently and pay for our own food. The reason the link to Tea Tree Tea is on the page is we cross link to other articles all the time and offer alternative suggestions. Eteaket has always had mixed reviews since opening, such as on qype and are very negative on The List. I gave eteaket the benefit of the doubt of three visits before reviewing, when we normally only visit twice before reporting. I was actually very generous in the review in that I didn’t mention the fact that two pigeons kept on flying in and out of the place. It is also not accessble to disabled people, therefore will never receive 5 stars. Since you are a regular, perhaps you would like to point this review out to the owner so that she can give her reply as she has done on other review sites. In the meantime, I will continue to drink tea and eat cake at Coffee Angel Moo Cafeteria Forsyth’s Tea Room and enjoy my afternoon tea at The Hub where afternoon tea is currently £10 for two people. Please feel free to contact any venue reviewed on this site for them to tell you the review was done anonymously and they are not friends’ of ours.
First you suggest coffee angel and now you tell me about afternoon tea at The Hub. Mmmmmm, the cakes look delicious in the review. You would have to be friends with everyone in Edinburgh with all the reviews you do!!!!!!!
I also am a complete ‘tea Jenny’ and couldn’t have been more excited when Eteaket opened up, I was there in their first week and thought the decor was really cute and the range of tea impressive, although a bit expensive, and I chose a very tasty ‘Awesome Assam’. The service was not great, in fact I’d go with indifferent and aloof. But they had just opened so I reckoned that they were just finding their feet.
Since then I’ve been in a further 3 times, I wanted to give it another go and I had friends who also wanted to try it out. However, the service is always very poor and unhelpful and all three times I had something to eat and it was stale. Also they woudn’t let my sister and I share a pot of tea! It was buy an individual one each or not at all. “Couldn’t you just give me one pot and 2 cups?” “No.” My sis just wanted a little not a full pot but this was vetoed straight away.
I think I’ve given them more opportunities than most to impress and the experience has consistently been very disappointing. I wont be going back.
I’d also like to say that I am a huge fan of both Loopy Lorna’s and Tea Tree Tea where the service is always outstanding, the environment very friendly and relaxed and the food excellent. Not to mention the teas! This isn’t a biased opinion its just the truth
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As the owner of eteaket I would like to respond to some of the comments on this site as we do try to monitor and respond to feedback good and bad. It is very disappointing to hear from customers who have had repeated poor experiences in our cafe. Eteaket is a labour of love and my passion so we do take all criticism seriously and we try to respond and make changes.
On criticism of service, we train all our staff to give the best possible service and we do not encourage customers to be rushed out the door. We identified that this had occurred a couple of times and we gave additional training to the specific staff member involved. We also positiviely encourage customers to smell our different teas before making a decision. We pride ourselves on having the best range and the best quality teas in Edinburgh which we have personally and carefully sourced. Our staff receive regular training on our teas and should be able to assist with any queries. We appreciate that when a new member of staff joins the team it may take a little bit of time for them to have the full spectrum of knowledge but they are encouraged to ask a more experienced team member to help with any such queries.
In terms of dis-satisfaction with the quality of food, we pride ourselves on using quality fresh, local suppliers for all of our ingredients. If any customer is unhappy with any item then we are more than happy to replace it then and there. No question.
We serve pots of tea for one and they are priced accordingly. Some places offer pots of tea for two which are also priced accordingly. We cannot though serve pots of tea for one to two people and I can’t think of many cafes that would allow this either.
We have also introduced customer feedback cards in our shop over the past two months so that we can receive more immediate feedback from our customers rather than responding to review websites. The feedback from these has been and continues to be overwhelmingly positive including staff friendliness, tea and food in direct contrast to certain reviews posted online. We do however naturally receive genuine criticism or suggestions from these feedback cards which we then take forward in ways to improve the experience.
We don’t purport to be perfect and I know that mistakes will happen and there will be times when we do not give the level of service or overall experience we would like but we are constantly looking at all the little ways to make eteaket even better. Hopefully some of you will stop by to see for yourselves.
Thanks
My my my! I’m an expat living in Edinburgh and love a good cup of tea. I understand why the owner would want to come back after the feedback, but perhaps she should send one of her friends in anonymously to see what they experience. The two times I have been here were not impressive and I tend to head out of town to Ephermsis in Marchmont and will be trying the new Loopy Lorna’s out soon. The best news of all? Pekoe Tea are opening a shop and can’t wait to try that. I am sorry addicatedtotea to be so negative, but although your tea products are fine, the staff are not knowledgeable enough for me to return, nor is the food and cakes quality good enough for the prices you charge.
I am quite inclined to agree.
I used to go to Eteaket on a regular basis but have found it over priced with poor service. I have never once seem the staff manage to serve an order at the same time. Getting cakes served 5 mins before the tea came out etc.
The range of tea is average quality and the staff have poor knowledge of these.
I would recommend Anteaques in Newington. Fabulous teas in a far more endearing setting than eteakets try-hard kitsch.