The Outsider restaurant in Edinburgh
 

Last night I met three friends for dinner at the Outsider in Edinburgh where we were subjected to the rudest treatment any of us has ever experienced in a restaurant. The food is great which is why we went there, but the attitude of the management and the owner Malcolm Innes is a disgrace. A member of staff, whom I believe to be the restaurant manager, swung by our table and told us to "keep it down". When we queried this he told us that there had been complaints about the level of volume coming from our table from other customers. As the restaurant was buzzing with chatter we were frankly shocked as we were making no more noise than anyone else in the room. We were also quite disturbed to be spoken to in such a rude way. We asked to speak to the manager and were told that the owner would come and speak to us. Without hearing what we had to say, he told us that we were to leave his restaurant and never return. It transpired that the member of staff who told us to "keep it down" had received no complaints from other tables and was merely concerned about "the ambience" of the room. This whole exchanged ruined our evening. None of us will be back to the Outsider or its sister restaurant the Apartment and we'll be spreading the word to all our friends and contacts.

Sorry to hear you had this experience, agray. I've never been to the Outsider but that's because I don't like the Apartment, where I consider the food to be mediocre and the service poor. I had also heard that the owner has an attitude problem. I never understood why the Apartment always seemed to be so popular and busy but I guess it was just taken up by trendies who have a different idea from mine of what constitutes a good restaurant. I am surprised you got into trouble for being lively, though - I thought their whole idea was to have a young, lively atmsosphere.

I suggest you send your comments to The List which will be bringing out a new edition of its Eating & Drinking Guide soon - http://www.list.co.uk/feedbackform/feedback_form.html

Hi Caroline
Thanks a lot for your message and the tip about The List. I'll get all the girls to write in. I can't believe the number of negative comments about Malcolm Innes on this site alone. This guy must take the p*ss out of every second customer. Well, he messed with the wrong ladies!!

Good for you agray ! Perhaps you also ought to write & complain to the Edinburgh tourist board. I was also going to suggest writing to the Edinburgh Restauraters' Assocociation but it seemed they are not members.

Do you live here or are/were you visiting from elsewhere ?

I can't believe this place is still open. A few years I phoned up to make a reservation, after having been once and enjoyed the food, and was spoken very rudely too. I wouldn't go again.

Hi Caroline. thanks a lot for ur post and good for u guys.

There's a new 'List Eating & Drinking Guide' out in 3 weeks, so we'll see what they say !