Loopy Lorna’s

I wish I had read some of the reviews before venturing out here.
My friend and I were going for afternoon tea but the original place we wanted to go to was not there anymore so after spotting Loopy Lorna’s across the road we decided to go there instead.
Loopy Lorna’s used to be located further down Morningside Road and the original space was cute and quirky, although quite small.
The new space at Church Hill Theatre is very big for a café. Perhaps that was why there were so many families about. families with their screaming kids in tow.
Don’t get me wrong, the café is perfect for families as there is space to bring your buggy in. However, this place seemed more like a crèche.
You present your order at the counter and they will bring it over. We went for Cornish Cream Tea: a large pot of tea and 2 scones each with some jam (plum?).
The scones were quite small and too crumbly for my liking. The tea was good, and we had plenty of cups from that big pot.
I was a bit disappointed with the scones, but that means I have to continue my quest for the perfect scone in Edinburgh (the top spot is currently held by Wellington Coffee).

We thought we (2 girls) give an afternoon tea a try and diverted off Morningside Road into this «Afternoon Tea Establishment».
I believe that Loopy Lorna Tea house is linked to a theater and therefore offers the space for a wider audience. It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and the place started filling up with families and lots of children, I mean, LOTs of children.
If you are out and are looking for a nice cosy tea room, then this is not the place! Screaming children and running around children take the peace out of this place.
It’s a shame. Originally this Tearoom was the center of Morningside area with an old flair to it, but it appears that since the owner has changed the original character disappeared too.
The scones are bridle. Nevertheless, the cake desk looked nice and interesting and the pot of tea contained lots of tea.
All that remains is the name, the music in the background and the ghost of old good times past!
However, for families, this place is a good place to celebrate and enjoy an afternoon out with their kids!

Have you ever had the situation where you see a present under the Christmas tree, squish it, shake it, jiggle it and have high hopes it’s something wonderful… but when you unwrap it it’s something extremely disappointing? That pretty much sums up my Sunday afternoon visit to Loopy Lornas.
It’s a good space inside and, on that particular afternoon, the clientele were more couples and folk relaxing with the paper than mothers with screaming children. However, it felt a bit generic and lacking in some of the atmosphere, and quirkiness, I think I was expecting here (I had a cake version of Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory in my head!)
My friend and I ordered tea and scones, and that’s where the wrapping came off and I was thoroughly disappointed! Service was fine, but when my scone arrived it was so flat and quite crumbly, not warm and fluffy like a good scone should be. It was in quite a few pieces before I even got to the jam… which was so runny I needed a spoon rather than a knife! It DID taste okay, but was totally the wrong consistency. Price-​wise it wasn’t too expensive and they did do me an NHS discount, which sort of made up for the poor quality scone, but the whole experience was just a bit ‘meh’!
My pot of tea WAS lovely though, and it’s wrapping was the reason this place has 3 stars! For what Loopy Lornas obviously does best, is provide all their teapots (big & small!) with gorgeously colourful, hand knitted tea cosies! They were so clever and cute, and they have quite a few designs available to buy in-​house. If you can’t see one you like, there is a folder of designs you can choose from and order, which I did, and your tea cosy will be hand-​knitted in a couple of weeks!
It would be fantastic if they opened up a wee shop selling tea pots and cosies (which would get my 5 stars!), then my Christmas present buying would be sorted for years to come… and no-​one would be disappointed!

My sister was visiting so i decided to take her to Loopy Lornas for a change away from the café bars and we opted for the afternoon tea as nothing else on the menu really stood out. The afternoon tea was very nice but very expensive at £14.95 per person and that was for standard tea £16.95 for speciality tea. The service wasn’t great they forgot to give us plates for the food and I seemed to have to repeat about 3 times to the waitress what our order was and tehn with that they brought my niece two hot chocolates rather than one! I have to agree with previous reviews that the cakes i have tasted in the past have seemed to be quite dry although the cupcakes are lovely and all the little sweet treats we had in the afternoon tea were nice.
I have to also agree that when ever i’m in there does seem to be alot of tables with young children but i think the reason for that is that it is the largest café/​tearoom in Bruntsfield/​Morningside and they do gear there menus to little kids that other cafes don’t.

Zoe bought a voucher on Itson for lunch for two, which included two main meals, two cakes, and tea. We went Wednesday lunchtime, and on entrance, were greeted by the unpleasant smell of disinfectant, which set the tone nicely.
Loopy Lorna’s at Church Hill Theatre on Morningside Road appears to be some sort of crèche and meeting place for upper middle class mums and their kids. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but unless you are part of that group, it’s unlikely you’ll feel at home with the screaming children and assault course of pushchairs dotted around the place. There were a few older ladies and gents in, and it would suit some of the older diners of Morningside, again, provided you’re willing to put up with the kids screaming and clanging cutlery off the tables. To be honest, it felt more like a doctor’s surgery that a café.
We opted for a couple of sandwiches, I had the «Home-​cooked» Gammon with wholegrain mustard, served on thick white bread. I say «Home-​cooked», because that’s what the menu says. I would be astounded if the thin, perfectly-​sliced meat in my sandwich was anything other than straight from a supermarket. The bread appeared to be generic, shop-​bought thick sliced white, with rather too much margarine on it. Apart from the mustard, there was no sign of some salad, or something else to make this anything other than a totally unremarkable sandwich. I make better at home every day. You would probably get better from most supermarkets, and certainly better from any local sandwich shop. What’s more incredible is the price — £6.50 for two slices of shop bought bread and a slice of ham? Seriously?
Zoe had the Tuna cheese melt. It was some kind of roll filled with canned tuna and bright orange cheese. Her comments were that it was fine, just totally average. If you are going to serve such bland flavour combinations (the choice was either the gammon, Smoked Salmon, Egg Mayo, or Mature Cheddar and caramelised onion) you could at least use the best quality ingredients, but clearly this isn’t the case. Maybe they’re just playing to their customers requirements, but these are seriously uninspiring options, and very badly executed at that.
Both sandwiches were served with a side sald, and a stack of crisps. We didn’t even touch the salad, it just looked so much like an afterthought, with the tiniest garnish of the most finely shredded red onion and cucumber I have ever seen. Totally pointless.
Ok, so Loopy Lorna’s is supposed to be reknowned for its cakes. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because they have a lot of them. It isn’t because they’re really good, that’s for sure, or maybe my standards are too high. The range of cakes was wide, including tray-​bake favourites like millionaire shortbread, rocky road, etc, and also proper cakes including the ubiquitous chocolate cake, cheesecake, and some other variations on sponge cake. I opted for the Hazelnut Meringue, and I have to say, this was the only thing about our meal which lived up to expectations. Light, chewy meringue, with perfectly sweetened whipped cream, and crunchy whole hazelnuts, and lots of them! The only downside was that they were unshelled hazelnuts, so the skins tended to flake off and that’s not a pleasant texture sensation. If they had been roasted and skins removed, it would have been perfect.
Zoe had a big slice of chocolate cake. Dry, dense, and tasting mostly of eggy chocolate, this was not impressive. I could really taste the eggs in it, and that’s not what I want to taste when I eat cake. The chocolate frosting was ok, but the whole thing was just not very tasty, and did not have a moist, moreish texture, which I would want from a chocolate cake.
The tea and coffee were ok, but what’s the point when nearly everything else is totally sub-​standard. The food here is just completely unremarkable, and completely overpriced for what it is. Even if some of the cakes are good, £4.95 for a slice? Those are maybe restaurant prices, but this isn’t a restaurant, it’s a café, and not a very good one.
The service was average, and very slow, considering there weren’t many people waiting for their orders to be taken. The waiting staff were actually cleaning tables while we waited to have our order taken, despite there being plenty of clean tables free.
I couldn’t possibly recommend Loopy Lorna’s at Church Hill Theatre to anyone. The quality was just too low, and the poor ambience means you would be much better off buying the raw materials and making the sandwiches and cakes yourself.

A bit pedestrian in terms of food quality and creativity. The lasagne didn’t come close to my anticipated return for the cash I shelled out for it. The pot of Tea was as described — a pot with tea in it. Yes ha ha the cosy was shaped like a little lamb. The only redeeming point was the cake which was rich, moist etc etc.
I’m not sure the location lends itself to a quirky tea/​coffee/​cake place. The big open plan room caters to the Morningside mums wot do lunch with the mandatory jogging baby strollers but left me feeling a bit exposed.

Picture this… you’re driving through the countryside (be it Scotland, Australia, NZ, any country with strong British influence really). You’re approaching a small town that one of your nice old aunties lives in and you really should stop and visit for an hour or so. You stop in and she insists you stay for lunch. The lunch you are going to get is pretty much the same as what you’ll get at Loopy Lornas.
A large pot of tea that is only really good for one cup as its going to be over-​steeped by the time you get around to the second, bland sandwiches (grated orange cheese? really?), soup with slightly stale bread and big spongy cakes.
Nothing was really bad per se (except maybe the bread that came with the soup), it was just, well, boring. I admit, I didn’t try any of the cakes/​desserts, and they admittedly don’t look boring, so next time I will try them.
BTW, if you don’t like screaming kids running around, maybe stay away. Both times I have been, there has been some sort of mothers group taking over a section. Thankfully it’s a large space.
Oh, and your auntie is not going to charge you 4 quid for a pot of pretty lame tea

It was my birthday not too long ago and we decided to come here to indulge on a lovely breakfast. the new place is a lot bigger but despite the funky interior it’s not as bright or cute. The staff were lovely but even though there were only two occupied tables they got our orders messed up. Also a cooked breakfast is hard to co-​ordinate and get everything warm at the same time but when it’s 10 pounds for it you would hope your toast would be a little warmer and your small piece of bacon a little less burnt.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for Loopy Lorna’s. The first branch is always heaving and it’s not difficult to see why. They’re not quite following the mould. Sure it’s kitsch and quaint but we all need that from time to time.
This new branch bookends Morningside Road with the other one. Set inside the magnificent Church Hill Theatre, the dining room is decadent and elegant. There’s a big outdoor seating area too, overlooking the busy street.
They’ve got all the things that made the first Loopy Lorna’s such a hit — a massive selection of cakes and treats, numerous speciality teas served in bone china cups, those silly (in a good way) tea cosies, sandwiches and what not. At £10 for a sandwich and a pot of tea it’s a treat only place, but what a treat it is.
It’s funny, I should really hate this place. It’s so twee. And it’s too expensive. But they do it so well you can’t help but love it.