An Edinburgh customer has hit out at a Meadows cafe after they asked her to leave for not 'spending enough'.
Taking to social media on Wednesday (May 11), the young woman had described the Leaf and Bean as the "worst cafe in Edinburgh" after she and a friend were asked to leave.
Quickly taking in nearly 90,000 views on TikTok, the student claimed that despite buying a pot of tea each, the pair were "hounded" by staff and were forced to leave because it was "the lunch rush."
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Furious with the service, the student said: "If you want to know the worst cafe it's the Leaf and Bean deli and cafe.
"Of course nowhere wants students taking up tables for three or four hours but hounding you to get multiple drinks when it’s literally empty and then getting kicked out after an hour and a half saying it’s the lunch rush, we’ve walked back and it’s genuinely empty and that’s it."
Hours after the clip had gone viral, the Leaf and Bean had hit out at the claims, with a now deleted Facebook post arguing the customer's actions were out of line.
With tensions continuing to rise between the two, the student posted a second viral video in response to the cafe's claims, which has since seen over 300,000 views.
Disappointed in staff's response to her complaints, she added: “We’re students, this is a business, singling someone out that leaves a negative review which encourages its followers to show me some love.
“Is it really professional to imply a customer is broke in a public statement, the table we were sat at was an appropriate size for two people, two laptops and two pots of tea. We did did in fact both get our own drinks.
“We’re not trying to fight we’re just stating facts and we understand that it is a business. We have absolutely no problem with being asked to buy more drinks in a cafe but it was how we were asked that day that means we won’t buy anything from you again and I can’t recommend anyone else does either."
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, the Leaf and Bean said:
"‘We are a small family run business and do not condone negativity. We felt the TikTok video was an attack on our business and we apologise for posting the picture. I can confirm the faces were all blanked out and unidentifiable. On reflection this was an emotional response and reaction to evidence we had in-fact had customers in.
"We are a local community business loved by many which can be seen by the reviews. We are now we are being review bombarded with some vicious and defamatory reviews from non customers which is not at all reflective of the service or our lovely staff.
"This is now becoming an attack on our small family run business. Why? because the TikTok poster was dismissive to a member of staff when asked if they would like anything else and after 1hr 45 mins was asked to either purchase something or leave.
"We do not condone or incite abusive or vicious messages / posts and removed our post because of the negativity it was receiving on both sides.
"I hope we can now move on. Please do accept our apologies for the emotional response."
