The Alchemist St James Quarter Reviews Summary

Drink Quality

Pros:

• "The drinks certainly have the theatrics they strive for and they taste really good too!"
• "Absolutely loved the choice of unique drinks and wide variety of food."
• "Cocktails are interesting looking and they have plenty alcohol in them."
• "Overall, the Alchemist was a pretty nice night out... drinks themselves were all pretty sweet."
• "Creative, novel and great at both, making drinks & taking care of customers."
• "All of the drinks we ordered and saw were instagramable, delicious, and creative!"
• "Fun bar experience with the mixed drinks with many of them having chemical style reactions from smoke, bubbling just a fun experience."
• "Awesome cocktails, unbelievable food and great atmosphere."

Cons:

• "Overpriced sugary drinks. Not alchemy at all... tasted like a cheap club drink."
• "The drinks were fun to look at but didn’t taste great. They tasted really watered down."
• "Some of the magic of the cocktails is lost when they're made at the bar and you take them back to the table."
• "The atmosphere & staff are lovely... but we both found our cocktails extremely unpleasant."
• "Expensive cocktails, but every instagram worthy... The drink flavor was ok though, it was more for show than for taste."
• "All potential lost due to the music... Cocktails come in fancy though."
• "The cocktails feel very gimmicky, it's fun to look at the showmanship and the drinks being made but if you are looking for a place to enjoy high end cocktails, Panda & Son's or Tonic Bar in Edinburgh is a better bet."
• "Drinks were not up to standards and had a funny taste, one of my accompanies felt ill after dry ice drink."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The food was equally as impressive. But the stand out was the salt and pepper squid!"
• "Amazing food with great quality ingredients."
• "Food and drinks were very good. My boyfriend really liked the chicken basket."
• "The salt & pepper wings were great along with the several other appetizers our group was recommended."
• "We order cheese burger, fish and chip and fried chicken in a basket (chicken basket). The food and drink are cleverly crafted by fused together different flavors and tastes together from East Asia."
• "Fabulous, I attended for a business lunch, delicious virgin mojito on arrival, ordered from a set menu. Food is innovative, well presented, so tasty and a nice portion size."
• "Incredibly fun cocktails and absolutely delicious food."
• "Super friendly table service and delicious sharing platter."

Cons:

• "We had an extremely disappointing experience here. We went for the brunch option... the food was really, really bad. Won't be going here again."
• "The eggs were hard boiled, there was next to no hollandaise, and the bagel was saturated from the spinach and broccoli water."
• "All potential lost due to the music... Food was tasty but nothing spectacular."
• "The only thing edible on my plate was the toast!!!"
• "The food was okay. I had the chorizo and cheese doughballs; slightly overdone and doughy, but tasty nonetheless."
• "The remix rice bowl was lovely but we weren't overly keen on the crispy curried fish."
• "Food is available but did not have any so can't comment."
• "The food wasn't particularly special but the service was excellent though, hence the four stars."

Service

Pros:

• "The staff are super friendly, and helpful. Kerr helped up with the menu advising what certain symbols are etc."
• "My server Aidan was brilliant."
• "I think our server was Lucy, she was really friendly and had a very cool shirt."
• "Waitress we had was fantastic, forget her name from Edinburgh / California was fun and ever so helpful."
• "Manager was super nice came to the table and told us we had been waiting longer on our food than they were happy with and so gave us a 20% discount on food."
• "Lots of staff and we were checked up on often. Very busy place. Great atmosphere too."
• "Big shout out to female bartender with dark hair - excellent cocktail maker but also had a good manner with customers taking multiple orders to ensure queue time was as short as possible."
• "Our server Aoife was extremely professional, charming & guided us in making the right choices with the F&B."

Cons:

• "We had booked a table here for drinks but when we got to the door there was no one around to seat us."
• "Our waitress was nice enough, but we only saw her twice in 1.5 hours."
• "The staff essentially threw our cocktails on the table."
• "Bit disappointing that their products for purchase cost considerably more if you buy at the bar rather than ordering online."
• "The server took my payment twice... He left me with his business card and confirmed there was nothing he could do."
• "We were there for half an hour without being able to get a drink so we left."
• "One server, so mixed messages both ways. Bathroom a mess."
• "No table service, 10 minute wait at the bar with no guarantee of being served next."