cafe wine bar<\/a> which launched in January on Argyle Place, just a short walk from the public toilets in The Meadows.<\/p>\nThe hard-working restauranteur says she has received a flurry of brutal one-star reviews on Google from non-customers, solely for being ‘turned away when asked to use the bathroom’.<\/p>\n
She said: “[People] throw up in the toilet and abuse it. We\u2019ve had a few of them. Now I say ‘our toilets are shut’ when people ask [and now] I get abuse.”<\/p>\n
The eatery’s Google review has slipped to a 3.8 out of 5, in part due to several one-star reviews from dissatisfied visitors attempting to use the loo.<\/p>\n
One read: “People are horrible, just tried using the toilet, girl with black hair really backhanded comments and mean atmosphere”.<\/p>\n
Another punter penned: “shocking behaviour from the staff with the grey hair and glasses. Went in during pride to buy a coffee and so my partner could use the toilet as it was an emergency. I was told a coffee was not enough. whatever, ended up buying a bottle of wine because it wasn\u2019t worth the fight.”<\/p>\n
![\"Starter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_WhatsApp-Image-2026-07-10-at-143204jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Starter Culture opened at 43 Argyle Place in January 2026(Image: Google)<\/p>\n
At first, Rachna allowed non-customers into the toilet but soon the queues became so long her own customers were forced to wait. On top of that, some people allegedly began leaving the facilities in a terrible condition.<\/p>\n
The 52-year-old said: “When I do say no, it\u2019s taken as an offence. People say, ‘What do you mean, how can you do that?’<\/p>\n
“I have to look after my customers. We’re a wine bar and cafe, we\u2019re not a toilet.”<\/p>\n
Rachna clarified that if someone is pregnant or “falling apart” she is happy to let them use the facilities but reaffirmed “I can’t keep doing this. It costs me more – it\u2019s my toilet roll, it’s my staff dealing with it while also serving customers.”<\/p>\n
The restaurant boss has another venture in Glasgow but claimed this is the first time she has ever experienced such abuse from members of the public.<\/p>\n
She added: “I don’t think anyone has any idea what amount of effort, money, and sacrifice that goes into opening a business.<\/p>\n
“To be abused my random people who don\u2019t even come in to taste what we sell, and then give us bad reviews – it\u2019s so depressing and demeaning.<\/p>\n
“We’re not toilet managers. We want people to come in and have a really good time and enjoy the wine and food.<\/p>\n
“It’s really hard to open a business in the UK at this moment. We\u2019re employing people, using local products, supporting micro-suppliers. [The success of the business] has an effect on the community who make these local products.<\/p>\n
“If people give us bad review, you don’t understand how much it takes to do this. There is no empathy.<\/p>\n
“Everyone thinks ‘you run a cafe, you must be a millionaire’. That’s not the case.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘To be abused my random people who don\u2019t even come in to taste what we sell and then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,612,59,2205,228421,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-684843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-food-and-drink","tag-gb","tag-real-life","tag-restaurants-in-edinburgh","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Rachna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_WhatsApp-Image-2026-07-10-at-142923jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n