The Bean and Leaf

We absolutely love The Bean & Leaf, it’s become the first place we have to go when visiting Largs. We visit for both breakfast and dinner, the food always tastes fresh and is well prepared, with nice clean flavours. Wine list is reasonable in both selection and price. The place itself is immaculately clean and the service is always as attentive as you want it to be. We were there for dinner on Saturday evening and had a lot of fun with the owner (I keep forgetting to ask his name). Prices are very reasonable for the quality of food.

Me, my husband and our little boy visited largs before we went to stay at millport. We stumbled across the bean and leaf and decided we would go for lunch before we caught the ferry over to millport. out little boy is 7 months old so we requested a high chair for him, i gave him his dinner while we were waiting for ours and when ours arrived i gave him some of our veg to chew on, as happens with children a few crumbs were dropped on the floor! as we were eating out meal a male member of staff came over and complained to us about the crumbs on the floor and started picking at the carpet. As you can imagine this made us feel very uncomfortable and quite frankly put us off the meal. i had finished my food so while my husband was still eating i took the baby to the toilet to change him. when i came back, the same member of staff had came over to our table and took the high chair away, even though it was clear we had not finished! overall i was very disappointed and made to feel like we were not welcome! if you don’t want children in the bistro you should let people know! i would definitely not recommend the bean and leaf which is a shame as the food was perfectly acceptable however the staff left alot to be desired!

We had a wonderful experience at the Bean and Leaf quite recently. The service was attentive and friendly and the food was great-​well presented and tasted delicious.
I give this restaurant a thumbs up and the fireplace is really cosy when the weather’s not so great. I would recommend the seafood too!

Part of my 2008 review: I wasn’t impressed by this restaurant. Such a stupid choice of name — it suggests a vegetarian restaurant, yet there is scarcely a single vegetarian choice! Vastly overpriced too.
UPDATE 2011 Unfortunately still not impressed. Went there the other day for breakfast. We ordered two things but both were completely wrong when they arrived. I imagine the waitress didn’t listen because I have a very clear speaking voice. I ordered scrambled eggs and toast and I asked for an egg roll for my husband with the egg very well done — as hard as possible. My scrambled eggs arrived adorned with rashers of bacon across the top — definitely not something a strict vegetarian of 25 years wants to see! I asked for fresh scrambled eggs — I didn’t want the bacon just to be removed (as happened somewhere else once which left the eggs tasting of bacon fat). Of course, I then had to wait a while for this to be done. When it arrived it seemed to have been thrown together without too much care because there were bits of egg shell and concentrated salty areas amongst the egg. However, I didn’t want to send it back a second time so ate it anyway.
As for my husband, well, his egg roll arrived fairly quickly. He turned it sideways to bite into it and the liquid yolk flowed out onto the plate. So he sent that one back and had to wait for another. When it arrived it was fine. The girl was reasonably pleasant but the man serving (Max?) was friendlier. I daresay they thought we were a real nuisance but they did their best to put things right.
We found the café a bit cramped but, apart from that, it was a pleasant place to sit. There was nice décor and it was bright and cheerful with the sun coming through the long window beside the street. There was jazz music playing at a sensible level which was nicely atmospheric. Free newspapers to read as well. It’s next to the huge car park near the ferry and on the edge of town so a very good position.
The menu offered a lot of choice throughout the day (breakfast 9 – 11.30; lite bites 3.30−5.00; dinner from 5.00 and open 7 days a week too. For my fellow vegetarians, there a veggie breakfast available (£.5.50). Later on there’s macaroni cheese, baked potato with cheese, and omelettes. The wine menu is good too and there are lovely desserts, cakes and pastries on offer.
I must admit I wanted everything to be as near perfect as possible because I was looking forward to updating my first review (which I have just shortened). It’s a shame to have had a poor experience again. They might just have been having a bad day which can happen to us all occasionally. We’ll see what happens next time!