I've been to Maxi's twice now and each time have been underwhelmed.  The first time for cake and coffee, and today for breakfast.  \n\nThe cake was nothing special - pretty standard and most likely purchased from the same place that makes these kinds of traybakes and cakes for the vast majority of Edinburgh cafes.  The coffee was nice, but nothing compared to the likes of Artisan.\n\nBreakfast today was actually pretty sub-par.  The staff are nice, but there are too many of them.  There are 11 tables with no table service, and there were 4 girls behind the counter who spent the majority of their time chatting because there was nothing else to do.  There could easily have been two less members of staff - they would have been busy for a bit, but it would have been do-able, easy.  I feel I can say this because I used to properly wait 8 table sections, while making drinks, coffee and salads, as well as bussing tables, and we were just fine.  \n\nThe food, though, is what left us unsatisfied.  We each had eggs benedict, I had it with bacon and the man had it with sausage.  The eggs, bacon and sausage were well cooked.  The eggs were actually impressively well cooked - though maybe I'm impressed because the art of poaching an egg is something that is so amazingly beyond my grasp it's embarrasing.  \nHowever, the hollandaise was obviously out of a jar and really not nice at all.  It was thick and a bit bitter tasting, not the dreamy fatty creaminess which it should have been.  The toasted muffin as well had an unusual taste to the extent that I actually just resorted to eating around it.  I can't even describe the taste but whatever the description, it wasn't nice.  \n\nWe walked away \u00a315 lighter with full bellies, but wishing we'd stayed in for breakfast.