The Raconteur: 50 Dean Street, Edinburgh

Last night I went with some mates to the Raconteur, a bar hidden up a residential side street in Stockbridge. A bit off the beaten track, this bar is only frequented by those in the know. Unfortunately by the end of my visit I was left irritated and only knowing that I would never go back.

I’ll begin with the positives. The bar is stylish and chilled out, there are attractive barmaids who provide table service and if you like cocktails and pretzels you can apparently get many good ones.

The negatives: I don’t like cocktails or pretzels, I like beer, of which there weren’t many choices. The Guinness was fairly average and after a few pints it was sticking in my throat (although it was served in one of the new tactile glasses which I like). As you come to expect in most Edinburgh bars the drink is overpriced! I also don’t really like table service in bars as it destroys the round system – a proud drinking tradition. However, what angered me the most was the service. 

When we arrived the bar was quiet. A barmaid came to our table who, after unnecessarily wasting her time trying to convince us to try some cocktails, eventually got the message we wanted pints. We were given our pints quickly (no problem there) and stayed in the bar for some time, ordering several more drinks. Later one of my mates even tried a cocktail, which seemed to delight the barmaid. By this time the bar had become busier and 2 of my mates had left. I moved from a seat near a speaker into a more comfortable seat, leaving two empty seats in front of our table. The barmaid soon asked me if I would move back to the less comfortable seat to make space for other customers (who could easily have sat on the less comfortable seats in front of us). This, added to the fact that the waitress took ages to produce our most recent round of drinks, made us feel like we had been relegated from hero to zero customers!

I would have expected a bar like this, which survives on word of mouth, would have done all it could to keep customers coming back. I won’t be going back and would recommend my readers don’t bother either.   

Pretzel Logic?
(That's a Steely Dan album for those not in the know!)