The Malt Shovel: 11-15 Cockburn St, Edinburgh

This is a reasonable pub in a convenient location near the train station. It has a good selection of beers and whisky and I believe they also do food. It’s a middle of the road pub. While it has the wooden décor of an old man bar it is actually fairly lively at the weekend. While the bar area is generally packed though, you can generally get a seat through the back. They also have smallish TVs so you can keep an eye on the sport while you are there. The only problem is it can often take a while to get served at the bar.

The Cramond Inn: 30 Cramond Glebe Road, Edinburgh

It’s such a shame. Not so long ago this was a great pub; which provided tasty food, friendly service and a decent yet cheap pint.  Indeed only 2 years ago I reviewed it as one of the best bars in Edinburgh (read my original review here).

However on a recent trip back to the Cramond Inn I was not impressed. I visited on a Saturday night and was surprised to find the bar almost empty. Some may say that the recession has hit the Cramond Inn, however you can still get a pint there for under £2. I believe it has more to do with the poor quality of food, questionable service and that they had run out of at least one of their standard beers.

So to begin with: the food. I meet some mates there and we all ordered food. Of the four of us, only one was happy with their choice of food. None of us are exactly pretentious about our food. I have said before I consider Wetherspoon’s food fine dining, but the food at the Cramond Inn was pretty poor. One of my mates ordered Fish and Chips, which, let’s face it, is pretty hard to screw up, but the fish when it appeared looked like it had been lying in the desert for a week.  If you do order food there only order the Scampi. The food used to be really good here so I think they must have sacked their Chef and be cooking food in the microwave now.

'Desert Sucker' it's on the menu at the
Cramond Inn under Fish and Chips

The service: The bar staff were giving us some bizarre patter and despite the bar being pretty much empty it still took a while to get served. Sadly the attractive barmaid from a couple of years ago was nowhere to be seen. They could also do with employing a new cleaner as the bar looked and smelled fairly dirty.

Is this dodgy looking man no
longer brewing the Alpine?

The Beer: Their Samuel Smith’s beer is still ridiculously cheap and a pint of Sovereign (their John Smith’s equivalent) is still a great pint. However they had ‘run out’ of the Standard lager served at the Cramond Inn called ‘Alpine,’ which meant my mates had to choose a substitute which was the price of an average pint anywhere else. I find it hard to understand how they could have run out when they were so quiet though on looking up the beer on the internet I have seen comments that the brewery may have stopped making this beer. If this is the case the staff at the Cramond Inn left us none the wiser.

To sum up, I used to love the Cramond Inn and I certainly love a cheap pint, but I found my recent trip a major disappointment and don’t think I’ll be back for a while.