The Queens Arms: 49 Frederick Street, Edinburgh

I liked this pub. It is a stylish bar, without being overly trendy, and despite its proximity to George Street attracts a laid back and well behaved crowd.

The beer selection is reasonable including bottles of the ilk of Erdinger, though is not overly ambitious. My favourite things about this bar were the attractive barmaids, and book shelf containing a job lot of old books. Highlights of the reading material include; an old medical encyclopaedia, various historical studies and a book of Shakespeare’s plays summarised into a few pages per play.

Other interesting features include empty bottles of wine handing from the ceiling. However it’s not all oddball features. There are TVs in the various corners so you can watch the sport.

Enjoy a book with that pint

Holyrood 9A: 9A Holyrood Rd, Edinburgh

A few people had recommended this bar to me as a great place to go for a beer and a burger. I eventually managed a visit with friends a few days before New Year and was impressed by the quality and range of produce on offer.

According to their website this is a ‘concept bar’. The concept is a good one: great diverse beer and tasty burgers. The bar is divided into a bar area at the front and a restaurant area towards the back of the building. Both are fairly comfortable and stylish.

To begin with the beer:  Check out the menu of beer they have on offer. While not as extensive as the beer available in the likes of Brauhaus, there is a pretty good selection. I tried the Hollyrood beer which went down nicely with my burger. There is a large selection of beer on tap including Blue Moon, Black Isle Blonde and a few Brewdog beers - which though not to my taste seem to be finding their way into more and more bars. One word of warning – avoid a pint of Peroni or Framboise, they will set you back the best part of 5 notes here!

The food: While there are also other items to choose from it is all about the burgers at the Holyrood 9A. Again there is a whole menu of burgers and I particularly like the way it’s divided into one hander and two. At around £7-9 its fairly reasonable for these tasty burgers.

The only thing that disappointed me about this bar was the service. We were served by a waitress who was utterly miserable, and though we had been told we would have the table until 8.30 when we made the reservation, we were actually turfed off it at 8.

The Holyrood 9A left me confused. It is pricier than the average bar and when you pay more you expect better quality. The quality is certainly there in the beer and food (and I’d definitely recommend it for those attributes), so why the poor service? Also the beer I had was ‘Hollyrood’ spelt with a double ‘l’. What’s that about?

A confusing beer in a confusing bar!

The Black Bull: 12 Grassmarket, Edinburgh

The Black Bull has the potential to be a reasonable bar. It has some interesting bottled beers behind the bar and also has plenty of TVs to watch the sport, including a couple of small tellys behind the bar so that you don’t miss a minute of the action while you wait for a pint.

The problem though is twofold;

1.       The layout of the bar: the layout is awkward. There are mainly small areas of no more than a few seats facing a TV screen, so if you want to watch the sport with several mates you either need to rearrange the furniture or head elsewhere.

2.       The location: what’s the best way of describing Grassmarket on a Friday and Saturday night? A warzone? Well unfortunately the Black Bull attracts many of the Stag and Hen nights and other assorted characters that tend to frequent the Grassmarket area.

Having said this, the Black Bull is a good place to get a cheap student pint, so maybe it’s not all bad!

Grassmarket on a Saturday night! (Please note this picture may have been taken a few years ago)

The Voodoo Rooms: 19 West Register St, Edinburgh

This would be a great place if they just turned the volume down.

The voodoo rooms is a stylish bar for the over 21s crowd. Situated above the Café Royal, it has the same fantastic architecture, with an ornate celling big glass windows, and comfortable semi-circular booths with leather seating. The lights are dimmed low and there are candles on the tables for the trendy/romantic feel.

There is a reasonable selection of beer on tap and in a bottle for a place of this ilk, though don’t expect any hand pull ales as this place is too trendy for that. If you are in the market for a cocktail though you’re in luck as there is a menu on the table. As with many bars in Edinburgh bring your cheque book!

The service in this bar can vary. When the bar’s quiet service is fine, but when it’s busy the bar staff can get a bit stressed and arsy, and sometimes it can take forever to get served. However it seems when there is an event on (there are regular live gigs in the room next door) there is table service which is handy as the bar is packed.

The music is generally quite cool and different to the same chart stuff you hear in most bars, however my bug bear is that it is too loud. I was in there last night and when I arrived the volume was fine - lively but fine for conversation, however after half 10 they cranked the volume up.  At the risk of sounding old, bars are for drinking and having some chat, if you want loud music you go to a nightclub.

This could be a good bar. It’s a pleasant change from the mainly ‘old man’ bars in this area of Edinburgh, or the overly trendy tacky bars on George Street. However they really should turn down the music.

Turn that record player down!

Ryan’s Bar: 2-4 Hope Street, Edinburgh

Ryan’s bar is one of the few original Irish bars from the 1990s, when Irish bars infested Edinburgh. Apparently this bar is quite popular for showing Irish sport such as the Gaelic Football. I generally find the beer overpriced, but the Guinness is decent.   

The main bar area of Ryans bar is often packed at weekends and it can take you an age to get to the bar, making the atmosphere is pretty terrible. If you are going there on a Friday or Saturday night, rather than going to the main part of the bar I would suggest going to the greenhouse stuck on the side of the bar. In this glass extension (with various exotic large plants dotted about - making you feel you are in a greenhouse), you can usually get a seat and as the ‘greenhouse’ is the café part of the bar but you are given fairly attentive table service. However you can still order beer and can also order food which is generally quite good.

There is also an area downstairs in their cellar which is an ‘ambient’ restaurant (according to their website) with classical pianists apparently. While I’ve never eaten there myself I have been to a birthday drinks event in the Cellar which was quite a good venue but again the drinks prices were quite high.

Sit in the greenhouse!

The Bongo Club: 37 Holyrood Rd, Edinburgh

I would like to be able to say I enjoy this club and to recommend it. It is trying to do something different – to play an eclectic selection of music and a variety of different types of nights. However clearly it is the sort of place you need to be in the know about what is going on – if you don’t it can be hit or miss.

I have been there several times now and have happened upon; a dance music night (rubbish), a sixties soul night (which was actually alright), a burlesque night (which was just bizarre) and a New Year’s celebration for 2012 (which was fairly poor). I also turned up pissed there one night which was probably the best if not only good night I’ve had in the Bongo Club.

To concentrate on my more recent experience at New Year; to start with it cost 12 quid to get in because it’s 2012 – ha ha, I’m laughing all the way to the poor house! Perhaps I should have gone in 2000 when it was free right?

The woman at entrance kiosk seemed fairly pissed off with the whole situation and actually man handled one of my mates, who had walked off after paying without getting his hand stamped (or drawn on with a permanent marker as the case was).

The Bongo Club is on two levels. There is an upstairs bar and small dance floor, and then the main bar and dance floor downstairs. We went upstairs first which was actually reasonable. It took an age to get served at the small bar but at least the music was good– sort of soul stuff. I was desperate on a seat though having walked all the way from Lothian Road (effectively a mile - the Bongo Club is certainly a trek).  There were no seats though sadly. Then we went downstairs.

The Bongo Club is a sort of student place and the talent is generally good. Downstairs they were all dancing away to dance club (reach for the lasers kind of music), and if you like dance and were wasted you could be having great fun. Unfortunately I wasn’t drunk, as the beer was £3.50 for a bottle, and I hate dancing, so I was bored. Taking a trip to the toilet before leaving, there was a river of piss to wade through on the floor, no hand drier, and one of the sinks was blocked.

Good times!

Reach for the lasers!

The World’s End: 4 High Street, Old Town, Edinburgh

This pub is listed in many tourist guides as if it’s a bit of an Edinburgh institution, but writing as an Edinburgh resident, it’s not a bar I’d return to.

The World’s End does have connections to Edinburgh’s long history, which may attract some tourists. Situated on the corner of the Royal Mile and St Mary’s Street, the site marked the old outer boundary of Edinburgh in the sixteenth century when the city was protectively surrounded by the Flodden wall (hence the name). However, its association with more recent history is pretty horrible, as it is also tragically known for being the last place two seventeen year old girls were seen alive in 1977 (before they left the pub and disappeared), in what became known as the World's End murders case.

Inside the bar the architecture is the sort of oak wood style you get in many ‘traditional’ pubs (also known as ‘old man’ bars) in Edinburgh. There is also the usual standard Scottish tourist memorabilia decorating the walls. The beer on offer is pretty standard also with some hand pulls on offer but nothing you couldn’t find elsewhere.

The staff did seem fairly friendly but the atmosphere was pretty terrible. I popped in for a drink one weeknight in December and there was only a few people in the pub (who seemed like regulars) crowded by the bar. The layout of the pub doesn’t help, as the kitchen is a little cupboard in the middle of the seating area at the rear of the bar, so if you are just in for a quiet drink, the sight, smell and sound of food being prepared is a bit intrusive. I was also aware of the cleaner sitting at a table nearby polishing cutlery. This didn’t seem particularly professional while they were open for business.

The World’s End isn’t a terrible bar, and perhaps on a weekend with a better atmosphere it might improve. However the bar provided very little that I couldn’t get from one of the many other similar tourist pubs on the High Street. If I was going back for a drink in this area I’d go across the road to the Tass or even around the corner to the Waverley.