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?
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| A confusing beer in a confusing bar! |
I accompanied the Pub Inspector that night, and for me the most intriguing thing about this establishment is that their burgers were served on wooden chopping boards! My venison burger was very tasty and went well with a pint of dry cider. Honeycomb sundae dessert was good too.
ReplyDeleteFelt sorry for the waitress as it was a busy holiday night and management had evidently overbooked. They did hold our table from 5:30 to 8 and bring another meal at short notice when an extra friend turned up. I got a big smile from our waitress at the end.