Category: Leith

Going out to the pub for breakfast is something I’ve only really discovered in recent years. Now it’s one of my favourite things to do. So the other Saturday when Mrs Bar Fly and I fancied a fry-up fix, we headed down to Teuchters Landing – a break from the norm, it has to be said. Living in Edinburgh, near Leith, I have to admit my default option for a weekend breakfast up till now has been the King’s Wark at The Shore, which does an excellent breakfast albeit often accompanied by somewhat shambolic service. Not rude, just disorganised. So would Teuchters Landing be able to equal or better its nearby rival?

An American woman at the bar summed this place up beautifully as she sat at the bar with her husband recently: “I’ve been here several times but the last time was 15 years ago. It looks and smells exactly the same as it did then.” Let there be no doubt, this was a positive comment.

Situated down at the Shore area of Edinburgh, the Malt and Hops looks like it could be stuck in a time warp, were it not for the constantly updated beer list on the mirror behind the bar showing what’s on and what’s racked. It’s a sign of the priorities here – beer and people.

I wrote in my last post about an old man’s pub being transformed into a fabulous modern yet characterful boozer when I mused on the Fountain at Fountainbridge. Well, a week later and I was in yet another conversion from old to new. This time it was The Flying Dog, formerly the Trafalgar Bar, on Henderson Street in Leith.

Now, I was never in the Trafalgar so can’t pass comment on it pre-refurb though I can imagine it was similar to a number of pubs in the Leith Walk/Easter Road area. Local, uninspiring, coming away at the edges and never quite the same after the smoking ban. So what of it in its new guise as The Flying Dog?