Category: Food

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Food Leith Pub quiz Reviews

The Brass Monkey Leith and its student vibe

 

The Brass Monkey on Leith Walk, complete with roast beef Monster Munch on the bar
The Brass Monkey on Leith Walk, complete with roast beef Monster Munch on the bar

Anywhere that serves roast beef flavoured Monster Munch is always going to score highly with me. If it happens to also sell Jonny’s Onion Rings, real ale and hot dogs then they’re going to have to really offend me to not get an enthusiastic reception. Thankfully The Brass Monkey hasn’t done too shabby at all on my many visits there.

Firstly, a note of caution – if you intend to meet someone in the Brass Monkey, Edinburgh then note that there are two of them. This one is situated by Pilrig Church on Leith Walk while its sister, smaller venue is up on Drummond Street, near the Festival Theatre. A non-cautionary note would be that you should feel free to meet in either as they’re quite good.

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Easter Road Food Reviews

The Mash Tun brings much-needed cheer to Easter Road

The Mash Tun on Edinburgh's Easter Road
The Mash Tun on Edinburgh’s Easter Road

Now, full disclosure: the Mash Tun on Easter Road is physically the nearest pub to my humble abode. I can achieve bedroom to bar in under a minute. This does not mean it qualifies for any favouritism, however. Having lived here for nearly eight years, though, I was thankful for this pub’s transformation in August 2012 when the enigmatic Utopia was given a full overhaul to become a welcoming bar that describes itself as a bier house and kitchen.

There is no shortage of pubs on Easter Road but there is a shortage of decent ones, and a dearth of real-ale-selling ones or somewhere you can take a lady for something to eat. It always seemed strange to me that no one had properly filled this gap, given the number of young professionals in the area. The old Utopia had obviously set out to sort of target this market but it had never really worked. Menus changed constantly (and not in a good way), opening hours were random and it really felt like no one cared. Eventually the metal shutters went up and “There goes the neighbourhood,” I thought. Not so, however. The Mash Tun is making a jolly good attempt at being the sort of local pub I’ve always wanted.

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Food Leith Reviews

The timeless charm of the Malt and Hops, Leith

Tourists and locals alike are welcome to prop up the bar at the Malt & Hops
Tourists and locals alike are welcome to prop up the bar at the Malt & Hops

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.

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Food Leith Reviews

The Flying Dog in Leith is sadly lacking in bite

The bar at the Flying Dog isn't really meant for sitting at
The bar at the Flying Dog isn’t really meant for sitting at

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?

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Food Leith Walk Reviews

A hot dog deal at Jeremiah’s Taproom

Jeremiah's Taproom, Elm Row, EdinburghI’m not a regular user of deal sites such as Groupon and Itison but when an offer for Jeremiah’s Tap popped into my inbox recently, I decided to give it a whirl. For just £9, I would get a hot dog and fries plus a half pint of Innis & Gunn or a small glass of wine for two people. The promise that it would be a Crombies sausage sealed the deal for me.

Now, this wouldn’t be my first visit to Jeremiah’s Tap, formerly the Elm Bar on Elm Row that has recently undergone a major refurbishment and is looking pretty good. (Albeit that it is now a member of the Fifty Shades set, though the classiest of the bunch.) I’d popped in for a quick beer on the evening it opened and I’d also been in and out of it very quickly when Mrs Bar Fly and I were looking for somewhere to do the crossword on a Saturday afternoon where she could also indulge in a hot chocolate. Despite being advertised on the drinks list outside, we were disappointed when the barmaid explained that they didn’t have any because “we’ve just opened”. They’d been open a fortnight . . . To Joseph Pearce’s we went for a hot chocolate that day.

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