gastropod's Qype profile

Sadly what once was a great Edinburgh pub has been mostly ruined by the fairly recent takeover. The least friendly publicans imaginable, who would rather hassle you to drink up after just serving you than encourage you to come back.

They really don't seem to know how to deal with the public and have an appalling lack of tact. This used to be a true local pub with great, friendly regulars. Sadly most of the regulars have been driven out. I'd rather have old Davie back than these pompous fools.

Hopefully one day soon it will be bought over by someone who actually enjoys dealing with the public.

One of Edinburgh's best pubs with a friendly atmosphere and staff, old-style interior, great selection of beer (including many guest ales), whisky and rum.

It is usually busy but so it should be, this is a proper pub in an area with a dearth of good boozers.

This place has the stench of depression about it. The reception staff always seem stressed, all of their systems seem wilfully annoying for their patients, they frequently make mistakes with repeat prescriptions and are unhelpful for the most part.

There is a two hour slot every day during which you can phone for a repeat, if you happen to be busy at this time then tough. If you manage to get through (there is no queue system so you have to keep re-dialing) then you have to wait at least two days for your prescription. When picking it up you will frequently discover that there are items missing.

An apology for such oversights is never forthcoming, usually you are treated as if your are daft or mad or both.

The doctors, well they are ok I suppose. They try a little but all seem to be suffering from depression and stress and, if they can't work out what is up with you fairly quickly, they tend to assume that you are either mentally ill or exaggerating. But that is common amongst doctors. The onus seems to be to get you out the door as quickly as possible.

Everything always seems to be an enormous hassle in this place, for you, for the doctors and for the staff.

A joy and a delight. This is not only the best tea shop in Edinburgh, it’s one of the best tea shops anywhere. It’s a small, old fashioned style cafe and antique shop, featuring a variety of tea sets, pots along with other interesting (and reasonably priced) items.

They have a very good range of very good teas including many types of black & green, some white teas, one yellow tea and a pu-erh, along with many flavoured teas and infusions.

Cosy atmosphere, extremely friendly and helpful staff, excellent pots and cups, superb home-baked cakes and a great atmosphere and all for a very reasonable price. Big pots of tea too!

I go in here whenever I can, can’t recommend it enough.

NB. at present I believe it only opens on Fri, Sat and Sun.

This is or at least was the worst practice in Edinburgh. Particularly Dr Susan M Grant, who is essentially unfit to practice medicine. Not sure if she is still there or not but she is the worst doctor I have ever encountered. After slipping a disc in my back and being on my back for more than a month in extreme pain, she took one look at me, laughed in my face and told me I’d be better in a week. No examination.
Since that time I have been told by several other professionals that had I had treatment at the time then my back would now be fine, instead of which I am still in pain every day.
I seriously advise you not to visit this practice.

Can’t remember the exact address but you should go to this pub if you’re ever in Sligo. It’s in the city centre and has, I believe, recently re-opened after years of closure. One of the most beautiful traditional pubs I’ve ever been to and they serve great beer. Thoroughly recommended.

Cafe Paradiso is the best vegetarian restaurant in Britain and Ireland. The food is of an incredible standard: imaginative, tasty, well presented. The atmosphere is friendly and intimate, the service spot on and the location fantastic. It’s not cheap but for this level of cooking it is certainly worth it. Vegetarian as it should be.

I’m slightly surpirised by the level of praise this place is getting, perhaps it’s because Edinburgh has very few vegetarian restaurants. That said, this place has a really good atmosphere and decor and the staff are friendly if a tad slow.
The food is of a reasonably high standard and clearly a lot of thought has gone into the dishes. My criticism is mainly that the food lacks flavour to the point of sometimes being bland; a distinct lack of depth of flavour or heat in their curries for instance. It strikes me that this is a slight throwback to the vegetarian=health food mentality of the 70’s and 80’s.

I still enjoy going here but if you’ve ever been to Cafe Paradiso in Cork or Terre a Terre in Brighton, this place seems a long way behind.

This restaurant is pretty awful and not worthy of most of the reviews it’s been getting. I found the staff abrasive, inattentive and pompous. The food is lacking flavour and finesse. Attention to detail is sorely lacking, for instance their salads are boring, slapdash and not fresh enough. I was there with ten people and there were no mozzarella or olives anywhere to be seen which is pretty bizarre for a supposedly Southern Italian restaurant.
The seafood is ok but again lacking in flavour and not cooked very well.
The vegetarian options are appalling, which is also extremely bizarre given that Southern Italy is great for vegetarians.
All in all a major disappointment as I was hoping there might finally be a decent Italian in my neighbourhood but alas no.