Old Bell Inn — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Well what can i say. 1 star is not left lightly. We went with the groupon deal, what we expected did not meet reality. Expecting a traditional pub with fine dining. We found a sports pub that served food. Unable to get hold of the pub via telephone or email due to the rugby taking precedence. We turned up went into the bar area could not actual find any sign of a restaurant. So went to the bar to be stared at by a barman who then proceeded to ignore us and serve someone else who had just walked to the bar. Another barman we asked about the restaurant said its upstairs but fully booked. We explained we had a reservation and proceeded upstairs. On our arrival upstairs we immediately took note of what was a room that the waiting staff recieved the food from the kitchen, looked remarkably similar to a shed. Then further into the "restaurant" we noticed 4 people. Now not being in the restaurant trade i cant be sure but 4 people does not compute as fully booked to me. The tables were just pub tables only 2 of them laid out with cutlery for people who had booked. One table was ours. We spoke to the waitress who seemed confused regarding groupon deal it took around 20 mins to sort out that. The deal said wine to equiv of four pound each to be told house wine only which was undrinkable one white one red so was left. The food arrived minus some of the items. We recieved what seemed to be an allotments worth of iceberg lettuce. The lobster butter had maybe seen a lobster in a corridor once as it walked past but had no flavour of it. The chips were nice and the gratin. But i have eaten chicken that tasted more like chateaubriand than that piece of meat did. It wasnt tough but didnt deserve the 55 pound pricetag on it. Needless to say Groupon deal was cheaper but still 40 pounds and we would of rather eaten a steak at a Wetherspoons. All in all if u want to watch rugby and eat a burger you could go here or get same treatment and quality of food elsewhere for cheaper. But the menu is confusing as it does not suit the place style or location and the chefs fail to deliver a decent meal. The slate which it came on looked nice. Maybe should of spent money on the butter the meat and the restaurant area rather than that though. Needless to say shall not...

Edinburgh’s got a huge number of interesting places to grab some food, eateries to suit all budgets and tastes and in this chapter, we’ve put together a small list of them for you and one of those great places is The Old Bell Inn. Even from the front, this old Inn from the outside just screams great British Pub and once you’ve stepped inside, your transported back to a time where the Pub was king! Pubs are closing down all over the United Kingdom, not this one though, it continues to go from strength to strength every year and that's partly down to both its experienced staff and management. With a simple, yet clever menu, you can be guaranteed of a good meal, at the right price and all using fresh and where possible, local Scottish ingredients. This pub came highly recommended to me and I'm highly recommended it to you.

Welcome to the Old Bell Inn, a friendly, cosy, traditional Scottish pub in the heart of Edinburgh’s Southside, serving fine wines, a large selection of malt whiskies, liqueurs and spirits, and specialising in cask conditioned ales.

Our acclaimed menu celebrates both classic pub grub and the finest local produce and is available either in the bar downstairs or, if you prefer, in our upstairs lounge.

As with all the best Scottish pubs, there’s never any shortage of entertainment – big sporting events are shown on the big screen upstairs, we host regular live music, and there’s always some topical chat going...

We loved the Old Bell Inn so much that we ate there 3 nights in a row when we recently visited Edinburgh! The beef and ale pie was tasty, the smoked haddock was sublime, and salmon was terrific.

....an interesting story here...I guess the publican had a bunch of his golf buddies in for a few pints. They were telling stories, and the stories got, let's say, "a bit more interesting" as the pints were quaffed, not to mention the language! My husband and i were getting quite a kick out of listening to them. We didn't really take notice at the time, but I guess their publican friend told the assembled group to lower their voices, as the conversation became muted. When we asked our wait staff person for another couple of drinks, she informed my husband and me that the "gentlemen at the next table wanted to buy us our drinks as they feared they had been too disruptive..."! We were so surprised and quickly got up to toast all 8 or 9 of them when we received our drinks. We told them they were quite entertaining and proceeded to chat with them for a few minutes....What a great and memorable experience. We'll return to this friendly, cozy, traditional pub again when we return...