The Black Bull — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Where do I start.... Walking in the front door and being ignored by waiting staff we should have left. One eventually responded and we sat down. Our waitress was ok and took our order. My wife just wanted a steak but not overly hungry. The only little type meal was a starter which she ordered. With limited vegetarian options I ordered a lentil soup so we also ordered onion rings and haloumi fries. A minute later our waitress was back saying they were out of steak so a chicken burger was ordered which she didnt want, so much for steak. The soup was heavy on pepper but was reasonable. The haloumi chips and onion rings were ok as well. My wife ate all her burger so that must have been good. Once we were finished we decided to have another beer and dessert. While waiting for the table to be cleared and get the menu's I went to the toilet. These were disgusting, especially with the vomit clogging the urinal. When I got back to the table, it still hadn't been cleared so we decided to leave. Trying to get someones attention to ask for the bill was another mission. We finally got a waiters attention, and we asked for the bill. He wandered off never to be seen again. We finally flagged down our original waitress and asked again for the bill. She was back within a few minutes and we paid. Sorry I didn't get your name, but you were the only one doing anything. You got two stars for our waitress. Seriously, find somewhere decent to eat and...

A touch of the Blarney, in Edinburgh...

I visited today along with my wife, on our first ever "leisure trip" away by train, up from Newcastle, since Covid-19.

Whilst Auld Reekie was more Auld Leaky in Edinburgh today, with rain, despite it being warm, we therefore thought liquid refreshment was appropriate.

We were met at the door by Ricky, who took our details and temperature, took us to a good table, and explained all the current procedures to us easily and friendly.

With my name obviously being Patrick, added to Ricky's soft Irish burr, and finding it leaping off the page to me on the downloadable menu too, I was compelled to go for the Guinness, which was spot on when it arrived.

My wife went for the Cornish Orchards Cider, and advised me that it was "cracking" when it came.

Ricky then answered the various questions I had about how things were since re-opening after Covid-19, from an appropriate safe social distance of course, and with us being in no particular rush whatsoever, another two of the same were duly ordered!

A cracking visit, safe, friendly, and well managed, and as we are in need of weekend night out again soon, now that some measure of normality has returned, albeit subject to safe distancing measures etc rightly in place, we will surely be back again ASAP...

Thank you to all the staff, and especially Ricky, for being a great, welcoming host, and...

We appreciated that at a busy time of day they had place for our bigger group. The service was good, they were patient with us. The only big negative thing was that the food. Many of us ordered from their "grill" menu. But unfortunatelly we had to send back one of the meals because the chicken was way too charred and tasted very bitter. They explained then that their oven was broken that day and couldn't prepare the meals as they usually do. But why serve low quality food for the same relatively high price to the customer? They could've have clarified that today we can't order from the grill menu instead of serving us barely edible food. We were very hungry after a long day and ate almost everything, but still. Its a shame because the haggis and every other item we ordered which wasn't from the grill were great. On another day I might have given a 4 or even a 5 star review, but because they served us food they knew was not good quality I can't give more...