The Boozy Cow — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Came here for dinner on our first night in Edinburgh. Had reservations at 1915, and we were seated immediately in a secluded booth in a fairly empty restaurant. Cool vibe in the place.

My wife and I decided on the Maple Bacon Burger and the "Mac Daddy", which sounded interesting with beef patties, some brisket, and a "mac and cheese" waffle.

Our food arrived, and we cut our burger in half, so we each could enjoy a bit of each. However, we struggled to find any difference in the burgers. I'm studying them, looking for the "brisket" and the "mac and cheese waffle", but they really look identical. We each eat half of the burger in front of us, and then we save the other halves to show to the wait staff.

This is where things get weird. We mention this to the first waitress to come by. She was not our waitress, but since our waitress had never come by to see how things were, we had to alert someone. She disappears, and then a male worker comes by. He apologizes, and says that our burger had been switched with one in the kitchen on the way out and he will get us our burger shortly. We wait a few minutes, and then decide to finish the halves that we had left over. For one reason, because we were hungry. For another, we couldn't see that they would have any use for it.

A few minutes later, our original waitress comes by, which is the first time we had seen her since our food was delivered, and she was carrying a plate. She was asking for the two halves of the burger we just ate back! We told her that it was gone. This seemed to confuse her, and she left. A minute or two later, the waitress we first alerted came back, and it was pretty obvious that she was distrubed that we had eaten the burger. It was also not clear that the "Mac Daddy" that had now been promised to us about ten minutes earlier was ever going to come. This whole thing was getting way too complicated, especially since we just arrived in town a few minutes earlier. I asked for the check, with just two Maple Bacon burgers and the fries we ordered on it. This arrived shortly, and we paid and left.

As for the food, it was decent. I wouldn't say it was the best I've ever had, but I've had far worse, too. Relatively speaking, the burger was expensive for what you get. But the biggest knock is the very odd...

We stopped here for lunch whilst in town the other day. On entering we were greeted by a wonderful smell. Not sure what it was but it smelt fantastic. The facility was very quirky and impressively designed. Since it was quiet I had a quick peek around and it’s a lot bigger than I expected. Avengers was on the TV so I knew this was going to be a good experience and I wasn’t wrong. The staff were friendly and helpful. The menu is very good with lots of different options. We had to get a burger though because that’s what they are known for. I was tempted to do the burger challenge they have but unfortunately (maybe fortunately) they didn’t have the patties for the challenge. Instead I went with the Capaldi Special, which in itself is a beast, and my wife went with a tamer burger. We both got milkshakes. The waitress recommended Oreo with vanilla ice cream which I got and my wife got a lion bar milkshake. We did try and get a kinder milkshake but they had run out of kinder. On the side we got haggis tots. Firstly the milkshakes were really good and it was nice being able to drink it without ice cream getting stuck in the straw which you often find. Haggis tots were not bad, the sauce that came with them made them a lot better. The fries that came with my burger were ordinary but the seasoning made them brilliant. I often find fries a bit meh but these were great! My wife really enjoyed her burger. Mines was a lot trickier and messier to eat because of the pure mass and that fact that it has a donut on top. I attempted to eat it as you would a normal burger but that kind of failed so I resorted to dissecting it. Anyway, the burger tasted excellent. The patties were succulent and the maple syrup was a welcome addition. The burger bun did its best to contain the filling but it was always going to be a losing battle. The bacon was crisp and flavourful. I couldn’t resist and not get a dessert so we shared the waffle popcorn stack which filled us up but it wasn’t nothing to rave about. Overall, we thought the boozy cow was better than we expected. I’d imagine it would be a good spot for a night out as the cocktails are meant to be very good. It was a little pricey but as you would expect for city centre. Both happy and...

Overall experience was just underwhelmed. £15 for a burger that I genuinely couldn’t justify that price. On portion, presentation or quality. I’m all for paying good money for good food but it really wasn’t a good burger. The meat was seasoned well but the quality of the meat was poor. Felt it was chewy and had several bits of gristle which I picked out of my mouth. It shocked me as a friend had eaten here in the past and sang the praises so maybe an off day or a change of supplier caused this, but it wasn’t what I expected.

The haggis balls came out and feel they had been left for a while before brought out as they were soggy with no crisp to them. A fix for this could be the sauce in pot etc. allow the customer the control of the level of sauce and keep the crisp.

The popcorn chicken was a bit stingy with the actual chicken…..popcorn really making it seem like there was more but wasn’t. Again making me feel like it wasn’t good value for money. Felt the chicken was decorating the popcorn when it should be the other way around.

The fries were great though! Seasoned well and cheese melted through to get to most chips! And still kept a good crisp. Good portion too.

Drinks were great! Well presented and tasted amazing too.

Service was a night of 2 halves. Served by 2 different people as the evening went. The lass that served us to start off with was disinterested. No smile, no welcoming, no help with the menu…….when we look across and there’s a guy serving others, with a smile, laughing, getting to know the customers and building that rapport that is what you want from a place like “The Boozy Cow” The lass brought out the food and may as well of just dropped the food on the table. Plonked them down and just walked away. This was the last she served us and thankfully got the good energy guy that we saw serving the other tables. Couldn’t sing his praises enough. (Guy from London...