The Edinburgh Castle, Manchester

During a recent hot Saturday afternoon visit to the Edinburgh Castle the seating outside the pub was full, but the traditionally decorated inside was very quiet. Green banquette seating that runs along the front window is faced by the bar counter that is lined with black leather and gold stools that have seen better days. I found this strange as the fixtures and fitting felt like they had recently been given a new lease of life. A beer shelf with more stools runs up the right wall and behind the bar is a large dining type table as well as some more banquettes. There was a bit of funky background music playing. The bar supports three hand pumps, but one was unused and the other two were reverse clipped, so the draught options were craft lager, Estrella and Guinness. The summer lunchtime food menu was in operation with burgers and hot dogs available for £10 a pop. The bar staff were a bit conceited so I didn’t feel very welcome, and the lack of any cask just after opening on a Saturday afternoon isn’t great management. I thought this place could have been a lot better.

The Edinburgh Castle opened last Thursday (14 October) after what I believe to be many years of closure. Unfortunately it was simply too busy to go in on Saturday night, with the door staff advising the place was full to capacity and operating a "one in, one out" policy. There were already a couple of people waiting in a queue to get in so we decided not to bother hanging around. We did go elsewhere and come back later as we were almost passing, but it was still full with people waiting, so this one will have to go down on the list for another time. From what I have seen the pub has been done up very nicely, it offers two cask beers, a house ale and "Don't Mess With Manchester" by Northern Monk. Presumably the house beer is a constant and the other will be a rotating guest. It was disappointing it was too busy to go in, but it was opening weekend so bound to have attracted some attention. Much better than an empty pub. I'll try again once the dust has settled.