The Caley Picture House (JD Wetherspoon), Edinburgh

As mentioned below a grimy exterior but then Edinburgh earned it's Auld Reekie nickname the hard way. A large 2 floor interior with the main bar in front of the old stage/screen location.

Edinburgh's latest Spoons looks rather grimy on the outside but once you get inside it's very impressive. It was built as a cinema and has been restored in that vein. A few steps lead to the old foyer where you can either go up further steps to the main bar or as I did use the lift to floor one. This area is the old stalls with the bar taking up the area where the screen once was and a huge picture of Edinburgh above and behind it. The circle has been turned to a mezzanine area with a smaller bar and three hand pumps that only had Sharp's Atlantic that wasn't on in the bar downstairs. Needless to say the toilets are up here but the lift is available to access floor three. There is a floor two but the button isn't usable. This is a new Spoons which opened at the tail end of last year so fixtures and fittings are a lot better than average. As expected the food is all more expensive than normal and I also noticed that there was no £1.00 extra for a double with the spirits. Maybe that's why there was no evidence at all of a daytime brigade (with one exception). The cask ales had a blanket price of £2.89 and there was a great choice. The two sets of six hand pumps had just the Deuchars IPA available soon and Edinbrew Industrial IPA, Stewart Edinburgh Gold & Celtman, Naylors Velvet, Abbot, Kelham Island Pale Rider, Wooha Blonde, Coach House Blonde, Rudgate Ruby Mild, Cotleigh Barn Owl and Knops Musselburgh Broke. I went for the Industrial, Pale Rider, Celtman and Musselburgh Broke. The Edinbrew Industrial tasted like a Boots home brew kit from the 1970s or 1980s (probably not the fault of the pub) but the other three were excellent. They also have a good selection of Scottish "craft" including Stewart Radical Road on keg (£3.95) which was also excellent. The only downside apart from some of the prices is that the room has something of an echo. I thought this was a top Spoons and if it transpires that it is not the best of the Scottish JDWs then I'll drink Doom Bore for a week.