Cloisters Bar, Tollcross, Edinburgh

Official site of Cloisters Bar - www.cloistersbar.com

Official site of Cloisters Bar - www.cloistersbar.com

A ground floor bar in an old building,it is largely open plan with traditional seating and a curved spiral down to the loos.The bar is to the rear and beside craft keg and a decent whisky selection has real ale on my trip of Stewart Pentland IPA and Kilted Kiwi,Burning Sky Plateau,Cross Borders Heavy,Thornbridge Market Porter (NBSS 3.5),a pale by Weka ? and something I missed completely.This was a brief crawl visit but I would return for a longer session next time.

Nice building with an ecclesiastical feel (turns out it was a former parsonage). Unlike many other pubs that look great from the outside but fail to live-up to the promise, this one does indeed deliver; untreated wood floor, nice vanished box wood ceiling, pew seating and an impressive wooden bar and back. Plenty of old brewery mirrors. Six cask with a general swerve towards the hoppy end of things, though that was more beers than there were people inside the pub itself. Perhaps inevitably the Black Isle Spider Monkey was a little warm but ostensibly fine (NBSS 2.5) though the scummy glass needed either dousing in limescale remover or binning. The hyperactive chatty barman gave me some pub recommendations. Get the feeling this is one best visited later on in the day. I did quite enjoy myself, despite the lack of turnover on the ale and the poor glassware and would be willing to give it another go.