The Grosvenor, Edinburgh

Official site of The Grosvenor - www.belhaven.co.uk

Official site of The Grosvenor - www.belhaven.co.uk

A traditional and attractive looking pub with green woodwork on the façade and black and gold signage above, this is reminiscent of many traditional London boozers and certainly appeared to be an inviting proposition. Internally it quite long and narrow, and is split in to two lengthways, making each half even narrower than would otherwise be the case. The left-hand part is dominated by the large bar counter and so offers limited seating, mostly high stools. This too was very attractive with much elaborate carved woodwork on the back and a dark, wood panelled bar counter. The flooring too was dark wood strip, with the walls being mostly a maroon shade with a deep green around the top. The green was also used on the ceiling which was also quite elaborate with white cornicework around the edge and gold detailing elsewhere. A couple of TV screens were showing the sport which detracted from the ambience somewhat, although at least the volume was off so this was not too intrusive. The right hand half of the pub was also quite elegant although the small TV screens next to each table seemed very intrusive and out of place. This part was perhaps more geared up for dining with much of the seating being divided into small partitions with back to pack padded green bench seating. An area up a couple of steps at the rear had high backed red padded bench seating around the permitter and a few old drawings on the walls, as well as yet another TV, although at least this one was turned off. The front section here had wood panelling on the walls. The food menu was a basic “pub grub” affair with options such as Steak & Ale Pie, Fish & Chips, Mac ‘n’ Cheese, etc, with prices mostly somewhere around the £12 - £15 mark. My Wholetail Whitby Scampi was pretty basic and on the whole very average. Beers on tap were Deuchar’s IPA and Belhaven 80 Shilling, with two more apparently coming soon, although from the looks of things these were just Greene King IPA and Abbott Ale, so I don’t imagine anyone is going to be waiting with too much anticipation. The solitary cider meanwhile was Aspall’s. Overall, not a bad pub, the staff seemed friendly enough and there were some nice architectural features, but the preponderance of TV screens, uninspiring drinks choice and rather poor food made it slightly disappointing overall.

Belhaven (so GK) owned heritage pub, on the CAMRA list. The place splits into two on opening, with a long servery to the left and a number of discrete seating booths to the right, separated by a number of cut-throughs in the dividing wall. The main bar is splendid, a massive dark varnish wood seven bay gantry with plenty of arches and inset mirrors. The booths are more modern but quite well done, although each one has a TV with the sport on which renders them useless for a quiet chat – can’t the customer just turn them off at their own discretion? Gold, cream and racing green is the tasteful colour scheme throughout the pub. Four pumps with just one cask on, a slightly flabby but drinkable Greene King Bonkers Conkers (NBSS 2.5).