The Grill, Aberdeen

As I approached the Grill I was obviously expecting some sort of pub/restaurant, but I was very wrong. This is a proper boozer where the food stretches to toasties and Mac & cheese pies (wtf). The bar supports four hand pumps which were drawing Cromarty Hit the Lip and Raptor alongside Orkney’s Dark Island and Windswept Wolf. A standard keg range is also available. During my recent Monday evening visit the plasma above the entrance was showing muted rolling news and there was some background music playing. This is a very basic pub, but the jovial welcome means I would return if passing.

Everything about the outside of this pub seems designed to stop the unadventurous going in. But behind the non-pub sounding name (retained the moniker when converted from a restaurant in 1925) and the less-than-promising frosted window exterior lies a proper good drinkers pub. CAMRA Inventory listed, it’s a long and narrow inside with a massive bar to the right and two sets of red leather banquettes opposite. There's lots of polished mahogany panelling and a fine bar back with carved wood and two wonderful glass fronted cupboards for ‘Highland Malts’ and ‘Islay Malts’. The ceiling is also fabulous, with two sets of a superb oval moulding. Four ales on the bar; Inveralmond Ossiemouth, Orkney Dark Island and Red MacGregor plus another I forgot to note. A locals redoubt, though the lack of seating outside of the jumbo banquettes (with no stools on the opposite side of the tables) means an awkward standing situation if you arrive at a busy time. You can read elsewhere about this being a male-only pub until 1975 and the lack of a ladies loo until 1998 but I can report that there were around half a dozen lassies in attendance during my visit. One of Aberdeen's best watering holes, without a doubt.

Located on the bustling Union Street, this is a fine heritage pub with a real locals feel to it, in contrast to the majority of pubs I visited in the city centre. You enter through a nice porch to find yourself in a long main bar with the servery along the right hand wall. The room is bare boarded and has some tremendous dark wood panels and etched windows at both the front and rear. Interestingly, there are some small, clear glass slat-shaped sections in the front windows, which were apparently left clear so that signs advertising beers such as Guinness could be hung behind them, thus being visible from outside. There is padded bench seating around the perimeter, supporting a number of tables but strangely with no chairs or stools on the opposite side of each table, meaning everyone in the pub was sat facing into the room for maximum everybody’s-staring-at-you effect. The bar has a long wood panelled counter with a brass rail which looks like it has sections designed to stub your cigarette out on. A very impressive bar back has some lovely old drinks cabinets incorporated into it, a collection of CAMRA certificates and the usual whisky bottle display. The pub has a grand ceiling with big decorative oval-shaped ornamentation very typical of its era. There was no music playing when I visited, but there were a couple of TV screens on the go showing a muted show to the disinterest of all present. I also spotted a couple of slot machines, which also take away a little from the pub’s traditional feel, but it was easy to position myself so that none of these modern intrusions were in my line of sight. The CAMRA certificates reward the pub’s long-term commitment to provide good ale and there were four handpumps on the go when I arrived, offering a choice of Windswept APA, Fyne Hurricane, Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted and Cromarty Rogue Wave. A proper old school landlady served me a good pint of the APA and seemed a bit unsure about me at first, but turned out to be friendly, proffering a cheery goodbye as I left. This is a lovely old pub with arguably the finest pub interior in the city centre and is somewhere I’m glad I decided to pop in, having initially dismissed it from my crawl plans. The presence of a decent ale selection makes this a solid inclusion on any city centre crawl.