Artful Dodger, Edinburgh

Blackthorn _ left this review about Artful Dodger

A rather uninspiring and down at heel looking flat roof pub in a decrepit 1970’s shopping centre with many of the other units closed, it looks to be just the sort of place that Alan Winfield would have liked, but I wasn’t quite so sure. There wasn’t even a sign outside to identify it when I photographed it a few years back, although one has since been added. It is, however, a regular lunchtime haunt of my Edinburgh colleagues, although even they say that they’re not sure they would want to visit of an evening.

Internally, it was actually considerably better than expected, although it did perhaps have the feel of a private members club rather than your traditional pub. It was though light and airy, and larger than it appears from the outside. It’s all one single, open-plan room forming a sort of ‘U’ shape around the wood-panelled bar counter. A raised area was up a couple of steps to the left, with some stainless steel and glass balustrade around the edge which looked a little out of place compared to the more traditional look of the rest of the pub. This section had red patterned carpet on the floor, whilst the rest of the pub was pale wood strip and some slate effect tiling. Décor wise it was quite plain with whitewashed walls and ceiling, although there was some cornicework around the edge of the ceiling which was certainly a bit of a contrast to the pub’s exterior appearance. A handful of TV’s were showing a pretty decent mix of music video’s from the 80’s, whilst a number of black and white portrait photographs on the wall showed what I presumed were sports personalities. There were also a couple of dart boards, a trophy cabinet and football club branded mirrors. Seating was a mixture of padded fitted chairs around the permitter and regular wooden chairs elsewhere with seat cushion fabric in various deep shades including red, blue and green.

Unfortunately there were no real ales on tap, although I did spot McEwan’s Export and Belhaven Best on keg. I was though delighted to see a Blackthorn tap on the bar, which is something you all to rarely see at home these days, never mind around these parts. Imagine my disappointment then on trying to order it to be told that they didn’t have serve that, it was actually Strongbow. This was joined by Magner’s Dark Fruit.

On 4^th October 2024 - rating: 5
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