The Conan Doyle, Edinburgh

A traditional looking street corner pub run by the Nicholson’s chain, it’s located towards the eastern end of the town centre and is reasonably compact internally with the left hand side designated as a restaurant complete with a “Please wait here to be seated” lectern. Décor wise it’ quite traditional too with wood strip on the floor, dark flock wallpaper on the rear wall and dark green paintwork elsewhere. A small tiled fireplace was at the rear, although this appeared to be unused, along with a large and ornately carved bookcase. Various old black and white pictures of the locale were dotted around the walls, along with a couple of portrait photos of the author from which the pub takes it’s name. A TV screen was up on one wall showing a terrestrial channel, but the volume was off so this was not too intrusive and the picture was badly breaking up in any case. The menu offered an extensive choice of pub grub dishes, and I opted for the Smoked Haddock and Kedgeree fish cakes. These were tasty enough, but the rice had certainly been used to bulk them up with little sign of any fish. Beers on tap were Stewart Jack Back, Hook Norton X Ale, Stewart 80/-, St Austell Summer Anthem, Nicholson’s Pale Ale, Titanic Plum Porter and Vocation Cooler Shaker which was apparently a Passion Fruit Milkshake IPA! The solitary cider meanwhile was Mortimer’s Orchard, which went down very well. Overall, a decent enough bet if in the area.