Halfway House, Edinburgh

It may or may not be the smallest bar in Edinburgh but it’s Mrs OB’s favourite and very handy for Waverley‘s Market St entrance. A bit of an S shape inside with the counter on the left as you enter. Four pulls of Scottish beers from Stewart, Broughton and Alechemy plus a standard keg selection on a horseshoe. The bar stools can make ordering a bit difficult, the limited amount of other seating is banquette and stools at wooden tables. The decor is mostly railway related apart from a collection of whisky drums and boxes, a collection of pump clips plus six nations flags on the ceiling and as curtains. They managed to fit in a screen as well. The owners, Old Town Pub Co run 14 other pubs in the city.

Official site of Halfway House - www.oldtownpubco.com

Official site of Halfway House - www.oldtownpubco.com

tiny traditional pub on the steep incline into the old town. Though very much city centreish, this is the good kind. People from all walks of life chatting away. Limited choice of beer but three decent real ales were on.

A fairly small, corner pub located on one of the many alleyways that run down from the Royal Mile, it looks quite contemporary from the outside with it’s duck egg blue woodwork, but is much more traditional, even dated perhaps, inside. It consists of a single room internally, although divided in to two halves perhaps, with the front half including the bar counter which was rather usually on a 45° angle. It’s really surprisingly tiny, with a limited amount of seating and even less room to stand. The flooring was mostly wood strip along with some tartan carpet in the front section, whilst there was both dark and black wood panelling on the walls as well as some pale brown paintwork. Seating options included curved booths with chocolate brown leather benches and mustard colour back cushions. A couple of etched mirrors were on the wall and a small TV was showing a terrestrial channel, although the volume was off so this was not too intrusive. Unusually, a display case at the front had a number of items for sale, including caps, tee shirts and post cards. A small blackboard menu listed a basic selection of pub snacks, but with the miniscule kitchen being clearly visible from the bar it was apparent that all dishes were merely popped in the microwave. In any case, there were a number of tiny midges flying around which would have discouraged me from eating in there. Beers on tap were Strathbraan True North, Strathaven Drookit, Flower of Scotland and Windswept Blonde. The solitary cider meanwhile was Addlestones. Overall, not a bad little pub although the slim chance of getting a seat and the midges prevented me staying too long.