Aspen Bar and Grill

I’ve always seen this bar as a sports bar but when I was there last night myself and my friends looked around thinking it was the strangest sports bar we’ve ever seen. It seems like it tries to be a sports bar with the tv screens at each table but then the décor around it doesn’t fit with the sports theme.
For a bar so central to town I would have expected it to be hopping on a Saturday night but it was very quiet. I found the place to be quite boring and bland. They did have entertainment in the form of a guy playing his guitar and singing. Though when he stopped playing there was no other music put on and the place seemed so quiet that we thought it was closing until he started playing again!
The drinks appeared to be cheap enough apart from some of the beers, and the girl that was serving me was friendly but other than that nothing appeals to me about this bar. I wouldn’t choose to go there again.

There’s televisions everywhere as aspen has styled itself as a ‘sports bar’. They show all the big games and the small ones, so if that’s what you’re after it’s not too bad. The televisions give it an advantage because as any sports fans will have experienced at one stage or another someones head always gets in the way!
However this also destroys the ‘big game’ vibe you’ll find in other pubs if there is a big game.
They have wifi and are fairly quiet with a cheap pint most days. I know The OH sees this as an advantage and has on more than one occasion grabbed a booth with his laptop to get some work done.
There’s slow service, 5 minutes at an empty bar on Friday for a diet coke, the barman was cutting lemons and seemed oblivious to reality and this is something I expect in here now after a fair few visits (friends live around the corner and it’s their local).
If you book an area you often get shunted downstairs where there’s not much room and any group over 8 who want to sit together will have to make way for people travelling too and from the toilets. This leads to stunted conversation and some awkwardness! If you’re lucky you’ll get some booths upstairs which are infinitely better.
Overall, I’ll go if mah peeps are there but otherwise I wouldn’t give it a second glance, not even for rugby, total meh.

Steaks are as good as I’ve had anywhere in the world. Well worth a visit.

Aspen was my local for the year that my wife and I lived in Edinburgh. It’s kind of ironic, as it is not the kind of place I would necessarily pick at first glance. The bar is literally covered in televisions showing all manner of sporting events, and we are not really sports people. But hey, it was close, convenient, and friendly, so as time went on, it became the place we would go just to hang out. And you know what? It was a great place to hang out. The food was good, the drinks cold, the people friendly. It was the perfect place for a quick pint on a weeknight. And I miss that.

What the??? Jeez I need to learn not to judge a book by its cover. Not that the cover of this book. em, I mean bar and grill is anything bad. It’s more I have some preconcieved notions about certain areas, and bars that have sports screens, and the vibe inside. It at first looked a little generic and soulless.
Yes Aspen has tv screens from every possible angle, on every possible wall. Seriously, if you want to watch some tv (usually sport) every single table as its own private tv screen. There’s no sound (or there wasn’t when we went) but in a weird way it was nice because the three of us who were there could sit round a table and all appear to engage in conversation without one (the male) craning his neck or ducking back and forth around moving heads in order to see the replay of that goal. It allowed Joe (sorry, secrets out) the pleasure of casually watching the game on the screen a few feet from his eyes, at gaze-​level, whilst still engaging. If there’s a sports bar I would go to, this is it.
But it’s not really a sports bar because it was, well, quite nice inside. Almost plush. THe heating was cranked up full, which I was greatly appreciative of and will remember when the cold really does settle in. It wasn’t that busy and for now I will continue to judge book covers by saying the food could be dubiously ‘meh’ (think Wetherspoons). It’s not exactly bistro /​gastropub /​insert other fancy schmancy word here that allows a pub to call itself something else.
It’s also a bit of a weird mishmash of comfy, colourful, girly living room with sports bar.
The bar man deserves a shout out for being good humoured, and at first not being sure if he had enough chocolate powder to make Steph’s hot chocolate, then found out he had enough to make it… and an extra half cup and once we’d taken our seats proceeded to bring her the extra half cup, which looked deliciously foamy. He was down to earth and cool.
So for that quick sloe gin /​hot chocolate /​JD for 20 minutes of a footie game mid-​evening on a Saturday it did the job nicely. I can’t quite work out what it’s supposed to be, and not sure how the crowd can be here on other nights. But it’s comfy, homely, friendly and with regulars who weren’t in yo’ face. I could see myself stopping by here again for football /​a gin /​with a good book for half an hour.
Well played Aspen, well played.

I’m not really sure what’s going on with this place. There are massive TVs everywhere, which seems to be the theme of their bar as the friendly Unilocalers before me have mentioned. Somehow this place just doesn’t quite cut it though.
I popped in here on a rainy night with two friends simply because we didn’t want to walk any further, but it turned out to be the wrong choice of venue. I’ve got asthma and since the ban on smoking inside that hasn’t been such a big deal for me. Unfortunately at this bar, people take it upon themselves to smoke in the open doorway, which meant that I had an asthma attack all the way at the back of the bar because the smoke drifted in that far. Can you say embarrassing?
We changed seats three times in order to get away from it (and I felt like such a hassle because of it) but ended up leaving after it was clear that there was no getting away from it.
I guess if you like big screen TVs instead of good company, this is the place to go. If you’re –like me– asthmatic, do yourself a favour, run don’t walk, run far far away!

«ASPEN BAR» is an anagram of «A ESPN BAR» and considering they’ve ripped off the logo it seems to be how creative they are.
Seems the major selling point is «we have tv’s» but really most places do. I go to the pub to hang out with my mates, and it’s quite hard to hear them and very hard to get served.
It’s not great is what I’m saying. It’s alright, but it’s not great.

Aspen is a lovely wee place to go for a meal for for drinks in the evening. Situated in the centre of the busy and bustling South Clerk Street, Aspen is just across the road from the main University campus, George Square and it just a short walk from the city centre and so it is a convenient place to reach.
Aspen has a bar, serving a huge of range of different beers, wines and spirits so there is something for everyone. They have an impressive cocktail menu, which includes iced teas and mojitos and they are incredibly well priced at about £5, and pitchers are avilable too for about £10.
Their menu is pretty expansive as they serve the usual lunch dishes such as nachos, sandwiches, salads and burgers as well as a grilled menu which includes steaks, stir frys, and my absolute favourite, fajitas. The food is really gorgeous, I love the chicken fajitas which are always excellently cooked and the portion sizes are really decent too. The only downside I find with the food is the prices, as most of their meals are more expensive than the other places to have lunch, with burgers and most main meals costing £7.
Free Wi-​Fi is available, but they have a really strange internet policy as you can only use the internet if you are sitting at the bar, not if you are sitting in the softer seats. Pretty weird and unfortunately they are oddly strict about it.

It seems to me that the general consensus about this bar taken by the Unilocalers mirrors that of the general public, as I pass Aspen a few times nearly every day and have yet to see it be anything more than sparsely populated at best.
They make quite a deal of the 3D football thing, which I’ve yet to experience but in all honesty can’t see what it would possibly add to the experience, especially in a bar where you won’t be right up close to the screen. Others are more easily impressed mind you, but unless Aspen can sort out their customer service, attitude and prices, they may not stay around long enough to reap the benefits.

This place really should be far better than it is — everything right is there.
Its a funky looking bar, large enough for groups, does food, has a café bar vibe during the day and free wi-​fi, and yet, in the few times I have been there all of these things have combined to make something far from great.
Firstly, this place is bloody expensive — and that in itself is a huge down fall as Aspen is clearly marketed towards students. Even thier weekly deals are far from good value — the promise of a pitcher of energy drink and vodka (complete with picture of huge glass jug full of drink) for only £5.99 yeilded a tiny — and I mean TINY– pitcher half full of ice and maybe a shot of vodka in it. Annoying.
The staff also are something out of nightmare — while most are pleasent but awfully slow and just a bit rubbish, some are rude, angry and genuinly hostile.
I should like this place, but the combination of being too expensive and terrible staff keep me well away from it.

Aspen is a modern studenty bar with lots of comfy seating and plasma TV screens showing sporty things. It’s one of those places that seems to fluctuate from being welcoming and friendly to unwelcoming and unfriendly depending on who is working.
There is one woman who I swear is the coldest and rudest bar person I have ever had the misfortune to come across, she is the antithesis of what good customer service should be like (she’s lost this place a star) — I once went in to enquire about a job after being reliably informed that they were looking for staff, she bluntly told me that they weren’t looking for anyone and then tried to stare me out! Needless to say, I left pretty sharpish.
Most of the time though it’s a decent enough place to have a few after dinner drinks or an afternoon coffee. I wouldn’t come to Clerk St especially for this place, but if you’ve been dining at Mother India and The Brass Monkey is packed, it’s fine for a digestif.

Reconciling two entertainment powerhouses, Aspen brings together football and 3D visual entertainment. For a deposit of £2 you and your sports mad chums can don your 3D glasses, settle down for the evening and fixate your eyes on Messi’s ball control, Ronaldo’s set pieces or even Rory Delap’s insane throw-​ins.
Average priced beer and a typical plush lounge environment offer a solid evening out. However, this is only with respect to viewing sport. Other members of the Unilocal team seem to have the food covered.

This place should be a lot better than it actually is. It does food, cocktails and has wi-​fi free when you buy something… and yet it just doesn’t quite do it.
It’s right by the uni and so you’d assume it has student-​friendly prices, but they’re no actually that good: a single whisky and a small glass of house wine didn’t give much change from £6 — even with student discount. Hardly ideal, especially there are so many other cheaper places with much better atmosphere well within walking distance.
I ate there on a separate occasion, and my opinion remained lukewarm. They had all the clichéd things you’d expect to find on the menu — chicken caesar salad, nachos, steak ciabatta etc etc etc, but it just wasn’t anything to shout about.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some good things about Aspen. They have a huge downstairs area that you can hire for parties, and there’s no denying the location is extremely convenient and central. But that’s the problem… it’s next door to an Italian, a Thai and an Indian restaurant which are all a much better shout if you’re after food. Similarly, it’s 10 seconds walk from the Brass Monkey or Biblos if you want drinks.
It looks a lot better from the outside than it is once you step inside.

It seems to think it’s a lot more classy than it is. It’s a student bar through and through so I was a bit miffed about the fascist Wifi policy, it was barked at me that the rules are you can only sit at the bar with your laptop so the comfy sofas can be spared for people who don’t spend an hour on one coffee — understandable perhaps, but if you’re the only person in there, maybe being a bit more personable and less of a jobsworth might be in order
Sadly, I couldn’t see beyond that, it made me look enviously at the couches and think; why can’t it just be like everywhere else? I have to say; my coffee tasted awfully bitter.