The Black Bull

It’s a jumbo pub, perhaps too big to feel personal. And I had to listen to an American guy sing wagon wheel. It truly is inescapable.

Big bar, friendly staff. Pretty casual, order at the bar kind of place. But the food was hands down, awful! Couldn’t even manage a decent fish and chips. Even the fries were bad! Definitely don’t recommend.

Busy, prices reasonable, could do with
more staff behind bar, took while to get served. Not bad pub, worth a try

We headed over to the Black Bull shortly after dinner for a few cheap drinks. I ordered a Strongbow cider. The bartenders are friendly and quick to serve. We found a few tables in the back and sat down to enjoy our drinks. Great lively place to meet locals and tourists alike. There was a live act in that night but his performance was out in front so I didn’t see what he was about. Others said it was just ok. This is a great pub to check out if you’re ever in Edinburgh.

De todos los que tuve la oportunidad de ir, The Black Bull fue mi pub favorito en Edimburgo. El lugar es muy grande y tiene toda la onda. Muy rica cerveza y mejor comida aún, recuerdo haber pedido una hamburguesa que estaba genial acompañada de unas ricas papas fritas y una gran pinta como es costumbre.
Los precios son relativamente accesibles y si se tiene en cuenta la calidad realmente este pub vale la pena, encima hacen descuento a estudiantes. Es un gran lugar para ir a pasar el rato, ni hablar si hay un partido de fútbol importante, ya que hay pantallas por todos lados y se puede llegar a vivir un clima más que agradable.

Gran opción de pub si estás en Edimburgo. Lo conocimos a través de un blog que recomendaba bares y tal en la ciudad y nos encantó. Está en Grassmarket, que es una zona bien turística en donde hace muuucho tiempo hacían las ejecuciones públicas, muejeje.
Abierto desde temprano y hasta tarde en la noche (tarde para los términos británicos, claro), es un buenísimo refugio del frío escocés que, cuando arrecia, es bien bravo. Es un pub súper grande, con espacio para sentarse y comer, o bien para quedarse en la barra o para estar parados escuchando las bandas que tocan algunas noches. De día ofrece servicio regular de comida y bebida, y tiene pantallas grandes de televisión por doquier, para ver deportes. La cerveza es rica y variada; recomiendo probar la Caledonia. Obvio, tienen single malts tastings, etc.
La comida es BUE-​NÍ-​SI-​MA. Pedimos sopa de entrada, calentita y deliciosa, espesa y sabrosa. Hamburguesas, la rompen, caseras y re completas. Ensalada con de todo, súper fresca y abundante. La atención, excelente. La decoración típica de pub british, aunque con mucho espacio para deambular (eso no tan típico) y muy iluminado. Es un lugar acostumbrado a recibir turistas y se nota. Aceptan tarjetas de crédito.
En fin, un lugar al que volvería sin dudarlo. Ah, además tienen descuentos para estudiantes (hola, Isic!).

You know what’s great with potato? You guessed it. haggis.
We had come here the night before because our friend who loves pubs decided to make his own pub crawl. We promptly left as it wasn’t his scene and moved onto a club. Tonight, there was a large group of us. We wandered into different restaurants (even though we came from one) along the Grass Market strip, but there was no room at the inn… But here, we came in as people we leaving and voila, table for eleven.
We ended up going to the bar to place our orders two by two… Good thing it wasn’t table service; none of us were ready at the same time. I ordered a baked potato topped with haggis with a salad garnish. My husband got the roast chicken sandwich. Once the bar got wind that we were all together, they made sure our food all came out at the same time even though we didn’t order together.
I didn’t take many pictures of food while I was away. I didn’t want to be «one of those people»… I had to take a photo of this though… with an actual camera. My potato was cut in four with a huge lump of haggis melting into it. It was beautiful and wonderful and filling. I made it my mission to keep ordering haggis at every meal. When they say salad garnish, they really mean garnish. I still ate it because coming from the land of water and yoga (which I obviously don’t subscribe to), I kind of wanted vegetables. Weird… The apple cider I drank with this doesn’t count as a veggie.
Food came fast and it was good. Service was thoughtful…

Very nice pub with a small but quite exquisite menu. Staff is very friendly and helpful. Food is excellent!

On my last visit to Edinburgh… my friends and I went there just by chance. It was just what I wanted and expected in a pub… simple, homey, great food and great service! Our waiter was more than attentive and had a great/​warm personality and made us feel right at home. It was a fantastic end to a long day of touring! Thanks guys! Cheers!!!

Whatever you are looking for in a pub, you should get it here at least one day of the week. It hasn’t had a plush makeover, so don’t look for the young posers sipping a vodka and coke and spending the night looking at their mobile. It is a huge pub that’ll take you a couple of minutes to walk around. There is a good long bar that contains the professional staff. I’ve been twice now. First time was a Friday when there was a DJ on, and it was very busy. The second time was a Wednesday when there was a live band playing. It wasn’t as busy, and probably because the place is so large, it looked quiet.
The band was very good but seemed to take longer on their cigarette breaks than actually playing their music. It’s a pity really because I noticed some people coming in that were just about to walk by, just to check out the band. It probably got quieter later on because people thought that the band had finished when they had their second big break.
Anyway, good pub, good character, good staff, good entertainment, crisps but no nuts. Worth a visit.

I just don’t get this place! Sure, the staff are nice enough and there’s some comfortable seating to chill out on with your mates, but you can do that at just about any pub in the whole city. As soon as you walk in it feels like you’ve just entered a medieval dungeon and you just about need a headtorch the find the bar! That’s an obscene exaggeration, but the lighting is surprisingly dim and the general ambiance is lacking warmth.
The drinks are quite fairly priced with most pints costing under £3 and they do have quite a good selection of ales and spirits. I came here about two weeks ago and just found the whole place a bit depressing, but if you came here on a cold winter’s day it might offer a little more atmosphere.

The only reason I came here was because there was floor room. For sitting. While the final of the World Cup was on. Because I’d been unceremoniously rejected from the Three Sisters (which I would never want to go to normally, but where all the spaniards of Edinburgh were to be found yesterday from 7 – 11).
We tried getting onion rings at Black Bull but were told there was an hour long waiting list, so gave up on that one very quickly. Ales were about 3 pounds. But the real advantage of this place is that it’s huge and so you’re quite likely, though not always, to find a place to sit.
I’m very often suspicious of pubs in the Grassmarket. Because I feel every tour guide of Edinburgh will have that spot highlighted for every single tourist in Edinburgh. But this time it was just full of your bogstandard spaniards. Drinking beer, eating burgers and being overall a lot more tame than I’d expected.

This was one of the first pubs I visited on my impromtu Grassmarket pub crawl, and in the sober-​ish light of day, it seemed ok.
Like Jonathan M said, it’s the kind of place that you wouldn’t go out of your way to visit, but it’s very inoffensive at the same time. The atmosphere is very ‘local’ pubby, with old men at every table supping pints, which are very reasonably priced actually.
Not a bad wee pub to kick off the crawl!

Black Bull divides opinion right down the centre.
Some find it a boring, dark, expensive pub full of tourists and with miserable staff.
Others find it cozy, relaxing, moderatly priced with a nice atmosphere and friendly staff.
I am, fortunatly stuck bang in the middle — because really, thats exactly what Black Bull aims for. It tries to cater for everybody, and ends up just being a mish mash of all of the best and worst bits of the other pubs on the Grass Market strip.
personally I find it a little lacking in atmosphere, decently priced and on occasion a great place to go for a quiet pint and a chat.

absolutely dire avoid at all costs

A really good pub in the Grassmarket. It is a lively pub that fills up on the weekend. The drinks are quite expensive but no more so than any other nice bar in Edinburgh. It has good music and a dj on Saturday nights that plays all the good older tunes that get you singing along. It is a nice place to meet friends and relax with a few drinks. The staff are always friendly and cheerful. There is a nice atmosphere in the Black Bull. It is a great place to go on St Patricks day although it will be very busy. In fact the whole of the grassmarket has a great vibe during the St Patricks celebrations.

One of the better, bigger efforts on the Grassmarket.
Easy to get served (unlike it’s polar opposite, Biddy Mulligans) and probably the best pub grub on the strip too.
The addition of the outdoor seating during the summer on the new revamped grassmarket pedestrianisation really helped the pub along.
Could do with a bit more dedication to it’s selection of casks for this Real Ale fan, and also to not charge for a dash of lemonade or lime in a pint of larger!
(Additionally, saw what was literally a wrestling match between two ‘mates’ which ensued for 30 minutes back and forth from a stag do seated in the pub itself during the summer. It got so out of hand the lesser of the two got kicked in the face several times as the other fled.
This would easily have been stopped by splitting up entry of the pair, stopping both from being inside and/​or outside the pub. I’m well aware of bouncers avoiding any trouble sparking in their establishment and doing nothing about what happens outside but this was a farce! Really tainted my and potentially many outdoor passers by opinion of the place.)

Nice traditional layout in this bar, which is competing with a large number of pubs in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket.
It carries itself well, with very competent and pleasant staff, who make sure you get served quickly.
Their service during the busy Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Mardi Gras was knockout. Although the staff were run ragged, they retained their composure and good humour.
I’d definitely go back.

The Black Bull is another pub that lies along the Grassmarket stretch. With its traditional vibe and large space this pub is a great place to meet friends. It shows sport on TV and serves good food. There is quite a bit of seating so on busy nights out it is a good stop.