The Crafters Barn

This was my favorite place that I ate in Edinburgh, and I only had coffee and a scone. But it was the most perfect latte and the most divine scone I have ever had. The restaurant is very focused on crafter Belgium beers (hence the name) and I would have loved to have gone back later in the day to sample what they had. However, I was very content with my latte and enormous, warm, and freshly baked scone. The servers/​bartenders were extremely kind and were such friendly people. I would highly recommend The Crafters Barn for anyone looking for a causal coffee, breakfast, or beer, so really anyone looking for the staples of life should stop in here!

This is where Porto. & Fi used to be based. The space is nice and chilled. I went in on a Monday with a friend and it was incredibly quiet (although a Monday in Feb? What else can you expect really!). The staff are polite and friendly. Monday’s are all you can eat Mussels for £12.95…not 100% on the value of it unless you are prepared to sit down and munch through at least 1.5kg of them :) the mussels themselves are pretty nice though (for me work needs doing on their bread — think soft rock and your pretty much in the right arena). A good selection of beers although when I think of a Belgian beer house I think of an obscene amount lining the walls which this doesn’t have but an OK amount on tap I suppose? My friend had one of their pizzas which looked yummy although he said it was too sloppy.
Would I come back here? Yes definitely. Cosy environment good food nice beer, why not?
Good on the value for money front as well. Would recommend to friends

I’ve been wanting to try The Crafter’s Barn ever since it opened about 6 months ago. Lucky me — a Living Social deal came up and it was offering a hot stone steak meal and beer chips for 2 people so I promptly bought the deal and as promptly booked a table for 2 :)
Belgian beer lovers will be delighted with this place as it has a nice selection of beers. We were greeted friendly and the waiter soon came to take our orders and was happy to explain some of the beers that were listed. I chose the Kriek as it’s a great winter beer in my opinion.
We ordered hot stone fillet steaks with skinny fries and beer fries and shared a peppercorn sauce.
A while later the steaks appeared. We cooked them ourselves on the extremely hot lava stones. Now this is where I’m a bit undecided. Yes, I like to cook my own food but perhaps not when I’m dining out in a restaurant?
Anyway, the waiter told us the best way to cook the fillet steak is to cut thin slices off and cook them as you wish.
The steak was alright but I felt I was perhaps too focused on cooking it to truly enjoy it. There was nothing wrong with it per se, but it didn’t wow me. The skinny fries looked nice and tasted ok.
There were a couple of nice desserts on the menu, e.g. belgian waffles with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. It sounded very tempting but we decided to get the bill at this point.
I’d be happy to go back and try some of their pizzas as they looked good. Until that time, three stars for now :)

After spending the evening walking around looking for a place that wasn’t full to the brim with people, we walked past the crafters barn. We were greeted by a very warm and welcoming staff, found a table, and had a lovely meal. The beer choice was excellent, especially if you are into Belgians, and the food was lovely. It was bright, clean, lively, and over all very pleasant. We left with full stomachs and feeling lucky to have stumbled upon this happy little restaurant.

This is a great «Belgium Beer & Steak» place — which also serves gourmet mezze /​tapas — with a beer twist.
My first impression is that it is a mixture between The Vintage, Hanging Bat and the Potting Shed though still carries distinctiveness and originality.
The ‘Crafters Barn’ has an immediate feel of comfort. Inside and the outside area is well dressed in brown muted tones.
I was most pleased to see the big amount of Belgium beers that they carry in stock. Obviously not the cheapest of drinks, but you need to remember that these beers are for nipping and enjoyment, not to down them and get drunk.
That said, I was a little miffed to be offered a Leffe as a pint. — Come on! As a good beer purveyor you should have the decency to offer ²⁄₃ or ½ pints.
Another thing that irked me was the mispronunciations by the staff that caused confusion.
I was offered a ‘Sherry Beer by Crick’ (so obviously I thought this is like Innis & Gunn — Sherry Cask aged beer) I was intrigues and said I’ll have a pint of that.
It turned out that it was a CHERRY Beer by KRIEK — nothing wrong with that per se, however a pint of cherry flavoured lager is not the best enjoyed with steak.
Yes, those steaks! You order, you get. You get it FAST. The premise here is that the steak is presented uncooked (or at least ‘blue’) on a hot stone. You cook it yourself to the desired level. This takes away the issue that the chef cooked it wrong, because if it is, you have yourself to blame. Clever, novel and very hands on.
In addition I had peppercorn sauce and skinny fries. The sauce as OK. The skinny fries were not fully fried, possibly a little undercooked even.
The service is very friendly, professional and helpful. They really look the part.

I recently went there with a friend of mine on a voucher deal and am I glad it was a voucher as prices are quite steep. The cheapest Belgium beers from the Belgium drink menu was £4.90. They also serve normal drinks like liquors, wine and soft drinks.
We ordered 2 steaks from the menu. My choice was Sirloin steak that was served sizzling on a very, very hot stone. I cut my steak with the steak knife on hand whilst it was still grilled on the hot plate.
I must admit that I struggled a bit with keeping my hands safe and not involuntary touching the hot stone.
The sirloin served was of a good size. Sadly, I only had salt and pepper available to season the steak, such I thought it tasted quite plain. Thank goodness I had also ordered a pepper sauce and skinny chips as sides. The sauce costed me £2.35 (really?) and the chips were seriously skinny, but quite nice.
Besides steak they also serve Spanish and Italian style dishes and some desserts.
The service was very friendly and accommodating. Seems that Crafters Barn was opened about 3 months ago. Going to the toilet is an art in itself, as the downstairs corridor leading to the toilets is lit up with candle light. You can see this as a romantic or spooky notion :-)
Overall it was a great and worthy experience, but at the same time a bit too pricey for my taste.

«Meh. I’ve experienced better», is what Unilocal considers two stars. It seems I’m the only reviewer that had such a mediocre experience so far.
It was my first time being in a restaurant that offers lava stones where you can actually cook your steak the way you want to! And that sounds quite cool, right?
You would expect as a newbie, to have a helpful waiter to offer tips or to explain how it works, but me and my friend were not so lucky, same for some other customers, that left their steaks at the top of the lava stone, and not cooking it now-​and-​then, taking it slowly, or even not overcooking them, and turning them from time to time.
I was looking forward to their chips (chunky beer fries), but they felt a bit plain, although the appearance was promising!
If you’re a beers’ fun, you will get plenty of options, including Belgian ones!
I’m glad I went there using a voucher and didn’t pay the pricey £23 full price…

Another incarnation of a Mound eatery but this is a good one!
Came here on a voucher deal with Tanya L. Our deal was for steak and chips and it was a great deal. No dodgy voucher deals here — our steaks from Puddledub (available at the Edinburgh markets) were available in 8oz sirloin or rib-​eye or 6oz fillet. The steaks came on a lava stone so we could cook them as we like.
Great steaks, very tasty and great quality meat. The chips for me were made to be gluten free — skinny fries, with partial skins on and were excellent!
There is an excellent Belgian beer list with beers ranging from the £3.50 mark to around £8. There is also Mongozo GF beer to so GF peeps aren’t left out which is great! There are also belgian beers on draft including kriek (cherry). The wine list is small but decent options. My red French Carignan went well with my steak and was £5 for 175ml.
Service was lovely and friendly and great with suggesting gf potato based options for me which I appreciated. The interior is very modern — brick and wood but some booths and lovely rugs draped over chairs still to give an impression of a Scottish ‘look’ that’s probably in keeping with the name.
I will go back — great food, drink options and service. it would be worth checking out at lunch as there are deals to be had…

We stumbled upon this place primarily due to its location — and the bit of outdoor seating next to Lady Stair’s Close… Given it was a beautiful night with a sunset, it fit the bill. The Belgian beer selection was really good and the server we had was so helpful and attentive — she helped make the experience memorable. We moved inside to try the food and my companions spoke highly of the mussels. The pizza we had was also quite good. It wasn’t too crowded so service continued to be excellent. Good mix of music played and the space is light, open, uncluttered with a euro-​modern feel. All in I would absolutely return on my next visit.

Previously the Scottish Burger Bistro (and still in the same ownership), the Crafters Barn is a slightly odd fusion of Belgian, Spanish, pizza and steak. The Belgian influence is both at food and beer level; the Spanish comes in the form of a tapas menu; I didn’t try the pizzas; the steaks can be cooked by diners at their table on some called a lava stone (frankly that sounds completely terrifying to me, but I’m sure others will find it great fun.)
I was charmed by the place and the food I sampled was very good, with a delicious fish stew and very tasty chorizo.
Overall, we said: «I was impressed with The Crafters Barn. Fusion places with eclectic menus can be a little tricky to judge, but from what I sampled I’d heartily recommend a visit. I look forward to sampling more dishes from their selection over the coming months.»