The King’s Wark

I experienced this lovely pub the week between Christmas and New Years. My party of 8 walked in (4 adults, 4 kids all under 10) around 7 – 7:30 and were happily seated right near the front window with twinkle lights aglow. Low ceilings, big beams, dark bar in the other room — this was a pub I’d happily spend all evening in (with out my kids).
While they did not have a kids menu (not surprising) all our li’l boys found something delicious. They were happy to make smaller portions of regular dishes. My 7-​year-​old said his burger was the best he’d had the whole trip (we’d been traveling for about a week and a half at this point).
My husband had the hagis, which I tried for the first time, and raved about it! I started with the cream of mushroom soup and wish the bowl had been bigger (it was actually quite a good size) — so delish! For my entrée I had the fish ‘n chips to which I will quote my son, «This is freakin’ awesome.» Best I’d had in Britain.
There was some disappointment that they were out of mussels, but what we had was absolutely wonderful. The staff was friendly and quite accommodating for the large group. We left Scotland after just 4 days and The King’s Wark was our stand out meal.

Loved the food. It’s a cozy pub I could stay at all night. Wish they had more desert choices like pies or crumbles but the seafood chowder was the best I ever had!

Good for a pint. Limited menu, and pricey, but good food nonetheless. Had the mussels and chips which was great. Pan-​fried chicken was also good.

A Leither friend of mine raved about Kings Wark, so on a cold February night, the Silent Reviewer and I took off to explore it’s offerings. It’s a bit of a hidden spot, right in front of your face. I had always thought it was a bit of a old man’s pub, but it has dreams of gastronomy, and is not afraid to show them to you. It has a nice variety of options for meals as well, for meat and non meat alike.
I decided to be adventurous, and try the crayfish and hot smoked salmon roulade — very rich, and needed something to cut through it, for me — but tasty enough. The boy had the hot smoked salmon salad starter… I had a little bit of envy for that — and it also was a tick in the taste tests. For our mains, he had the burger (went down in a flash) with a bacon jus (OK, so this was pushing the SIlent Reviewer a little too far), and I had opted for the vegetarian haggis Wellington.
Sadly, I was given haggis, neeps and tatties. Not a terrible offer, but sent back nonetheless. That meant, whilst tummy grumbling, I had to watch on while the SR muched through his entire meal before mine even showed up, burnt and still incredibly hot.
In fairness, bar the fact it was burned and super late, it was pleasant enough. The waitress didn’t even skip a beat when she delivered it and called out that we wouldn’t be charged — which I didn’t expect, and was a really nice touch. But, a little disappointed for our first time there, and means it won’t be top of any list any time soon, but neither will it be at the bottom either.

The building has had many uses since been built by the King as an armoury .the latest and best use is as a pub .Big thick walls original woodwork and open fires what is there not to like. The food appears to be good and a decent price. There are a range of national real ales which are of OK quality. Place is definitely popular. Well located near oceans quay.

Delicious pub food

Ham hauges yes hauges were delicious! Served on top of rocket.
Potato and leak soup very creamy but light and amazing! For dinner I had Ox over pasta with a tomato, carrot gravy… excellent and stick to your stomach delicious!
We ate here 3 times!

The opinions of another review site saying this place has gone downhill are not wrong. Just had a TERRIBLE meal here. I’m from Leith and I remember the glory days of this place when it set the example not only to the growing Shore scene but also that of pubs doing good good food all over town… I’ve had my best ever fishnchips, best ever smoked haddock risotto, and many great girly lunches here over the years. But years ago, not recently.
I came in about 2 months ago with a hangover for a decent Bloody Mary and decided food would be ok. But the battered fish was sswiimmmiinnng in fat and i could barely scrape the tiny bits of fish off of the horribly burned batter. Put it down to a bad day.
This time we were very surprised to get a table at all as it was a v sunny night at 7.30pm and the shore was very very busy. But we did, which now I know speaks volumes. The hot smoked salmon starter was a massive plate of salad leaves, giant chunks of very smoked salmon, an egg and 2 half stalks of asparagus. Not terrible but totally over saladed and inderseasoned, and far too large.
For mains we had a salmon risotto, which turned out to be savoury rice pudding with a salmon fillet plonked on top! Totally horrible. If your chef can’t do risotto, don’t offer it on the menu, The other was a scallop, crevette and squid salad main. First off the chips were forgotten and i had to go chase them, but when they were eventually brought they were barely cooked. The scallops tasted of NOTHING and the crevettes, although covered in herbs of some kind, tasted of nothing. The squid the same. This was a salad that was charged at more the double of the starter size version due to the addition of chips, apparently… the forgotten chips i had to chase that eventually arrived totally undercooked.
To be fair, the waitress seemed keen to know why we hadn’t eaten anything, but my dining partner had decided we wouldn’t cause a fuss or scene. I still told her I’d not all enjoyed my main and that the late chips were totally underdone and generally i’d not had an enjoyable meal. We asked for the bill. She offered us a free coffee. and then ignored us for ages. Eventually we got to pay and leave. A full bill with nothing taken off.
Someone in that kitchen, in control of it, can not cook and does not care. Someone somewhere along the line between kitchen and customer does not care about customer service. End of story.
We won’t be back, ever.

If you can grab a seat outside (drinks only out there though) it’s a lovely seat overlooking the shore.
My fiancé was sent in to get our drinks while I held the table. There was a rose on the menu that I only wanted if it wasn’t sweet. Apparently the bartender assured him it was dry, «We don’t have any sweet wines on our menu.» Our kinda place! He got a pint of a beer brewed in Edinburgh.

Great spot for an evening time, romantic dinner. My favorite part is the specials on bottles of wine.

The Kings Wark is always popular and with good reason — a ‘proper’ pub serving decent food at a good price.
If you’re set on going there for food it’s worth booking at the weekends, but still possible to squeeze in if there’s space. Drinks are often a standing affair, but it’s still enjoyable.
One of my Leith favourites.

The Shore has become the place to go for food when my parents are visiting, after all it’s convenient for my flat and there’s plenty of eating options in the area. Plus, my mum’s a native to Edinburgh and worked in the Newhaven and Leith areas for a few years, so she’ll take any opportunity to go down memory lane!
Last weekend, after a visit to the museum, we once again came down to the Shore and this time decided on The King’s Wark. As we’d just been to see the Mary, Queen of Scots exhibition it felt appropriate to visit somewhere whose history, and name, is strongly associated with the Stuarts.
The King’s Wark, in common with several other pub/​restaurants in the area, has a menu mainly focussed on seafood, along with haggis etc. It’s all reasonably priced, verging on pricey for the type of establishment, but given we were just about the only locals in the place (I say local, my parents live in Glasgow) they can probably get away with charging that bit more. That and the food tastes good too.
I plumped for the seafood salad for a mains, whole shrimps, battered fish, Queenie scallops, squid etc, which came with a bowl of chips. Boy were those chips good! I don’t know if they were triple-​fried or whatever else, but they were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside — perfect. The fish was okay, the main issue being that the shrimps hadn’t been prepared so came complete with the vein. I suppose that’s what you get for ordering whole shrimps, but it makes for messy eating.
My mum had something that came with a deep-​fried ball of black pudding, but for the life of me I can’t recall what the main component of the dish was. Whatever it was she liked it. Dad had haggis (and a smaller version of my salad) and boyfriend had pulled pork, which he was suitably impressed by. For pudding we couldn’t resist getting a portion of the intriguingly named ‘Coca Cola Cake’ to share. Sticky and more like a steamed pudding than a cake, it was very good. Dark, like a chocolate cake, but not cocoay — the depth of flavour was something more, no doubt the Cola! It was very sweet, as expected, but I found myself eating more than my fair share. Yum yum yum.
The King’s Wark is perhaps not better than any of its neighbours, but it’s still a very solid option on the Shore and steeped in history, if, like me, that’s your thing.

Cozy friendly nice little bar. Big log burning fire is great at this time of year and tables near the low windows to watch the world go by. Would definitely come back and I want to try the good here.

Came for drinks. Awesome mussels! Good vibe and friendly service. Beers are local and different. Loved it, would want to come back and try more food. Great location too.

Seems there is a pattern of people feeling cold in that pub. Either the heating is on low, the entrance «doors» inconveniently placed or just poor ignorance to their customer needs. People sitting near the doors can feel inflicted by cold air that comes blowing in. I can imagine that if there should be gales you could be blown out the back entrance!
It happened to me. I was not able to lay down my coat. It was too cold. Before I went there for the first time in my life this week, people told me that this is a really nice place to experience good food and a nice fire place atmosphere. None was true. Yes, there is a nice fireplace in the back of the room, but it provides little substitute to the icy wind that sweeps the place.
About the service:
It was a weekday and the service was slow. It took them a while to take the order. It took them a while to serve the drinks and the food. And it took them «never» to ask us if we wanted dessert or coffee or the bill. Thinking back, they might have not noticed if we would have left without paying! For some people definitely a good thing ;-)
About the food:
The pheasant was dry and chewy. The bread pieces were not enough for 3 people (I think they mixed up the tables) and were dry. The best part was the Gnocchi. Overall the food was not worth the money. The menu promised an a la cart dinner and the prices reflected the offer. The food might look good on paper, but I believe that the cook had a bad day!
Good luck next time, if!!!

Star down. I visited this last Wednesday and yes it wasn’t as good as my first visit. Shame as I wanted to relive the experience.
I called beforehand to see if any tables were available, they informed me there was only one — right beside the door. I was not too pleased on that but gave it a good go.
On arrival we were surprised how busy it was. FULL on a mid winter wednesday evening? Good thing I ‘reserved’ the most infamous table of the place.
When visiting do not sit right at that table.period. My friend had to keep her coat on during the time there. My wife kept wearing her scarf. On opening of the frontdoor a gust of artic wind kept blowing out the candle on our table.
The meal was affected by our uncomfertable position and my saddle of rabbit was served warm but due to the drafty conditions turned cold as soon as i picked up my fork to eat it.
The place is great — when your seating is in a warm spot. Unfortunatly this time we didn’t and it does prevent me from going here on a whim again.

I have been to The King’s Wark once before, in December, and the party of 3 of us had an enjoyable meal. Food was great, atmosphere great, good service — so I was looking forward to my next visit.
Wednesday evening — is it the new ‘little Saturday’? It was surprisingly busy, but luckily my husband had reserved a table. Hmm. the only table they had happened to be just near the entrance, so every time somebody came in there was a strong gust of wind and the poor candle on our table blew out (twice). My friend sat with her coat on the whole time!
I asked if we could maybe move to a different table, but I was told that there were other people queuing for tables. Fair enough.
King’s Wark always have daily specials (fish and seafood). I was trying to decide between wild grilled trout and pheasant — I chose the latter. Oh, I should have maybe gone for the trout. The dish arrived eventually and it came with gnocchi, beetroot jelly and winter greens. Gnocchi was delicious, I think it was the best part of the meal. Beetroot jelly didn’t really do much to the dish, rather than adding a little bit of colour. The pheasant unfortunately was chewy and tough — disappointing. I didn’t finish it, as it just wasn’t pleasant to eat. Also it didn’t have much flavour.
I’m not much of a complainer (except on Unilocal) so I thought that once they come to clear up the plates, I will let them know about the pheasant. However, busy as they were — this never happened. Nobody came to ask how the meal was.
We paid and left.
I’m still convinced that King’s Wark offers great food. This was perhaps just a unexpectedly busy evening. I am hoping that my next visit will bump up the score to at least 3 stars or more :)

Really good hearty food and at a decent price too!
We came here to celebrate a birthday so we chose somewhere that has hearty food and wouldn’t be too expensive as there were 12 of us in all.
When we arrived it reminded me straight away of a proper, family pub back home! This in turn put me right in the mood for some mussels (Pavlovian response!) and wasn’t I lucky that they were on the menu! The rest of the menu was fantastic, from poussin to pork chop, fish to hare, an amazing selection. Everything looked so good we took ages to decide. I went with the mussels to start, natch, and followed it up with a pulled pork and apple sausage.
The mussels were delicious, in a white wine and cream sauce. It was quite a bowlful and I was surprised as it was a big starter. not complaining though! The pulled pork and apple sausage was lovely. Served with black pudding, champ and (be still my beating heart) crackling! They were big portions and by the end I was too stuffed for dessert, which is probably the second time in my life that happened so bravo to The King’s Wark! I tried some of the hare from the plates around me and it was cooked deliciously, though I’m not sure hare is my thing so I’m glad I didn’t order it for the novelty.
I plan to bring my parents here next time they’re over. They won’t come to The Dogs as it’s too ‘young’ for them, apparently, but they’ll definitely come here and the menu is similar.

Brrrrrrr… It’s freezing. Too cold and icy to go cycling, so what shall we do? go out for lunch, of course!
We’d never really been to the King’s Wark, except for a drink (when we just grumbled about there being nowhere to sit unless you’re eating — still true, and worth noting) but after a quick look at Unilocal we decided to go. And, yum.
Portions are big! We’d really have been better to skip starters, or to share, but that’s no fun, is it?
I had an amazing bowl of seafood chowder, followed by baked haddock meunière — while J had black pudding salad and lamb. Talk about gender-​stereotyped choices!!! But girlie and blokey choices were all just delicious, and cheered up the chilly day.
Staff are lovely and it’s a really friendly place. I’ll go back!

No complaints here, other than the pub was freezing. I had to sit with my day-​glo cycling jacket on for three whole hours as my teeth chittered away between a wine glass. The door was left wide open for nippit Edinburgh air to cut through an otherwise cosy and traditional place.
The seat I was on wasn’t too comfortable either, but that probably wasn’t helped by me sitting rigid with the cold.
If it hadn’t of been so bloomin’ freezing I probably would have really liked this pub. It should have a great vibe to it…
I kind of want it to be one of these old pubs with a Scottish wolfhound flopped down at the hearth of a cracking, cosy fire with his doggy nose on a sailor’s booted foot. But it wasn’t, because it was baltic.
I wanted to imagine Robert Louis Stevenson penning Kidnapped in this pub, supping ale at a rickety table in the corner and looking out over the river for inspiration. But I couldn’t, because I thought my fingers were going to freeze off.
Food looked great. Must come back here to try grub. Remember to bring duvet to wrap self in.

Wir hatten nicht reserviert, und so mussten wir an der Theke eine Viertelstunde darauf warten, einen Platz zu bekommen, denn es war Samstagabend und ordentlich was los. Die Wartezeit verkürzten wir mit einem Ale, das wir allerdings nicht überzeugend fanden Geschmackssache! Weil wir original schottisch essen wollten, bestellten wir Haggis, ein Schafsgericht mit Innereien. Leider wurde es nicht in der traditionellen Form, nämlich im Magen serviert, da war wohl unsere Portion zu klein und auch wenns nicht schlecht war, das Gericht wird es wohl nie über Schottlands Grenzen hinaus schaffen ;) Was auf den anderen Tellern war, sah aber sehr gut aus und roch noch besser, ich würde also fast sagen, dass man sich an Meeresfrüchte und Fleisch am Stück halten sollte!

Waren wir stolz diesen Laden entdeckt zu haben. Nähe Hafen von Leith, very british. Dort wird mit 2 Karten gearbeitet. Eine rustikalere für den Pub, hervorragende Fish and Chips u.a., und eine andere Karte für die Speisestube. Tolle Empfehlung. Unbedingt besuchen!

Ein typische britischer Pub, könnte man auf den ersten Blick denken. Aber draußen verkündet eine Tafel stolz, dass das Wark einen Preis für das beste Pubfood gewonnen hat. Die Vorspeise war schon ein Knaller: Ein Salat aus Krabben, geräuchertem Fisch und Muscheln. Als Hauptgericht hab ich geschmorte Ochsenbäckchen mit leckerer Sauce und Spinat — Kartoffelbrei gegessen, hmmmm! Mein Mann hatte geräucherten Schellfisch mit karamellisierten Tomaten und ein ebenso fantastischer Kartoffelbrei. Das war echt Restaurantqualität zum kleinen Preis in ungezwungener Pubatmosphäre. Schade, dass es hier bei uns nicht sowas gibt! Toll!