Tom G.
Yelp
times have been had here
Ok, so I held off on my review here because I have mixed feelings, on one hand I think this is a good pub, with plenty to offer, including a warm welcome on a cold winter night, a good beer and whisky rang, and most importantly the best beer garden for miles. On the other hand, I feel like it's really just an average stinky carpet pub with disinterested staff and some dodgy clientele.
To make my mind up I basically trawled through the numerous memories I have of visiting here, season to season, and realised I quite like it. It's not a 4 or 3 star, but a solid 3 star gaff. Let me share some of my best memories with you....
Last January I gave up booze for a month, it was fine and I lost some weight and gained a wee six pack (didn't last long) and the first pint I had was a pint of Edinburgh Gold by our local beer masters Stewart Brewing. It was arguably the best pint of beer I have ever tasted, and it made me the happiest man on earth. That pint wasn't consumed here, but the following pints were and it was cold and wet outside, and I was happy to be drinking beer in the warmth of this cosy howf.
About two years ago we had some really bad snow, I hadn't been in Edinburgh for long and had limited drinking partners, one of which never said 'no' to an after work beer. On this particular occasion we ended up at the ear tree, as I was trying to go home and he was like a lost dog following me so we stopped here for one last beer (it wasn't the last one). We went outside for a cigarette, and he was so drunk he started making snow angels on all of the garden benches, it was ridiculous.
Summer before last we had sun, we didn't have much last summer, but the one before was good. I always find the meadows a bit boring after a few hours, so the choice was home or Pear Tree, we went to the pear tree, and got a bench, we shared with some random Oz-balls who were drunk and funny, then I realised another friend was at the table next to me, so we ended up getting sunburnt in the sun listening to live music....
Those are my stories