Espionage

an insufferable kip with scumbag doormen
Twice I have attempted to visit this kip, once it was recommended to me by someone whom i must assume has a mental disorder.
I was refused with my wife with a fat overweight goon on the door simply giving the excuse
«Your not getting in because i said your not»
the following week I was in the club having encountered a different bouncer and been let in, no sooner had i finished my first pint then Captain Knobhead suddenly appeared, I ordered another pint noticing he was eyeballing me. sure enough about 20 minutes later he was asking me to leave. When I asked why I was told «because I said so»
I told him that is not a valid reason but I will leave after finishing my drink if it means that much to him, as i turned around i was grabbed from behind by the spineless piece of crap and thrown out!
Any time I asked what I did he simply just went «because I said so». Lets call him FOODS, thats an appropriate nickname given he probably weights about 20 stone. FOODS can be an acronym for Fat Obnoxious Overweight D1ckhead slob.
Of course outside he threatened to ring the police and of course hid behind the rest of the bouncers outside. I have to this day (a month later) no idea what I did or am supposed to have done. It is clear he just took a dislike to me for no reason, well I have every reason to dislike FOODS.
A bouncers job is too look out for peoples safety, not endanger it
My wife was absolutely horrified watching this, she thought I was being attacked by someone in the club and couldnt believe it when i pointed out it was FOODS the doorman.
She had to calm me down as believe me Id have loved nothing better than to put this waste of space in his place. (I am a mixed martial arts fighter). but I thought it wasnt worth it given the night had already been ruined. I had to restrain myself from beating 18 stone off him.
As I said launching people out like that doesnt mean your looking out for customer safety, you are endangering it, attacking people from behind doesnt make you a tough guy it makes you a coward, hiding behind your bouncer mates when face to face with someone makes you not only a coward but a bully. I wouldnt bother visiting here again because of this scumbag (FOODS)
I hope you choked on your christmas dinner you fat mess. You deserve to be locked up you utter scumbag.

Racist establishment. If you are black do not go you will be accused of selling drugs and them asked to leave. Best bet is to leave nicely and don’t argue or you will be accused of being aggressive and violent,. It sucks and it is very hurtful that racism still exists in 2015. It’s such a shame. All black people are not drug dealers.

Ok so I put my hands up and admit that I actually like Espionage! I know there’s lots of secret fans out there that are too ashamed to admit it *looks knowingly at a few people* :P Yes it does get mobbed, men (and women) can be sleazy, drinks can be expensive, but there are so many different floors, so lots of choice of music, and most importantly it’s free in! I don’t go very often but when I’ve been there I’ve always had a laugh and I go to just dance the night away with my friends. You’ll meet lots of hen and stag parties, tourists, Icelandic fishermen and many many Irish (we seem to be drawn to the place — possibly because it’s near other Irish bars and you know how the Irish like to go to Irish bars when they’re experiencing a new country!!?). I can understand why people wouldn’t like it but I have fun when I go there!

i have no idea how i ended up here… and sitting speaking with my co-​worker i came to the conculsion that my review would be a bar that is confused as to what it is there for. it appears they tried to decorate it to be chic and hip looking to draw in some glamourous people. but with karoake taking place right at the front when you walk in the door, the only people this place draws in are people too drunk to realise how awful it is. ugh, never again…

Had a cocktail making booked here for my hen a few weeks ago and to be honest, after reading the reviews, I wasn’t expecting much. However when you are a group of 6 not too many places will book you, not worth their time or something so we only had a choice between here and a ridiculously early 12pm session at Voodoo Rooms, so espionage it was.
We were right in the depths of the place and had a bar to ourselves. When we got there we were given a pitcher of something gingery and minty to get us started then were shown how to make a few cocktails, a few shots and tried them all. These were pretty basic cocktails that I already knew how to make, but it was still a giggle.
For what we paid (£20 a head) we got amazing value for money, and we were quite the rabble when we left!
It might be rubbish for an actual night out but what we got for what we paid it was cracking value and the staff were really nice to us.

How long as my review of Espionage been brewing? Joe A specifically told me not to review it. It has its own charm! Its own class! Its own sort of appeal!
Yes, it has a hot dog stand after 11pm or so. And yes there are several floors with different styles of music so you can mix it up. And yes I did spend a night here, till almost close (2.30am or so) bopping the night away and having a good time. But I think that’s largely due to the good group of friends I was with.
The Nage (that’s what I used to call the one up in Aberdeen anyway) is a victim of its own, um, nage-​ness. It mainly attracts out-​of-​towners and stag dos. And Fresher students. A place is really just a sum of all its parts, so if the crowd isn’t that great then its not going to be that great a place.
When we first walked in, we were pretty much the ONLY women. I kid you not. It was a ‘sausage fest’ (as a fellow Unilocaler would describe it). I wasn’t intimidated. But then it also smelled REALLY bad. As the night wore on the music was quite good and the drinks were cheap. But its hard to get into a really good going-​out get-​my-​dance-​on groove when you’re just not feeling the crowd
I WOULD come back here if a good friend was having a special night out and really wanted to get her dance on here. But it’s just not my crowed, not my scene. It’s free to get in so a cheap night out for a dance. And Edinburgh is lacking a consistently good dancey place. But I’d rather go to night’s I know I’m gonna get my boogie on (Green Door, for instance). Sorry Nage, you were fun in the Deen when I was 18, but just not any more.

I was already pretty drunk before I got here, so I had a good time. I was with a group of Swiss students that I had just met at my hostel, and so didn’t really notice what the crowd was like but it was not a full house by any means. The drinks were okay, if the prices were a little lower they’d have been better. Music was what you would expect, and the dance area was really small (at least on the floor I was on).
Not much to really say about this place, it was OK.

This is a pretty nice club, free entry, karaōke but caters to a slightly older crowd, doesnt really feel right to see College students there for some reason.
The music is good as the DJ is pretty responsive to the crowd and even takes requests.
Drinks are a bit more expensive I guess because it has no cover charge.
There are many levels and a lot of quiet spots where you can just sit and chill with your friends.
It’s a pretty nice place to be :)

I’ve gone above 2 stars because this is a great venue during the festival, loads of free gigs that are usually decent, just try not to stay past 9… that’s when the sun goes down and the true face of espionage appears.
There’s several floors and often a hotdog stand past 11. If you’re in Edinburgh it’s worth a look, purely for the spectacle.
For dancing, drinking and debauchery it does the job. For dignity, not so much (I saw two separate girls in one night who had ‘lost their skirts’…how does that even happen?! Let alone twice?!)

Some locals recommended this place. It was close to the bar we were creeping around and being my friends birthday we decided to go buck wild and immerse ourselves in the nightclub scene.
Oops! I think this club meant well but they didn’t quite get it. We went around midnight and all FOUR floors were EMPTY. Why? Maybe because there is an equally bad nightclub next door that you can smoke and drink at with cheaper drinks? Or maybe because the 15 people who accumulated over our 30 minute stay were total weirdos? Not sure.

Three floors, multiple bars, university type crowd, open very late, expensive but hey its a club and centrally located near lots of other night clubs.

I was at this place this weekend and the music was great and the dancing was fantastic. One thing I will say was the drink was very expensive but still suggest people to go here. If you do make a night of it because the dancing floor on the underground. Walk in to a bar ground floor and up to 4 floors. I rate this ⁴⁄₅ because i felt a bit claustraphobic walking up and down stairs. Also never walk about here on your own. (personal suggestion)

This place was awful. So awful I was gone in just a couple of minutes. From the karaōke singer you had to push past to get in. to the group of smug idiots at the back (crazy crowd to squeeze through to get there) I was unimpressed. This review should probably be taken with a pinch of salt as this kind of venue on a weekend night was never going to be my kind of place!

Ok, I honestly don’t remember much, but I knew I had an amazing time based on my pictures! It was extremely packed, but the venue is HUGE! There are 5 floors for goodness sake… all with a different theme and all with different types of music. There are a lot of little spaces and rooms all over the place to sit and take a breather from all the craziness. I’d definitely recommend it and would go back if I’m ever in Edinburgh!

Yup, it’s a generous 4 stars from me, despite the grimaces that seem to appear on people’s faces when I mention the place.
Now there is a slight possibility that the bottle of wine I had before going out combined with the vodka and shots consumed in the club may have slightly clouded my judgement in it’s favour.
However Espionage is HUGE which is great if, like me, you like a bit of space to shake your shimmy. There are TV screens showing videos of the music being played — cue a hilarious/​mortifying attempt by me and my pals to emulate Beyonce. It was busy, the people there were all really friendly (or maybe that was just me!) and out to have a good time and it’s ideal if there are a group of you out to mingle.
Refined it is not however, and they definately know their shots better than their cocktails. Me and 2 friends also had to get creative with a cardboard loo roll tube as there was no toilet roll even early on in the night… But hey ho, it all adds to the hilar recollections the next day. Maybe it’s a bit naff and uncool compared to other Edinburgh clubs but the music got us on the dancefloor, it was cheap and cheerful and I pulled a hot guy :) Could be worse!

This is my first one star review, but I really think Espionage is worthy of it. Every time I’ve been in here it’s either ridiculously overpriced, empty or rammed to point of crushing. In my first year we came here at the end of Carnage and it was beyond dire! They were charging about £3.50 for VK or something and we all spent at least a tenner on drinks alone.
The main problem with Espionage, however, is the layout. It’s like a subterranean maze with staircases everywhere, multiple levels and bars all over the place. If you lose your mates you might as well go off and find some new ones because you’re not seeing them again any time soon in this place. I’m really not a fan, but try it out and see what you think.

This is the first business that I’ve seen on Unilocal that has got consistently low reviews. And I’m not about to change that trend. I have been to this place once, and it just didn’t measure up to other places that I’ve been in the city. It may be free to get in, which is a rare thing these days. And yes, there are a number of bars and dance floors within it (it calls itself a ‘bar and club complex’).
I’ve never got lost in here, but I did get bored fairly quickly. The problem with trying to cram so much into one place is that you are more likely to flit between places, depending on the music and busyness. This was my experience, as I seem to remember spending more time going up and down stairs than actually enjoying anything. And the bars were packed all the time, meaning that getting any liquid refreshment was nigh on impossible.
To sum up: if you like clubs, there are ones in Edinburgh that are a lot better. Don’t go here unless you really have to. Or you have no money.

Ah, the ‘nage. The venue of so much joy, tears, mistakes, aftershocks (the spirit), crazy dancing, celebrations and snogging. In that order. And usually all in the one evening.
I remember the ‘nage being hugely popular when it first opened in Edinburgh. At the time, a club with several different floors, five to be exact, was a pretty exciting matter, and I still think the idea of having five different themed levels for people to roam around is a good one.
The first two floors are more chilled out, so presumably if you’re going to a spend a long time in the bar/​club, you could start here with a few drinks, before moving down the floors. The third level contains a small-​ish bar, which is quite darkly lit, with more of a party atmosphere and a bit of a rustic look to it.
There are lots of nooks and crannies in Espionage with hidden away bits of seating, so if you want to grab yourself a dark corner and keep yourself incognito, a la the espionage theme, then you can. The last two levels are always rammed at the weekends, and it’s where you go in the ‘nage if you’re ready for dancing.
You’re guaranteed a good dance to some cheesey music if you come here, plus the venue is advantageous if you don’t feel like dancing straight away, and you want to sit and chill for a bit before heading downstairs. It’s definitely in need of a revamp, in my view, as it hasn’t changed much since it opened, so is no longer as trendy and edgy looking as some of the other bars and clubs around. The five levels of space make some pretty cool premises though, so I reckon a shake up here could make it a really desirable place to attend for some japery.

I totally agree with everything everyone has said here, it’s so easy to get lost in here! i mean a club/​bar on 3 floors? What;s that all about?
This place has sort of jumped into the limelight in societies and groups of people taking on the Espoinage challenge — a drink at the bar on every floor and first one outside at the top wins. It takes about an hour because you can never get served, but I head the record is 32 minutes. Impressive.
Seriously though, it’s sticky, it’s grotty and it’s smelly. But it;‘s cheap. And that’ll do me nicely.

I realise there are a lot of reviews already about this place. I just also wanted to confirm that this place is absolutely awful. Perhaps if you are too pissed to care you ignore most of it. Then again you would have a better time on a sidewalk. It starts from the bouncers at the door and just spreads to the rest of the place. Seriously Edinburgh has better clubbing options to offer. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Avoid!