Pickles of Broughton Street

I love this bar, somewhat of a local for me. It feels cosy and living-​room like, with comfy sofas and fairy lights. The walls are full of shelves of, would you believe it, pickles!
When I come here I always order a bottle of wine and a cheese platter. The chutneys are always different. My favourite is the sun-​dried tomato chutney, gorgeous.
The staff are extremely welcoming and dogs are allowed. The toilets are lovely as well, with proper cloth hand towels, love it!

Pickles is a wonderful oasis hidden in a basement on Broughton Street. There’s a fine selection of wines and beers and the cheese platters are to die for. You can tell the quality of a place by how it reacts when something goes wrong — we’d ordered a platter before a show, however, somehow the order go lost and when we mentioned it to the waitress she couldn’t be more apologetic, arranging a replacement in super-​quick time, removing the drinks from our bill and then when she noticed we didn’t have enough time to finish, giving us a doggie bag to enjoy the rest of the fine cheeses later in the night.

There should be a Pickles in every town. It’s a cosy, friendly, tranquil wine bar in Broughton Street, Edinburgh. The interior is small with wooden tables, cosy chairs and shelves full of wine. Their menu specialises in wines, beers, liquor and food platters. They also serve coffee too, which although we didn’t try smelt delicious. We opted for a cheese platter which was massive, the menu indicates it’s for two people sharing, however it easily feeds three. Blue, Brie, cheddar and smoked cheese in huge chunks with crusty bread, oat biscuits and some awesome spiced tomato chutney and sweet beetroot chutney. We also had olives, cheese & onion crisps and pickled onions and gherkins. I loved the fact the staff were excellent, asking if we needed more breads or crackers while we enjoyed our food. To go with our meal we had a bottle of house red, a bottle of Malbec and glasses of port. Everything in Pickles was so delightful we ended up staying the whole night instead of moving onto a pub as we’d planned. There’s also an outside seated area and dogs are welcome and can get bowls of water and doggy treat biscuits. A ‘must visit’ if you’re in Edinburgh.

i first heard that Pickles had opened over a year ago and it’s with great sadness i admit it took me just about that time to finally cross the threshold to try this place out. see the thing is, i love cheese and would happily eat a cheese board for any meal of the day. so the idea that a restaurant specialises in meat and cheese boards is a place that is a small slice of heaven for me. throw in the fact that they do a huge selection of wines by the glass for reasonable prices makes the whole idea even more dreamy.
however, on execution there are are a few things that make Pickles not quite five stars. first off the place is small, it’s like eating a meal in someone’s cosy front room with about 30 other people. i like it, it’s a nice atmosphere and when you’re in desperate need of a table hopefully you will also find two kind gentleman that are willing to share their table for four with you. it’s a friendly place, but due to it’s popularity it would be ideal if they took bookings. that way if you went in you knew that you’d have a table and a place to eat. i get that they want to keep things informal, but you can’t eat a cheese board standing up in the middle of a restaurant or perched on a side bench while waiting for a table to clear.
the second thing that really got to me was the wait staff. when we walked in we were ‘greeted’ by a rather unpleasant girl. she clearly indicated it was standing room only or a table outside. being chilly outside we opted to wait for a table inside to clear and when we asked her how long this may be she rudely replied she had no idea as people may wish to order more drinks and then basically just walked off before we had a chance to say anything else. i appreciate a place is busy and that you may not be able to tell when a table will be free, but at least be polite about it. thankfully we found two chairs nearby a couple sat on a sofa enjoying a cheese board so we kindly asked if they didn’t mind if we sat there. when the girl saw we’d sat down she huffily handed us over a menu and asked what we wanted to drink about two seconds later. however once we were actually sat at a table (with our two new friends!) we had a different waiter serving us. he was really very pleasant so i think the rest of their staff is probably quite friendly. but poor service by one waitress is still not ok.
what Pickles does well though is meat and cheese boards. for £20 you get a massive board with enough for about 3 – 4 people as my friend and i couldn’t finish it although we tried. all the food is really good quality and i love that they give you really nice chutneys on the side with a portion of pickles, olives, and pickled onions. it’s really good value and with a glass of wine starting at about £3.50 it makes for a relatively cheap night out.
i will definitely go to Pickles again, but probably as soon as it opens so i can get a table. this place is popular which means it’s generally quite busy. however they have a great wee outdoor space that i bet is just lovely in the summer! can’t wait for my next visit :)

I love Pickles! It is such a hidden gem that I wish more people would know about. For a reasonable price, my mom, friend and I shared a huge cheese and charcuterie plate complete with baguette, pickles and accompanying spreads. Included in the price of that plate was also a bottle of house wine which we had no problem finishing. The owners are very friendly and I would recommend Pickles to locals and travelers alike!

What a snug little place this is, with such plentiful portions of cheese, meat, bread and pâté. They offer up wine, cheese and meat platters, with home-​made pates like wild boar and venison. And they do it very well indeed.
I came here on a Tuesday evening to work on my night cheese (#NightCheeseTuesdays are now a thing) with a fellow Tina Fey loving friend. When I arrived at 6pm it was quiet, but by 6.30pm every seat and table was taken. It’s small but perfectly formed, and this busy on a Tuesday night is testament to how great the wine, cheese and meat combo really is.
We snagged a comfy couch, and the very friendly server (owner?) immediately took my order of a very delicious Pinot Noir. My friend and I opted for the wine & cheese platter to share, and the wild boar pâté. Well, we didn’t quite expect THAT much food. A whole platter of bread alone (bread lovers rejoice) but oatcakes were on there too (not sure about GF options). There was actually a pretty hefty portion of cheese and meat, and with the pâté we struggled to finish it all. Your usual brie, blue, smoked cheddar, parma, chorizo and salami. With pickles (of course).
Two glasses of wine, the meat cheese platter, pâté, and 2 macarons each for dessert set us back £25 which is very reasonable I’d say. A lovely neighbourhood bar that’s definitely worth seeking out for all your cheese and meat based cravings.