The Huxley

great place with a great burger.
I was expecting a much more posh, up-​tight and expensive place given the location but it was none of the above.
highly recommend in Edinburgh

The piggy is one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten and the chips were really well seasoned. As an aside, the washroom was immaculate.

This is in a brilliant location and offers comfortable seating and a very comfortable space. The menu is a pretty simple American diner style offering and the staff are a very warm and friendly bunch.
Definitely worth a visit for casual breakfast or lunch and not too expensive

Great service, a variety of comfy seats (sofas, wooden chairs, arm chairs) and a good menu. Great location. Nice, semi-​private room with floor to ceiling windows and a view of Edinburgh castle. Bottles of prosecco for £17 ain’t bad. Dear god that peppercorn sauce that came with the fries was pure bliss. My only gripe is that the mac n cheese is in fact a pasta bake. Pedantic? Perhaps. But when I order mac and cheese I want creamy sauced mac and cheese goddamit, not pasta with stringy/​oily cheese melted on top.

A random find while searching for a quick bite to eat. Cosy interior with views of the castle, the staff were very friendly and the food we ordered was lovely. My friend described her beef brisket sandwich with black pudding as one the of the best things she tasted. The prosecco on offer was excellent, dry, crisp and reasonably priced. Definitely worth a visit!

Great location, great ambience, lovely staff, excellent location where you can see the castle, inside/​outside seating and good food. What more can you ask for!
We had the house prosecco which was really reasonably priced and absolutely scrumptious. The thing that impressed me most was the food. I had the BBQ beef brisket, cheese and black pudding sandwich. Oh my goodness. I am a massive fan of the slow cooked meats thing that is happening right now and this was probably the best thing I’ve tasted in this genre. No too sweet or sloppy. The black pudding added a lovely umami undertone to the sandwich and then gooey cheese on top in a round panini bun! Noooooooooom!!!
I highly recommend this place and they even give you lollys with the bill!!!

Very pleased with the falafel sandwich (lovely spicy pickled cabbage on it) and my boyfriend with the chili cheese dog. Perfect after a 4 hour train ride here! Looks like they have a nice cocktail list as well but didn’t try.

I don’t go 5-​star very often, but for the burger I had there the other day, I am willing to do it.
I had a great experience at The Huxley –this despite the fact that my last venture into one was at the airport and the food and experience wasn’t all that. This time, I wandered into the lobby looking for a place to sit and was directed to a nice spot by the front window.
I was told about the soup of the day and began browsing the menu for what I wanted. I went with the soup (which was delicious by the way), a pint of Innis & Gunn, and something called a «piggy» burger. A burger that comes with bacon, pork scratchings, AND pulled pork. Plus, it is topped with BBQ sauce. Not to mention TWO hamburger patties as well. Sinful, I know.
Anyway, everything came out perfect. The burger was the best one I’ve had in Edinburgh by far. It was freaking amazing! I know that saying that the best burger I’ve had so far came from a chain restaurant is blasphemous (sorry hipsters), but damn it, I don’t care. It was seriously amazing.
The service was good as well. They were helpful even though it was their busy happy hour. If I am anywhere near this place I would absolutely come back again for another soup and piggy.

Popped in for a quick coffee en route home from dinner elsewhere. Service was incredibly speedy, and coffees hit the spot.
After eyeing desserts at the next table we opted for a peanut butter chocolate brownie — DO IT! Brownie was deliciously fudgey but quite light at the same time, how they managed that I don’t know. Salty chunks of peanut butter were heavenly.
After drinks & dinner in a busy bar, this place was just what we needed. Cosy, comfortable seating. Fantastic looking armchairs in the window which were unfortunately occupied. Great vibe. Will be back soon to check out the beer & cocktail selection.

Me and my partner spotted this on are first day in edinburgh and thought we must go in as it looked lovely. The second day we needed somewere for breakfast as we didn’t get any with the hotel so thought we would give it a go we order a Scottish breakfast with tea and fresh orange juice it was really nice and fresh. You got two different types of sausages, bacon tomato, mushroom, black pudding, haggis, toast and a potato cake.
The place was modern and traditional mixed together and the staff was really friendly.
We also went in for a drink it was lovely we sat in the window so we could watch the world go by. I had a vodka and coke and my partner had a beer we also shares some deep fried avocado which was unusual but really tasty.
I would recommend this bar it’s a really great place will definitely be going again when I’m next in edinburgh

As our hotel didn’t have a restaurant for breakfast we had to resort to exploring for somewhere to eat for breakfast. About a 10 minute walk from our hotel we noticed this lovely looking bar — they have a lot of smart and funky furniture including cow print chairs. It is very colourful inside — the benches are orange which adds a nice feel to the place. We ordered 2 full breakfasts which include tea or coffee. You get loads. The quality of the food was 1^st class and would definitely recommend to try here for breakfast.
On our second day we was walking back to the Hotel and fancied a quick drink so decided to come back. Although serivce took a while for them to take our order we quickly received it once we had placed it. The beer was decent and seemed to be well kept. We tried the avocado wedges — deep fried avocado, which were excellent and something I have never seen before.

Wonderful place for breakfast. You can go healthy or in the other direction, but either way you will be happy. They make delicious smoothies, very flavorful and not just the juice. Fiber is important!
Their coffee is first rate, both espresso drinks and American. I sampled several egg dishes there over a number of visits, all good, but my favorite was a riff on eggs Benedict made with smoked salmon. Good bread, too.
Service is lovely. If you stay at the Caledonian across the street, you should by all means come here for breakfast!

My husband really, really, really love this bar. We loved it prior to it morphing into The Huxley and we’ll probably love it when it morphs into something else in the future.
So, what do we really love about this bar? THE COCKTAILS and the décor and the live music but mostly THE COCKTAILS.
Yeah, all caps on that one.
The cocktails, oh, the cocktails. With handcrafted cocktails ranging in price from £6.50−8, you just can’t go wrong. We have yet to find better value for money anywhere in Europe. Plus the drinks are fantastic. Like, super, super good.
I drank many Comfortably Plums. Oh, so, damn plummy and lovely.
My husband drank many Huxley Harpoons and Smooth Like a Brazillians. He loved both and I had a taste of his Huxley Harpoon and I almost left Comfortably Plum for Huxley Harpoon but I realized that I was just too comfortable with Comfortably Plum to ever leave her (or him). YUM.
The other great thing about this bar is that they have table service and I’d say the service is a touch about average. Sure, you have to do the «European I need something» wave every-​now-​and-​again but whatever. They will come running over (thought note that service does fall a bit when they are busy). Basically, walk in, someone will greet you, take a seat, and someone will be over in a snappy-​snap to take your order.
Last, the restrooms/​bathroom/​toilets/​WCs at this place are top notch. If you are out sightseeing all day and need someone to relieve yourself and rehydrate (they also have a shiny big coffee machine behind the bar), then this place is for you.
OK, last, last, they have a live music sometimes. I’m not sure when but a musician was playing during one of our visits and he was lovely!

It is a shame to have to knock off a star, but the Huxley has been quite disappointing as of late.
The service is really good. The food is very tasty.
My current issues is with the loudness of the bar. It doesn’t matter where I stand/​sit I have to shout to get myself heard.
The other thing is the tables, the wooden type barrel top tables are nice to look at, but when you lean on them with any kind of fabric, they get stuck to the table. I found this out with one of my favourite jumpers, some of it may still be part of that table.
I understand these tables are not easy to clean, but it happens to be really sticky and that can’t be the idea behind this.
So for that 1 star off.

Fanatic breakfast and selection! This place opens up at 8am. It’s a very nice place and i can only share about my breakfast experience. I ordered a mocha which was delicious and sweet. For breakfast, my colleagues came along with me and ordered blueberry compote pancakes. I got the porridge with blueberry compote and scrambled egg whites and smoked salmon with toast. The porridge is very tasty especially with the compote added. They don’t have cinnamon powder. The smoked salmon and eggs were a good combo with the toast. The toast was very buttery though.
All was a very heart healthy breakfast. I wish the server a little more attentive to us. It took us a while to get her attention and to give us our check. They seem to take their sweet time and it wasn’t that busy when they opened at 8am.

I was very excited to try out The Huxley. The menu is divine. Unfortunately the reality wasnt quite so much.
We started with the fried panko crusted olives with an alioli dipping sauce. Not sure if this was more of a technical flaw but the olives used were just too meaty and large. Would have preferred the smaller olives. I didnt enjoy the dish so much.
Then we had burgers. The cheesburger and the Philly cheesesteak. First off the cheeseburger was dry. Not a fan of the two patties, who are they trying to copy? The Big Mac?! Not a good idea. Also the Philly Cheesesteak was not just that. It was a burger with peppers. Not really that exciting.
You can get better burgers elsewhere as far as I’m concerned.

Ahhhh, the Huxley. The latest incantation of the pub at the corner of the West End. It continues in the tradition of its forbearers — distinctly average. It’s all so well-​engineered and presented that it loses any charm or interesting element.
They do decent cocktails, but I’m not a huge cocktail fan so it’s a bit lost on me. They do a decent range of beers, but they all fall under the «Standard Life employee» price tag. I’d rather go to the Hanging Bat for a beer.
I haven’t eaten here so can’t comment on the food. The bathrooms have this weird little hole in the wall so you can see when blokes are washing their hands. Not sure how I feel about that oddity (bit creepy?).
However, it’s handily placed for catching up with old friends and is ideal for the bus stop. So it has its merits. It’s just fine. I think this place continues to endure because of its location.

Not bad, not bad at all…
I hadn’t managed to get to this reincarnation of The Rutland (the hotel still has the name) yet, and when I had to organize a wee dinner to ‘show off’ some of Edinburgh (after being informed that it had to be in the city centre and to get there we had to see a fair bit of Edinburgh… yes, dinner has these stipulations!) I thought it’s reasonably fancy looking surroundings but causal atmosphere would be ideal.
The Huxley seems to be cocktail bar meets hunting lodge, with some hipster sprinkled on top. I comes together quite well though our table had those flip up cinema seats which I couldn’t get used to! There’s a good bit of faux tartan and some nice couches and armchairs.
I admit I was surprised by just how casual the menu was. We started with haggis spring rolls, the sesame tuna and a cauliflower patty of some kind. Everything was delicious though the tuna stood out!
For mains we all had burgers, and wow! Everyone was impressed. The burgers are smaller than you find elsewhere, I could eat it one handed, but came with two burgers! And the meat and seasoning was fantastic. I have slowly managed to train myself not to deconstruct food over the years but the meat on these burgers was so amazing each element had to consumed alone. The bun was also wonderful, slightly sweet but not overly so. The chips were chips, but good’uns.
For dessert I had the peanut butter and jelly cheeseNOMNOMNOM… sorry, I just had a flashback of me devouring this perfect dessert, cheesecake was what I meant to say. My friend got a Knickerbocker Glory and I got to experience the childlike glee they invoke when you see one for the first time (I work with grown ups from other countries where they don’t grow up begging their parents for knickerbocker glories after every meal).
The service was generally ok, though slow and a bit frazzled. I think they could use another person on the tables on a Wednesday night, especially at this time of year.
Overall I’ll do my best Arnie impression…‘I’ll be back’… There’s drinks offers on throughout winter and if you sign up to their mailing list you get 30% of your bill. That’s loads!

Very rarely have I been so conflicted about a place as I am with the Huxley.
The place has a nice feel, is well lit, decorated… lots of interesting furnishings that you notice the longer you spend there. £15 for a bottle of prosecco too is always going to be a win for me.
Their food to read is interesting if a little «fryer centric», so this Sunday few frioends and our mums went for some prosecco and ordered a heap of their small plates to share.
Fish goujons — dry and under seasoned
Panko olives — liiiiiiiike
Wedges — liiiiiiiike
Beef tacos — weirdly on top of a napkin that then stuck to the food
Meat platter — tasty
Chicken wings — RAW!!! Yep raw chicken — for what is actually a good professional kitchen… unforgivable to me and yep im now suffering the consequences!
Sort it out Huxley!!! When you do I might come back!

Since my last review, I’ve come back for a burger and loved it so much I came back again. For me, The Huxley will be my ‘I want a brilliant burger’ spot. There are lots of places in Edinburgh doing burgers, gastropub style (giant buns, with a huge round burger that you can’t eat in one mouthful for fear of getting jaw lock).
The Huxley burgers are different. Two thin patties on a thinner bun. More like the type you see in American diners. But the quality is exceptional. Linked to Kyloe steak restaurant upstairs, they’re using steak meat for their burgers. And they are cooked medium. And have a beautiful chargrilled, BBQ taste. Unlike any other burger I’ve tasted in Edinburgh. The Huxley have taken a tried and tested favourite — a burger — and done something different with it, and done it very well.
The bar itself can be quite busy, and given the district, full of suited folk after work. The vibe is a bit different to my preferred kinda bar. I like laid back and not too dressy or fancy, whereas i might feel out of place here in my muddy boots and dressed down chic look on a Friday night. But I came here on a Saturday afternoon for a burger and it was a nice mixed bunch. And that is just my personal preference and style. It’s a great bar and will suit a lot of folk, but as I dont wear a suit to work, I just might be out of place a little.
I also love what they’re doing with their cocktail menu. I got speaking to the cocktail guy behind the bar one night, and he comes up with all the recipes and mixes up new cocktails. They’re definitely not generic and repeats.
That’s the whole thing with The Huxley. It’s taken a tried and tested formula — bar in West End with lots of post-​work folk looking for food and drink, who generally like bar snacks, burgers, hot dogs and cocktails — and put their own unique spin on it, with a delicious and distinctive outcome.
From the outside it may look like a ‘west end bar’ but inside you’ll find really delicious food cooked very well, and a very unusual cocktail list with a whole bar full of interesting beers too.
Go, enjoy the burger, thank me later.