The Merlin

I had a Scottish Ploughman’s Platter washed down with a pint of Belhaven Best.
There wasn’t a lot to the «Ploughman’s» and I’ve had much better.
Service was friendly and prompt however, this was mid Friday afternoon.
Not a naff pub, but, there are way better out there found by the lies of the «Cask Finder» & «CAMRA» apps.

I was here to teach a tango class (upstairs on the Thursday evening), and the setup was great–
The sound system was good, the floor was good ‘olé hardwood (but a little sticky), and the way the tables and chairs were set up made it great for a class.
The classes ended up being about 40 people/​class, so I had to change the facing to view the windows rather than the stage so that more people could see.
I would definitely use this classroom again. At the end of class we got a bottle of bubbly. It was. Delicious!
They also brought up a bunch of glasses and water pitchers for everyone — they should have this at ALL tango classes!
**I didn’t eat any food, but it seemed to be pretty busy and bustling downstairs!**

Average pub grub and booze.

I decided to go to The Merlin for my birthday meal and upon entering we were welcomed by the sound of an extremely loud alarm going off that went on for at least 5 mins, would stop then start up again but did eventually stop completely soon after!
That aside the atmosphere is cosy and the waiting staff were lovely, wished me happy birthday and were really pleasant.
Food was good but not great, starter was appetising and didn’t wait to long for it, but my main meal of sausage and mash was a bit of a disappointment as the sausages were burnt but the dessert certainly made up for it, sticky toffee pudding was delicious! All in all a mixed review for The Merlin

You could probably end this review by saying it is a Wetherspoons for people with an extra tenner in their pocket.
Nothing strikes you as unique about this place and I’m fully confident that most of the Greene King (chain that bought the pub long before I lived here) pubs look the same.
As far as I’m concerned the grub is alright. It gets you by and being a big guy, I like to test myself with big burgers which they do. I’m fully aware that they aren’t made in the back shop from the finest cuts of Scotch beef and marinaded for extra flavour but what it does do is give you a bit of fuel to drink a few more beers.
The best parts about this pub are the fact that they show the rugby and during the week you can get a pint of Belhaven Best for about £2 which isn’t bad at all.

I briefly popped into the Merlin on a quiet Friday night while it was snowing. I went in at about 11:30 with about 25 people. There was literally noone else there. WE all got a drink and they rang last orders… Now I don’t know what their licence is but that was a bit rubbish. We probably would have stayed for another one drink at least.
Anyway it’s a big and decent bar. with plenty of seating. I imagine it’s a great place for morningsiders to hear for a post work beer and some food.
The beer selection was fairly «meh» however. In a city with 4 craft brewers IN the city, and another 10 or so very close by, not having anything more interesting than some rubbishy english ales is a bit of a let down.
Perhaps next time it’ll be a more enjoyable experience… I had guiness.

Nice Pub for a quiet Drink,

Oy Vey.
So, we were hungover. Damn hungover. We met outside an alternative venue looking a bit worse for wear, some of us still had faint whisker marks from the previous days festivities (not me). Then we realised no one had made the reservation, X thought Y had done it, Y thought Z had done it and Sara barely knew where her feet were so get off my back!
So we trudged to the only place that would have room on a Sunday afternoon.
On entering, I figured we’d made a good choice. It looks like a pub, but one that’s trying to try. As my friend said loudly, to the evil stares of some of the locals ‘Is this a middle-​class Wetherspoons?’ (we try not to take her out too often).We sat down and had a read through the decent menu, ordered coffees and settled in… because we were there a whiiiiillllee.
In anticipation of a 6 person order taking a while, my friend ordered some soup with the round of burgers. He also ordered a salad because he has a metabolism I am ridiculously jealous of. They brought all three courses at the same time and after a 30 minute wait. We were starved. The food itself was alright. A few hours later and I can still taste it so I’m not too pleased to be honest.
Then the ‘Waltz of the bill’ began. First off, it was wrong. They had forgotten items and not given a discount for one the deals that was available on Sundays. Then there was an issue with trying to get the staff to come get the money so my friend went up to pay at the till. Then they gave us the wrong change.
As we left, following our lack lustre and frankly a bit frustrating meal, a large French family who had arrived about 45 minutes previous were just getting their drinks. I silently wished them luck for the rest of their meal.

The food is mediocre, nothing special. I understand it is meant to be pub grub but I felt my macaroni cheese had been microwaved, sat out for a bit then microwaved again to heat it up. Food seemed very pricey for the quality of it. The service was okay at the start but towards the end it just became very poor. Two waitresses came up asking if our food was okay but they looked very unhappy to ask us and was probably forced upon us to ask. Trying to pay seemed like the biggest challenge of the year so far. Our table seemed forgotten about as the staff members chatted so it took about 25 minutes to leave the place after finishing our meal which seemed ridiculous. Just wanted a meal out with my friends at least the company was good!

The most comedy value thing about The Merlin is the fact that they have a section on their menu that is 750 calories or less. Come on folks, have ¹⁄₃ of your daily calorie intake in one meal! It gives me the fear to think about the calories involved in the rest of the menu.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a calorie counter but unfortunately the 750 or less section turned me into one. Funnily, from this section I ordered a Mexican style «salad» with beef chili, cheese and sour cream, served in a deep-​fried shell. It contained about 6 leaves constituting the «salad» portion of the meal. It was tasty, but surely they could have tried a little bit harder to make the the «low calorie» dish they were advertising? On the plus side, it was a lot of tasty ingredients, just served in a smaller portion.
Getting past this, The Merlin clientele were not exactly what you would expect of Morningside (I know, how snobby am I) and contained your standard alcoholics who look at you funny when they don’t know who you are.
Certain members of the staff were nice, but we found the it very bizarre that we were asked if we wanted more drinks when we all had at least ²⁄₃ of our drinks left, but were pretty much ignored when we were sitting there with empty glasses. As a result, we decided to take our afternoon drinking to a different location.
All in all, if I had a choice, I wouldn’t return to the Merlin. There are plenty of other places to have a decent bite and a decent pint in the Bruntsfield/​Morningside area, and I’ll advocate visiting them in the future.

After moving into the Bruntsfield area, myself and my flatmates decided to pay the local bar, the Merlin a visit. And over the last year, we have been back very few times.
On the face of it the bar looks very nice, and does indeed very nice and warm inside with its booths and other seating areas. However, take away that, then the place is quite average really.
The bar serves a decent selection of drinks including some fine ales. However, the drinks are slightly on the pricey side (No wonder really due to the area). The food is quite good, with a traditional menu of sorts, a menu which you would come to expect from a normal bar. The food is tasty and the servings are generous.
However, the real problem with this pub is that it lacks character. There is a lack of people chatting, and it does get quite quiet at times. A shame really, as it could be so much better!

Very much in the same vein as a Spoons pub, The Merlin is a pub trying to be a bit classy but ends up just being filled with lads. It is one of these new fangled gastro pubs that have sprung up everywhere in the last 5 years and as such the menu is exactly what you’d expect. There are the standard fish and chips, steak pies and grills — gammon /​steaks etc and all of them are average. The food is always slightly overcooked, and you can tell they care more about avoiding potential food poisoning than actually making the food any good. The service at both tables and the bar is pretty slow, but the staff are quite friendly.
The size of the pub is both a plus and a minus. It is really roomy so you do feel you’ve got a bit of personal space, and it is well divided, with the pool tables at the back. The downside is that if you get a group of lads in here then they completely take over. The outside bit is great, and when I went it was really sunny so we could all sit outside and have a good few pints in the beer garden.
If you just want a bog standard pint and don’t harbour any great expectations from this pub then you won’t be disappointed. However if you were expecting something pretty good from the inviting look of it, then the magic doesn’t live up to its namesake.

Eugh!
This place was cold, sterile and not very nice. When I came I felt like I was walking into a 70s bingo hall, the décor is somewhat outdated, and the staff were nothing short of rude!
I ordered a gammon steak and it was tough, they forgot the egg on top and my plate was overflowing with chips.
The entire time I was there I was surrounded by drunken lads, roudy gals and drunken louts. It was a horrible experience and I don’t plan on returning!

The Merlin is and odd mash up of ponsy gastro-​pub and ultra manly local boozer.
The inside is a macabre collection of dead animals and old wall paper, but actually it keeps in line with the feeling of a hunters lodge that seems to be going on. The atmosphere is very ‘local — pub-​ish’, so once you get over the initial stare of being a newcomer, you’ll find that actually the place is very welcoming and is friendly.
Drinks wise the Merlin has a wide choice of everything myou would expect in a place like this and it is all served by very friendly staff. The food is nice, but not as good as I was expecting, which was a shame.
Traditional, but lets itself down in some areas.

The interior is very grand hunting lodge-​esque; a stags head on the wall, fancy wallpaper and gold frames hanging on the wall, it kind of feels out of place in the location.
I would say it’s more of a local pub but that makes the atmosphere much more laid back and friendlier to me. It is a gastropub serving traditional pub food like sausage and mash and fish and chips, as well as pasta options, and a few veggie options thrown in for good measure. The waiter service is good, and I enjoyed my meal, but it wasn’t anything outstanding. I had the steak pie and it was lovely, it tasted really home made and the chips were definitely not frozen. My boyfriend’s beef burger went down a storm too.
Typical, hearty pub grub in nice surroundings.

Fantastisch!
Ich liebe die Merlin. Es ist so gut, dass ich fast hier leben!
Super.

The Merlin (or Merlin Roadhouse as it is now called) is a large bar/​restaurant in Morningside. A great place to stop off for a coffee and a quick bite or to spend an evening after work. There is plenty of space for large groups and even pool tables and sports on TV to provide further distraction. The food is good and swiftly served and the staff are friendly and helpful. There are picnic tables outside for those warmer evenings (and for the smokers), and a range of styles of table from comfy sofas, bar stools with tables and dining-​style tables. Overall, the Merlin meets a wide range of tastes with subtle décor (and decent toilets!).

Nice place to chill out after work, has pool tables at rear of bar and serves good quality food which is reasonably priced, car-​park at rear which is handy but you do need to get token from bar or it will get ticketed.

This is a great place to relax and meet up with friends after work. For a bar, the food is really good and not too pricey. It is not the most central — located quite far down Morningside Road, but the area is lovely and the bar itself is trendy but not pretentious. Waiting staff are a mix of locals and students, but all are friendly and helpful. The quiz is well worth a go on Sunday night, but the big draw is the atmosphere. Big tv screens show sport and the atmosphere when a big game is on is fantastic — especially the with the six nations coming up — give it a go!

Good pub grub and relaxing. I hear they have ceilidhs here. We looked upstairs when we were needing a venue for something, they seemed very keen to help but it was a little dated for us.

Located on the main road in Morningside this bar is an excellent place to chill out at any time in the week. The bar is well organised where you never feel squashed with comfy chairs, booths and regular seats and a well staffed bar. The prices of drinks are average for Edinburgh. The music is nice to listen to in the background but does not intrude upon your conversation,
The bar has a pub quiz on a Sunday which is a good laugh. This is the perfect place for those that want to forget about work for a bit and just have a good time.