In Search of the Perfect Fish and Chips - The Gold Sea

THE GOLD SEA, FERRY ROAD
With the aid of Google maps and some strong recommendations from a friend, me and David arrived in Princes St and embarked on a near 40 minute walk to the Gold Sea chippy at the far end of Ferry Road. The shop is huge although doesn't utilise it as well as it could ( nowhere to sit inside).

Our fish suppers were served quickly by a grim faced counter assistant and we sat on a nearby wall to eat. There's nothing worse than being extremely hungry and tucking into a meal you cant actually finish because of the disappointment in quality. The fish batter was tasteless and almost non existent as well as being over oiled. The haddock itself was decent but you don't want to have to pick away at a meal to enjoy it. And the chips? They were a mixed bag and seemed to get worse the nearer I got to the end, eventually giving the last of them to a hungry seagull who was lurking with intent nearby.
With an edgy atmosphere in the area and several drunk youths patrolling around, we were quite happy to see the back of this one.

5/10

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - The Gold Sea

The Gold Sea - Ferry Road

Price: £7.10 (Supper)
After a 40 minute nerve wracking walk through the back end of Leith, we finally arrived at our target.  The front of the shop was huge, although the inside does not utilise it fully.  They could have seats inside.

We were served by a straight to the point lady, who had no banter whatsoever.  She was very helpful though and offered us some forks for our meal.  Due to the lack of seating, we perched on a nearby wall next to the recently hit Scotbet shop.  To summarise the news article, a man walked into the shop, handed the man behind the counter a note stating "“Be quiet, fill this bag with money or I’ll shoot you in the face. Chop, Chop".  The gentleman then pointed a handgun at the shop keepers chest.  Our gallant shop keeper responded by tearing up the note and instructing the gentleman to shoot him in the arm to get some compensation.  Such was the the atmosphere in the area.

Back to my meal, I tucked in but was largely unimpressed.  The fish was the size of a baby shark, however was quite tasteless and oily.  The chips were a decent standard but did not compare to our gold standard of L'Alba Dora.  I spent a good 20 minutes picking away at my meal while Ryan didn't enjoy his enough and fed some of it to the seagulls that were circling.

While we were eating, there seemed to be some hilarity with a group of youths just across the road from us.  Fortunately when we went back to get our pudding, they had left.  The pudding was a Deep Fried Mars Bar - my first and an experience I found better than sex!

This was a mixed bag for me, what with being on edge and having my first Deep Fried Mars Bar.    Overall I don't think I will be in a hurry to go back.

On average:
5/10

In Search of the Perfect Fish and Chips - Cafe Piccante

CAFE PICCANTE, BROUGHTON STREET

The pretty counter girl had a strong foreign accent but I was pretty sure I'd heard her right. Yes, it really was £8.70 for a fish supper and a can of Irn Bru, by far the most expensive in Edinburgh so far. Convinced that the price was simply to reflect unbelievable quality, I perched down on the comfortable seating and tucked in.

Picante is quite unlike most chippys you will find in the Edinburgh area. It has an almost nightclub feel to it, with neon lit walls and a booming techno soundtrack. A plasma telly sits on the far wall, a subtitled movie playing on this particular evening. Its an experience for sure but this is unfortunately where the good points end.

The fish was soft and rubbery and most unpleasant, while only around half the chips were up to scratch. I was extremely hungover at the time of ordering and instead of the cure I was hoping for, I was actually feeling worse after it. I proceeded to try a (delicious) deep fried mars bar for the first time but at £2.90, it was, again, wildly overpriced.

Overall, a good experience to be had and the staff are very friendly. Location wise, it is perfect and will inevitably have a lot of business but the food needs to be improved if they are to truly flourish.

5.5/10

Ryan's Pub Reviews - The Halfway House

THE HALFWAY HOUSE, FLESHMARKET CLOSE
Pint of Lager - £3.60


Tucked halfway (ironically) down a side street connecting Market Street and the Royal Mile, this place could be identified as part of my inspiration for the entire pub crawl journey. After a visit back in 2012, I spotted an Edinburgh and Lothians pub crawl poster on the wall and thought it might be fun to try one day. Said poster is still on the wall today although at £4.70 to purchase, I settled for a cheeky snapshot instead. Inside, the Halfway House is small, really small and even on this dreich afternoon, with around 20 patrons present it did feel a tad cramped. Its cosy though, a living room type atmosphere with comfortable seating and a small television. Everyone seemed friendly and courteous and around half were tourists. I struck up a conversation with the elderly barman and although mildly eccentric, he seemed genuinely enthusiastic about what I was doing and gave me the usual glowing recommendations and 'stay the fuck away from that place' warnings. He got it bang on though when he glanced at my Tennents and said "Why do you drink that shite for?" It certainly wasn't the best pint I'd ever had. A nice place overall then, but the claustrophobic and those looking for private chat may want to venture elsewhere.


7.5/10

Ryan's Pub Reviews - The Westroom

THE WESTROOM, MELVILLE PLACE
Pint of Lager - £4.20
One of the fun things about doing a pub tour round Edinburgh is exploring places you've never been to and finding places you've never heard of. The Westroom was completely unknown to me but although expensive and fairly upmarket, was a pleasant experience.

Billing itself as a cafe-bar, the interior is t-shaped, with a very long bar and two person booths opposite. Further seating is found to the left and a staircase on the other side leads down to the toilets. As mentioned before, the place is pricey and has more of a 'couples' feel to it, the kind of place you'd want to go to impress your girlfriend on a first date. The lager was very sweet, not the usual acquired taste I'm used to but something different and still very enjoyable.

Feeling peckish, I sampled some of the nuts ( shoosh guys), although at nearly 3 quid and coming in a small dish, this was a far cry from the wee packet of KP's you'll find in your local boozer. Can't have too many complaints about this place overall, pop in for a drink if your passing but if your planning to staying a while, it's gonna cost you.

7/10

Ryan's Pub Reviews - The Conan Doyle

THE CONAN DOYLE, YORK PLACE

Pint of Lager - £3.65
Had previously visited the Conan Doyle once before, way back in 2010 and thought a return was long overdue. Can honestly say apart from a lick of paint (black looks better than green) and the removal of the games machine, not a lot has changed. Not that this is any bad thing.

The inside is split over two levels with the lower mainly for those wishing to indulge in traditional pub grub. Sharing a name with the famous Sherlock Holmes author, its no mystery to see why this is a popular place for tourists, many of whom were American and watching the golf on this particular evening. The interior is historical and well decorated, with portraits of ACD himself alongside many other photo frames and a large built in bookcase. Although the service was a bit slow, it was worth the wait and I enjoyed a fine lager, the first on my return from sunny Portugal.

Entertainment wise however, there doesn't seem to be too much going on here, no pub quizzes or karaokes mentioned and indeed the removal of the games machine means its pretty much a case of chat and/or eat.

A good place to go for a pint or two at the start of a night but I don't reckon its somewhere you'd stay for too long.

7.5/10

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - Deep Sea

Deep Sea - Intigua Street
Price: £6.00 (Supper)
I decided to catch up with my brothers after their trip to Portugal and we went to this well known shop at the top of Leith Walk.  This sits near the Playhouse and all of the clubs at the top of Leith Walk so is very popular on nights out for the young and old alike.  As such the staff were quite good banter.  It is very well presented and from their Facebook page, they make a lot of effort around Christmas and Easter.  They also do charity collections which is very good of them.

My food was served very quickly and we went to the garden just down the road near the police station to enjoy our food.  Unfortunately this was not as enjoyable as the exchange in the shop.  The fish was mainly made up of batter.  It was crispy but I spent 5 minutes trying to find the fish inside the batter shell.  The chips were very very chunky and meaty.  I am not a fan of chips that taste heavily of potato.

This place would be enjoyable to visit after a night out which explains it's popularity, however I would not go there if I wasn't on a night out.

On average:
4/10

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - La Campagnola

La Campagnola - Drumsheugh Gardens
Price: £6.70 (Supper)
I have passed this a number of times on a rather pleasant walk from work along the Water of Leith.  I had a spare hour to kill while I was meeting a friend so decided to go and eat.  It looked like a nice shop from the outside.

The interior is well presented and there is a comfortable American diner style eating arrangement.

My food was served instantly and in my experience a little too quickly for this to be a good meal, but the lady who served me was friendly enough.

I sat down in this luxurious American style cafe and after 5 minutes, the lady who had served me informed me that I shouldn't be sitting there because it costs more to sit in.  I was a little surprised because that wasn't on the menu.  She seemed genuinely upset when I got up to leave as I wanted to sit outside and finish my meal in somewhere I was welcome!  The only saving grace of this place was the beautiful surroundings on the Water of Leith!

As I had suspected by being served so quickly, the fish was quite rubbery and oily.  The chips were again a disappointment as many of them were burnt.  Perhaps if they had spent a little less time worrying about who was sitting in their cafe without paying and more time concentrating on cooking a good dinner they would have more custom as I only saw 1 other person visiting the place!

On average:
5/10

A pig in a poke: Work Related Stress 5

After meeting with the trade union rep, he sent me some material that he thought would be helpful. Looking through it now, I wish I had taken more note. The leaflets were :

• Appealing against performance appraisal
• Harassment and bullying
• Work-related stress

I used one of the notes and wrote a counter statement on my appraisal.  I asked for a written list of my responsibilities.  I also state that experience of working does not equate to experience of managing projects.  I would like training in this.  It's surprising how noone reads these things.

I got signed up to one of the tougher projects I have been involved in. Communication was a real issue on this project. The first thing I did was change that. There were still a few blips. Most notably being told I had achieved nothing at the end of an afternoon of crisis. I was so motivated I got up and walked out. Glen Livet was my drink of choice that night, kindly given by the customer in appreciation of our good work. The next day I improved the atmosphere in the team and decided to take a stance as team leader.

In my next "Improvement Plan" meeting, I was given a little more notice so was able to organise the rep from the union,  much to everyone's surprise. It made very little difference however as the outcome had been decided at a meeting just before this with HR which you aren't invited to. Each point in the plan is gone through. Overall you are gradually improving:

• Speed - I successfully delivered two projects and impressed the customer.  To read the book that was suggested, I could stay behind after hours unpaid and read it in the meeting room.
• Accuracy - I had put together testing plans before starting out which worked very well.  Only one issue with a project delivery and this is unacceptable.  
• Colleague Communication - I found it difficult to tell a colleague that I was busy and they would often come over for a chat about the project I was on.  I needed to get better at saying I was busy.
• Customer Communication - I got much better at keeping the customer informed, although there were a few instances where I should have said I was going to come back to them later.
• Problem Ownership - I had successfully delivered a few projects since the last meeting and taken charge of them.

Overall this seemed OK.  My union rep asked if there was any set procedures for delivering projects.  No was the reply.  There are too many procedures already and having procedures would slow things down.

I was progressing!

A quest to find the perfect Fish and Chips - Dino's Takeaway

Dino's Takeaway, Haddington
Price: £6 (Supper)
My intended night of sitting playing Attila Total War was called off before it began with a request from a friend to go and do a review of a takeaway in East Lothian.  We were initially unsure where to go and ended up at Dino's Takeaway in Haddington.

A warm and pleasantly decorated shop with a large assortment of goods on offer.  The staff seemed to be having fun this evening.  I even had a joke with the person serving me who tried to charge me twice by accident.  The food was served instantly, so had clearly been sitting there for a while.

After a short drive to Aberlady to eat our fish with a view (the place we were going to go had been taken over by what appeared to be travellers).  Unfortunately my fish tasted like a litre of oil had been poured over it and it had been sitting there for an hour.  The chips aside from being unnaturally long, tasted like they had heated the oil on the sun.

I have been reliably informed that this chip shop serves much better pizzas than fish and chips.  If you are in Haddington, I wouldn't recommend the fish and chips, but go for a pizza instead.

On a side note, I am changing the methodology of the reviews and going to rate/track each part of the review in a spreadsheet.

On average:
4/10

In Search of the Perfect Fish and Chips - Dino's Takeaway

DINO'S TAKE AWAY, HIGH ST, HADDINGTON
Decided to come to this place on the recommendation of a friend, calling it the best fish and chips he's ever had. Only later did we find out he hadn't actually been here for nearly 12 years. Don't worry, I wont name any names ( David Penman ) However, undeterred, we arrived with cautious optimism.

The shop interior is impressive and welcoming, the staff banterful and friendly. Indeed, nothing was too much for them. Now, unfortunately here's where the good stuff ends.

The chips were among the worst I've had so far, soft and soggy to the point that they were actually breaking in your hand. Truly awful stuff and the (massive ) fish was no better, tasting like rubber and the batter far too hard. When your genuinely starving and put over half your meal in the bin, that's when you know a place has problems.

Indeed, the service was the only thing that saved it from a zero.
3/10