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