Something new for all the Quest fans – 2 reviews at the same time, with Claire Bear and her brood in Edinburgh hitting A Room in Leith, with Darren, Francoise, Roland and Vera with Bethany, and newcomers Alice, and Mattieu going to the Electricity Showroom in Hoxton Square.
The venue for the Scottish part of the quest was a little place in Edinburgh called ‘A Room in Leith’, it’s the sister restaurant to ‘A Room in the Town’ and ‘A Room in the West End’ in the city centre. It’s at the back of a small pub called ‘Teuchters Landing’ at the end of a traditional cobbled street in the shore area of town (which is basically just Leith to us Edinburgers).
Interesting fact #1: the pub is so named as its built on the site where the Edinburgh to Aberdeen ferry departed from and came into (Aberdonians are affectinately termed ‘Teuchters’ )
Scottish questors : CJ, Claire, Deano (technically English but living in Edinburgh), Gareth, Fiona, Rob, Steve, Jacqui, Carrie and Scott.
What others are saying
Disclaimer. The views hereafter are not representative of the Quest for a Sunday Roast or any member of the Quest team
THE ELECTRICITY SHOWROOM
“Thumbs up – The Superman style revolving door. The Bugsy Malone style bar stools. The Chicago style dressing room lamps. Thumbs down – The bar smells a bit like a university student union. The staff look like they are still students. The frying oily smell get into everything. However £5.50 will buy you a rather tasty large glass of house red or white, so I had two reds. Which as you would imagine, I rather liked.” http://www.yelp.co.uk “Went just for a Sunday afternoon drink and you can’t beat a revolving door to the entrance! Nice old-man pub meets hipster feel with green walls and movie start lights. Staff are really friendly and the people watching from the seats by the window is great.” http://www.yelp.co.uk “Went just for a Sunday afternoon drink and you can’t beat a revolving door to the entrance! Nice old-man pub meets hipster feel with green walls and movie start lights. Staff are really friendly and the people watching from the seats by the window is great.” http://www.qype.co.uk “I was used to go to this place for drinks but never had food there. Decided to go for a sunday lunch and give it a go. The sunday roast my partner had was amazing! We couldn’t believe the size of the plate when it arrived. He managed to finish it all. It was full of veggies, gravy, massive yorkshire pudding and the beef was apparently really nice. I myself had a veggie main, butternut squash/spinash dish with cheesy sauce which was also delicious. At first it didn’t look like there was much on the plate but it was actually plenty!! Not too pricey either, £12 for the roast and £9 for mine. I’ll definitely go back.” http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk “Worst Sunday dinner ever! Terrible food, and I mean really really terrible.The food was eclipsed only by the service which was unbelievably awful and terrible. The staff are gormless hipsters who have no concept of customer service or even basic communication skills. The first time I went there is was pretty poor but out of fairness I tried the place again. Sadly it was 100% worse.” http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk
A ROOM IN LEITH
“I went to Teuchters Landing yesterday for lunch and had the most lovely lunch. In typical Sunday hangover style we were looking for some comforting pub grub to hit the spot and stumbled across this place. Their mug menu is absolutly brilliant! We both went for the Isle of Mull Mac’n'Cheese which came in lovely mugs and were great! Our eyes were slightly bigger than our tummys though and probably should have gone for the smaller mugs, especially as we shared a mug of chips as well. It is the perfect place to go if you have been for a nice walk and looking for somewhere to warm up – the comfy sofas are perfect so spend the rest of the day reading the papers!” http://www.edinburghmenus.co.uk “Good food but far too noisy for a Sunday afternoon meal.Their was a large party which should have had the restaurant to themselves other diners couldn’t here themselves think very disappointing management should review when to let other diners share with large parties. Food was good but enjoyment was nil.” http://www.5pm.co.uk “Iv’e just had another fantastic meal in a room in leith. second perfect meal in two weeks here. starter of crayfish unfussy but so tasty. catch of the day tonight was plaice on rissoto. WOW. ate the lot. sancerre tasted like sancerre. worth every penny. staff worth every penny. can not recomend this place enough.” http://www.urbanspoon.com
INITIAL THOUGHTS
THE ELECTRICITY SHOWROOMS
Nice and quiet old London bar, with very eclectic decor. Garish pink ceiling. Green walls. Classic paintings and photographs in great frames turned steam punk and occult with additions.
Interesting Fact #2: The Electricity Showrooms were actually that, the showrooms where Londoners could come at the beginning of the 20th century to see the new elastric trickery in action, and hopefully convince the candle burning Luddites to embrace the light bulb.
There are remnants of its previous incarnation around too, including great stained glass of light bulbs on the way downstairs to the adequately clean toilets.
Beer was okay too. Staples such as Kronie, Fosters and the like are joined by Darren’s favourite Brooklyn lager, Erdinger, Paulaner, and Camden Ink, so dark it absorbs light.
A concern from the off was that the menu was very, very limited menu. Only 1 dessert, no appetisers. This is clearly the menu of a pub that has added food as an after thought, and Alice was worried that this was a proper pub not a gastro pub. She needn’t have worried. This was a nice space, relaxed staff, not overly oppressive music.
We also made use of our Taste of London cards, giving the table 50% off the food bill. No matter how good or bad it was £6.25 for a roast beef Sunday lunch cannot be argued with. We highly recommend getting one. In the city that costs, it will save you a fortune when eating out.
A ROOM IN LEITH
It was a lovely sunny day in Leith which always helps, and you walk into the bar area which feels warm and very welcoming if a little compact. There is a huge chalkboard with wines and another equally large one with all their whisky’s . They serve brew dog IPA on tap and the bar staff are very friendly (remembering a couple of our party from the night before) the guys felt the need to pre-sample the bar on Saturday night!
Toilets were a bit of a trek to get to for the ladies through to the restaurant, past the kitchen and up the stairs, but they were clean had nice hand wash and hand cream and whilst there was no airblade, we had the next best thing, an excelerator, which does the same job but looks like a traditional hand dryer. In the gents there was wallpaper with things you could read, just in case they got bored!
to get to the restaurant area you walk through a really small middle area packed with people (there were lots of “sorrys” requred as we bashed our way through the packed tables) and a proper log burning stove keeping everyone toasty, through to the back of the building where a bright conservatory has been built. The atmosphere was great with a birthday group having lots of fun! It was very warm though, a couple of the guys were melting in their seats! We asked for windows to be opened, which they were but it still felt like we were being roasted. The menu was pretty good and prices equally good (set menu 2courses for £13.95) although you could pick from the other items too. We had a variety of people having starters and mains, and mains and desserts and everyone was happy with the choices available.
THE MENUS
http://www.electricityshowrooms.com/assets/ElectricityShowroomsMenu.pdf
http://www.aroomin.co.uk/a-room-in-leith-lunch-menu/
THE FOOD
Appetisers
(From left to right)
A ROOM IN LEITH – Venison Salad – Gareth, Carrie, Rob, grilled sea bass – Scott, Oysters – Deano
Mains
ELECTRICITY SHOWROOMS
Fish and chips – Vera, Roast Beef – everyone else
A ROOM IN LEITH
Fish and chips – Claire, Fiona, Deano, Blade of beef – CJ, Steve, Gareth, Carrie, Scott, salmon – Rob, Chicken Supreme – Jacqui
Dessert
(From left to right)
A ROOM IN LEITH
Banoffee pie – Steve, Fiona, rhubarb and custard crumble – Jacqui, CJ, Cheese board – Carrie, Scott
Thoughts and Observations (Collective and Individual)
ELECTRICITY SHOWROOMS
- I always like this place but it’s always cold. – Matthieu. Apparently sitting on the bench seating at the window is the best thing to do in the Winter as the radiators are underneath. In a chilly May, though, they are also not on.
- Only two came rare when four were ordered.
- Not enough cutlery.
- Not enough gravy.
- No service after delivery of food.
- Cabbage very salty. – Darren
- Weird yorkshire – mine was undercooked, Alice and Francoise were burned. – Darren
- Mines fine – I am upset that not everyone that ordered rare got rare. I am glad I won the lottery and got what I ordered. – Alice
- It’s considering it cost £6 – it is amazing. If it was £12 I would be worrying where all the veg was. – Franc
- Clean and well maintained loos. – Darren
- Potatoes were ok. I don’t know if they were under done, over done. But that would have been ok of there was more veg. -Franc
- Ladies bathroom grossly lacking I toilet paper – Franc
- A few positives – it is definitely trendy – Matthieu
- I like the environment but I am not too fond of the food. – Roland, rocking a Cock Grease hair gel t-shirt that raised a chuckle.
- The meat tasted like it could have been cooked days ago. – Roland
- You don’t come here for the food, you come here for the atmosphere – Matthieu. Although the food is the reason we were there.
- Sunday lunch is a family thing, this place is ideal, they happily let Bethany run around without complaining at all. – Franc
- Service was fine but it was there was no table service. – Franc
- Fish was surprisingly good but mostly bones – Vera. Portion was big though.
- Asked for dessert – after a delay. We were told they would not do any as it was frozen!!! WTF?
- The conclusion – this is a cool bar to hang out in and not eat in.
- They only serve food to support your drinking. – Franc
- Very much like my local, The Slaughtered Lamb. I love to drink there but would never eat there. – Darren
- The birthday group donated some cake to our table as we had sung happy birthday to them, it was delicious
when the mains came out there was a respectful silence as it al looked so good.
Free cake!
- Steve – Mash potatoes are awesome!
- Carrie – I didn’t see any endve in that salad, just that frizzy stuff that gets stuck in your teeth
- Claire – it is GOOD fish n chips here
- Rob -those peas have been microwaved, not the best
Bad Peas!
- Carrie- not enough gravy
- Fiona -grumpy waitress was not happy that I wasn’t ready to order my dessert.
- CJ – nomnomnom that dessert looks bloody awesome.
- Steve – banoffee pie is tasty but it’s just a halfed banana they could have chopped it a bit, it keeps trying to escape!
- Carrie – not enough cheese on this board
- Jacqui – crumble is a bit sloppy for my liking
- Claire – got a right look from the waitress there for just trying to get her attention!
SCORES
THE ELECTRICITY SHOWROOMS
A ROOM IN LEITH
AFTERWORD
ELECTRICITY SHOWROOMS
When I decided to write the summary, Matthieu asked me not to be too harsh on the pub, after all, it is one of his locals, and to be honest I am not going to be. The problem with the Electricity Showrooms is simple – they just shouldn’t do food. It is a great space, nice polite bar staff, music at an unoffensive volume, but the food was just terrible. What there was of it was bone filled (fish), or salty (cabbage), or tough (beef), or non-existent (horseradish, peas), or inadequate (gravy). This is a bar to hang out and drink, or read, with the light streaming in from the large windows. It is a bar to drink in, that sells food to perpetuate the drinking. When you offer a dessert but they are frozen, that underlines the fact you shouldn’t be serving food at all. I would give it a solid thumbs down on the food, but a solid thumbs up for the rest (excluding lack of toilet paper in the ladies, which is just unacceptable – I know all the staff on were guys, but Jesus!).
A ROOM IN LEITH
Generally, everyone had a great meal and enjoyed being there, with lots of people saying that they would def go back. the service was pretty good (despite the couple of comments above) and we all came away feeling stuffed and happy. Afterward a few of us headed to a local bar where we watched a great band (the Jammy Devils) and partied the night away, a great Edinburgh Quest experience!
Fair review!