All Bar One

Not my usual style of haunt for a Saturday night, however plan A was rammed and was a friends call on location.
First the venue itself, nice interior (love some of the interesting lighting), not bad atmosphere, tho pick your seating location with care, especially if there during the winter, heating in one place and aircon in another! Have to admit the venue itself is what brings this up to a 2*.
Wasn’t as busy as had expected considering it was the weekend, yet table service was shocking, ignored by staff even when waved at, and when did finally come over seemed confused/​inexperienced when placing an order for a single simple item on the menu, the nachos.
Food arrived in reasonable time, however I think the kitchen needs to be shown what a nacho is, huge, puffed up deep fried things rather than what I’d call nachos. To their credit when they did miss an item off the plate it was fixed immediately.
Drink selection, usual mainstream chain pickings, focused on the expensive wine end of the spectrum, which I expected, but would be nice to have at least a standard ale to hand. Next time when its my turn to pick it’ll be red squirrel, the beer kitchen or hanging bat over the road when it comes to beer.
Finally the price, got what I expected, £2.50 for a ‘from the carton’ fruit juice, and same for a half a standard larger.
In summary, starting the night before a show or ‘night on the town’ sure this would suffice, meeting a friend for a catchup over a drink, best look elsewhere.

I was here for work drinks on a Monday night. There was a reserved table for 15 of us and it was pretty quiet in the bar other than us so I was amazed how long it took to get our drinks order, at least 20 minutes if not more. I’m just glad that the gin and tonic with coriander was worth the wait.
The place was nice and clean and I watched the other bar staff dusting and keeping busy which is nice to see.

This is the type of bar that some parts of Edinburgh became unfortunately known for in the past. Pretentious and stuck up where the guys behind the bar serve the most attractive and friends first. Only go here if there are other bars shut

Not generally a fan of chain pubs — this one pub won me over with a great location, excellent staff and by having at least 2 decent beers! (sierra nevada and schiehallion)
In general this is a bright open space populated by people who are mostly lawyers or bankers (in a good way)
In general I think this is a good thing — the clientel seem pretty decent and it’s not too busy or too quiet.
I’ve not tried the food though so will have to do that.
Not much to say but I will be back here.

Meh.
I’m not difficult to please when it comes to beer and a burger and I’m fairly positive about the George street branch, though I’ve never eaten there, but I probably won’t be going back to this place if I can help it.
It’s not *so* expensive (£9.50 for a burger) but for what you get I wouldn’t pay it again.
We were hassled by the waiting staff quite a bit, which I wasn’t fond of, particularly as we had made it clear we just wanted food and not to be bothered.
We just ate and left, there’s no atmosphere in the place and the staff are overly attentive yet distant and cold.
A definite ‘meh’ from me. Especially with The Red Squirrel just over the road, it’s just not worth your time or money.

I hesitate to give any All Bar One a four star review because, prior to last week, I felt that the chain was irredeemable. But then, prior to last week, I had only visited the ABO on George St and grew very tired very quickly of stuck up wait service with mediocre food.
Well, I can’t comment on this ABO’s food, but I am very happy to report that, based on the other reviews, these guys appear to have cleaned up their act (or at least, I got a good night).
On a dark and stormy JUNE evening, ABO was the closest bar to where I’d been working that day, and a few of us were definitely in need of a drink. Having heard so many dire reports about this place I figured I would appreciate it for the beer I would have and my appreciation would end there. So, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that a) this place is well furnished and has a corporate, yet clean and friendly vibe to it, and b) there were tables for my group to sit and rest our weary legs.
The bartenders were friendly and efficient, and the selection of beers on tap was pretty decent. Nothing too unusual, but definitely more than the standard Tennants/​Deuchars fare.
As I said, I can’t comment on the quality of the food but the menu looked nice and the waiter who helped my colleagues order (and based on what they were ordering, gave them a deal), was very helpful and friendly. I wouldn’t expect to be blown away by the food here but at the end of the day you don’t really come here expecting a culinary masterpiece, just something tasty and maybe a bit stodgy to line your belly and allow for one or two extra pints.
So, all in all a much more positive experience than I was expecting and certainly one I wouldn’t mind repeating.

I’ve been to All Bar One on the square off Lothian Rd a few times now and I’m afraid to say I leave each time disappointed.
Overpriced food a little to cute for it’s own good (today I had crispy duck salad… it should be renamed ‘bugger all duck and plenty of cabbage salad’. At £8.50, I expect more, given the local competition on Lothian Rd, of which there are plenty, would knock out a meal far superior at 60−80% of that price.
That’s me done with ABO for now, too many said experiences have me walking away with my tail between my legs… underwhelmed.

2 All Bar Ones — 1 city = 2 totally different expereinces.
They have all the same elements but the staff on Lothian Road just get it all wrong, especially the one sdoing table service

It’s true, this is part of a chain and so it’s not exactly oozing character by the bucketload. But there’s one thing that sticks out in my memory about the time I came here for lunch…
When I first came here to go to uni 4 years ago, anyone and everyone shared all their little pearls of wisdom with me. All except for the one that says, «don’t go out on the lash the night before your parents are coming up and you have to spend the day with them». This, I learned the hard way when my Dad was speaking at some meeting at the nearby International Conference Centre, and whilst he was doing that my hangover and I went for lunch with my mum.
Walking into this branch of All Bar One and clocking all the bottles and beer taps behind the bar was the last thing I needed, and my hangover suddenly got ten times worse. Anyway, to get back to my review, although the place was soul-​less and totally overpriced, the waiter was an absolute lifesaver in the way that he kept bringing me pint after pint of iced water. For that reason alone, I will give this place three stars. Although I was too busy concentrating on trying to make the room stop spinning to notice whether or not it was the winking waiter mentioned by Stuart, I can safely guess on the basis of how rough I was looking that it wasn’t!

Seemingly, bars such this are effected massively by the clientele. This particular All Bar One, nestled in the middle of Edinburgh’s financial district results in mostly desk job monkeys frequenting the place.
One thing I’ve learnt in my time in Edinburgh is that such clientele and students don’t mix. Thus, All Bar One is best avoided .
Drinks, food etc are all pretty standard — not that dissimilar to Wetherpoons in what it offers.

There’s one guy who works in here who thinks he gods gift to women, hes not hard to spot, he looks like a wet purse. He was dishing out the free drinks every girl at the bar, served with a nice cheeky wink.
That eye contracted so many times that night I thought he was having a stroke. It took 20 minutes to get served with girls instantly getting first priority at the bar.
Remember you’re cocktail dresses fellas if you want a drink.

Great bar for lunch, full of Scottish Widows and Standard Life staff at lunchtimes and gets full really quickly so head there before 12:30 or you will struggle to get a seat. I am not so keen on the tapas and think they should offer many of them as full sized lunch choices. Always good service BUT the menu can be limited if you do not want the tapas selections. Great wines as expected and nice bright, sunny bar.

All Bar One is a nice place to spend a few hours sharing a couple of bottles of wine with friends. They serve «World Tapas», which is small dishes of different kinds of food from around the world, it is lovely, especially the chicken satay!
It’s a nice big, airy pub and always seems to be busy. It’s one of those gorgeous Georgian buildings with the huge high ceilings and lovely décor.
The only thing I would say against it is that it sometimes lacks a little bit of atmosphere, I honestly don’t know why. It has all the things a good pub should; friendly staff, good food, great selection of drinks…

This is really popular drinking spot for locals after work as it is right in the heart of the financial district. That aside, the bar is well stocked (they have three different types of gin to choose from), the atmosphere is quite cosmopolitan and the menu has some great ‘sharing plates’. It can be a real sun trap on a summer’s evening out if you get one of the tables outside…