A Sunday in December is the traditional time for folks to blitz the shops for required Christmas gifts. I was a little ahead of the game this year, so had time to get back to my routine of a long walk to work up a Sunday lunchtime appetite, with only a few little stop offs, including one at Cranachan & Crowdie.

Exterior sign

I decided to lunch at Holyrood 9A, a pub with a tall reputation for fine burgers. The last time I tried a place that fitted that description was The Cambridge Bar, which proved to be rather disappointing. Holyrood 9A made a much better fist of things.

The setting is a dimly lit pub, in the traditional style. The outer section has some very elegant cornice work, but they make little of it.

Lunch items

Their selection of burgers is impressive, across a range of styles, toppings, and meats. I settled upon their “pioneer” burger, which matched beefy goodness with wild mushrooms, rosemary, bacon cheese, and garlic mayo. To accompany this, I got all festive with a glass of their mulled cider.

I wasn’t too impressed with the cider. It had too strongly a medicinal character to it, and lacked jaunty festive character.

The burger soon arrived to rescue things. Neatly presented on a wooden chopping board, the bun was bulging with tempting looking items, with the glistening burger patty the star of the show. It was just about manageable by the biting method, so I went with that.

Extreme burger close-up

The burger proved just moist enough, and good flavour came from the other elements making this a satisfying experience. It was easy to see why people value this as a good burger place, as it was comfortably ahead of the other pub burgers I’ve tasted.

So overall, I enjoyed the burger at Holyrood 9A. I’d happily order what I had again, and I’d recommend people to visit this place, next time the burger mood strikes.

Scores
Blythe scores Holyrood 9A
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
3.5/5 for service
3/5 for setting
giving an overall 14/20

Today’s quester was: Blythe

I ate: “pioneer” burger (rosemary, wild mushroom, bacon, cheese, garlic mayo); string fries

I drank: mulled cider

I wore: blue jumper

Total bill: c.£12