Our Beer Man spoke about his great love of Cloisters in last year’s Guide to Edinburgh, rating it in his top 5 places in the city. We had a pint or two before a beer team night out, a couple of months back and I was every bit as impressed as he was. I made a note to visit to try their food, which prominently features burgers and seafood.

It’s a really lovely tranditional pub setting, part of the cloisters of an adjoining church, as the name suggests. Seating in adapted pews continues the ecclesiastical theme.

At lunchtime, which is when I was visiting, their classic, cheese and veggie burgers are £6.50 which sounded like a pretty good deal to me. For the sake of completeness, I added some deep fried squid to represent the seafood side of the menu.

Dishes arrived together and looked impressively plentiful. I started with the squid, which looked a little peely-wally but proved to be brightly flavoured and accurately cooked. And there was a lot of it. I was very pleased.

The burger, with beef ground by local butcher John Saunderson from Borders chuck steak, maintained the high standard. It packed good beefy notes, had a nicely soft texture. It was accompanied by good melt and crunch in a brioche bun.

The accompanying chips were excellent and the slaw packed a good sulphurous kick.

So overall, I was highly impressed with the food at Cloisters. I was served two high quality dishes, with the burger in particular representing very good value. I’d be happy to return again and would recommend you to do likewise.

Scores
Blythe scores Cloisters
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
4/5 for setting
4/5 for service
giving an overall 15.5/20

I ate: deep fried squid with coriander, lime and seasalt; cheeseburger, fries and slaw

I drank: sparkly water

I wore: new pinstripes

Total bill: £14.40