The Edinburgh Blog

The Cramond Inn has a great location in the idyllic Cramond village, which is within easy cycle or drive of Edinburgh city centre. With the Firth of Forth, Cramond Island and a cycle track on its doorstep the Cramond Inn’s location is without fault. The interior, despite a few signs of wear and tear, is welcoming and traditional. Great value and great tasting Samuel Smith’s beer on draught, make the Cramond Inn a very good pub for drink. So where’s the problem?! Well, the service on our visit wasn’t as friendly as you’d expect from a village pub like the Cramond Inn. Though the service is tolerable, the pub food of the Cramond Inn was less so. Despite the romantic images of cosy pub food the Cramond Inn conjured in my mind, the reality was fairly poor pub food at prices which demand far higher standards.

The A4 menu of the Cramond Inn has all the usual suspects such as steak pie, scampi and chips, haddock and chips, bangers and mash. We visited the Cramond Inn on a Monday afternoon, after a stroll across the water to Cramond Island. Food is ordered at the bar and it wasn’t long before my initial choice of steak and ale pie (£8.95) had to be changed, due to it “not being ready”. After a quick perusal of the menu I settled on home made lasagne and chips (£8.50). My dining partner chose a starter of home made fishcakes (£4.95) and a small main course of haggis, neeps and tatties (£6). The full sized haggis portion costs £8.95, but usefully the Cramond Inn offer a smaller portion (on other dishes as well) for £2.95 less.

Soon the food was delivered to our table. The fishcakes contained far too much potato, but more worryingly they tasted like something out of an Indian takeaway. This wasn’t a taste the menu advertised and certainly wasn’t welcome. The haggis, neeps and tatties were submerged in a ‘whiskey and spring onion’ sauce. This dish tasted better than it looked, but it certainly won’t be enough to get the Cramond Inn on any culinary map. My lasagne was so tasteless it’s impossible to describe. However there was no mistaking its gooey consistency. The chips were decent, but a whole pack of chewing gum later all I could taste was the plentiful red onion from the side salad.

On a previous visit to the Cramond Inn we tried their homemade banoffee pie (£3.95), which was decent. Unfortunately this gave me unwarranted confidence in the Cramond Inn’s other food offerings. The great location, great draught beers and generally good village pub feel made the Cramond Inn’s food all the more disappointing.

A visit to Cramond should be essential for all residents of Edinburgh. When there, by all means enjoy a few drinks at the Cramond Inn. I particularly enjoyed the Sam Smith’s Pure Brewed lager at £2.52 a pint. Based on our experience the food, unfortunately, isn’t worth the added expense. High quality service and the friendly factor also seemed sadly lacking.

The Cramond Inn is located at Cramond Village Edinburgh EH4 6NU.
Telephone: 0131 336 2035