Elbow Bar and Kitchen

Tucked away on a corner of East Claremont Street sits this cute little oddity. Peopled with cheery staff, furnished with smooth conker-​red leather benches and containing a shelf laden with teetering piles of board games, Elbow is the kind of place I’d like to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon after a long walk. There’s even an old 2-​player arcade game set into a coffee table and surrounded by beanbags. Hooray!
We arrived for dinner at around six and were instantly greeted by a perky chap who took our drinks orders and supplied us, somewhat apologetically, with a menu scribbled out on a piece of A4. That might sound a bit rubbish, but the reason was that they were just in the process of switching to the winter menu, so actually we had the excited feeling of previewing something new.
I started with the soup of the day — broccoli and cauliflower — which came served in a wonderful tubby pot with a lid to keep it hot and steaming. The bread that came with it (and — hallelujah! — sufficient butter!) was perfection: great hefty chunks toasted to a list crisp on the outside but still warm and fluffy within. The soup was perfect. I normally end up chucking tons of extra salt into things but this was spot on.
Next up was the «catch of the day» with chips fried in duck fat. We never did get round to asking what kind of fish it was, but it was slightly pungent, meaty in texture and — as we had been warned — enormous! It could have benefitted from a bit of lemon juice but it was otherwise really good. The chips were super-​chunky and very solid, so I was totally full by about two thirds of the way through! I’m starting to think I’m losing my touch…
The music was slightly louder than I might have liked, and I’m not a fan of televisions in pubs either, but I’m not going to complain too much when for both courses (and the soup could have been a main on its own!) and two lime and sodas, it only cost me £14.45. Overall, it’s a cosy and comfortable little spot with good hefty meals I’d happily go back to.

i’ve lived down the road from Elbow for years and yet only just made it here the other weekend with some friends to try out their sunday roast. Elbow is a cool wee bar in a sort of random location. it’s right across from a school on the cross roads of broughton road and bellevue road, so not exactly a location that gets loads of passerbys. however, with the quality of their food it seems they have no problem attracting customers!
although the intention of our visit was for sunday roast, i was tempted away from this by their burger which a previous Unilocal reviewer had said was pretty awesome. i added blue cheese to my burger and awaited it to arrive. food took awhile since we were a party of 10, but i sipped my large glass of red wine while waited and enjoyed the company. finally though, food arrived and my burger was placed in front of me. once adding some mustard i cut my burger in half and took the first bite and wow! this was probably the best burger i had ever eaten!!! it wais moist and flavourful with the blue cheese melted perfectly and mixed with the mayo and tomato relish each bite was probably even more delicious. to top it off i had a pot of skinny fries cooked to perfection to eat along with my burger, which put me into a very happy sunday food coma.
although i was starting to feel full from the burger, i was well tempted into dessert and went with their berry crumble. it came in its own little ramekin with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. this was a seriously tasty crumble, very berry tasting but not overly sweet and the vanilla ice cream was super vanilla-​y and good. perfect way to end the meal!
the only small negative i found about Elbow was that our waitress seemed a bit surly or put off by our large party. i’m not sure why as we weren’t rowdy and made sure to be polite and also there wasn’t really many other people in the bar besides us. not sure if she was just having a bad day or didn’t particularly like the look of our large group, but it would have been better if she’d had a smile on her face instead of seeming annoyed by us.
surly waitress aside, the food in Elbow is seriously good and i am definitely planning to head back here for another burger!

The nights are drawing in, and this makes me want nothing more than good food, good company; and make that comfort food! In fact make it a Sunday Roast… for 10 people please!
Turns out that Elbow do a Sunday Roast with all the trimmings for £8.95. It’s «there till its gone» as the menu states, but when I called up to book a table for «8 for the Sunday Roast» they made enough Roast for us all. It was only 5 of us that went ahead and ordered the Roast in the end but there was enough for all!
And what a Roast it was. Chicken, with gravy, potatoes, brocolli, carrots, and a yorkshire pudding. The broccoli was actually delicious as it had been cooked in garlic, as had the chicken. There were also two full breasts on my plate. So much chicken, for £8.95!
I then had the Whisky Cranachan for dessert and it was nice. The crumble looked delicious, as did the Elbow Mess.
All in all, everyone around the table was very satisfied with the Sunday Roast or Sunday lunch of some sort. Not a scrap of burger was left on the plates, or chorizo and prawn salad; and the chips were cooked in duck fat! (also all gone).
I caught a peek at the menu, and they had a pretty tasty looking brunch menu too, as well as a tempting «catch of the day served with duck fat chips».
The waitress seemed a little put out that we were there, I can’t tell why (perhaps that we didn’t all order roast?) although she had been lovely on the phone when I booked. I will be back, and I do hope we hadnt put it her off kilter in someway. We were just a hungry bunch of folk looking for a friendly Sunday Roast together. I’d highly recommend it for a great value, good feed!

Good booze in a funny little place, kitchen and welcoming — worth a visit some of the food was pretty good, and the drinks very good.

Elbow’s pretty close to my flat, so I should really make an effort to come here more often!
Outside seating is always good, until the clouds come and it gets chilly, in which case the interior of Elbow is just as nice. The largest table downstairs was reserved, but we were there for almost two hours and no-​one arrived… in fact the whole place was fairly quiet for a Saturday lunchtime. I ordered the burger with blue cheese — very nice, although yet another of those very thick burgers that you just can’t get your mouth around, and the ‘shoestring fries’ are great (I’ve had the garlicky ones before too which are also really tasty). Friend had the goats cheese tart which he tells me was tasty too.
The service is usually pretty good, although for a quiet afternoon the barmaid could have been a little more attentive, however she was the only staff member visible so probably had a lot more to do than just serve.
All in all, if you’re in the area, or live locally, then Elbow is a very solid place to go for a pint and a bite to eat.

This place served me comfortably the best Sunday roast I’ve sampled in Edinburgh, so far. A quirky little spot, which I imagine suffers slightly from being a little betwixt and between places, it really is worth seeking out, as the kitchen is serving up some really top quality fare.
Overall, we said: «I was delighted with Elbow. I’m sorry not to have discovered it before now, as I’m often asked for Sunday brunch/​lunch recommendations, and I know many people who would be as highly delighted with this place as I was, today. For sure, it goes right to the top of my list of recommendations as a great place to spend a Sunday, particularly when you’re feeling the need for a hearty roast.»

The review is for the food, as I’m still waiting for the draft ale tap to be installed (I’ve been told it’s on its way). Really tasty, interesting nosh — a bold take on ‘pub grub’ — bold in that it’s so much better.
There’s tables outside during the day and different stuff going on every evening. It’s a Fergus-​friendly place, too — so let’s hope that tap is in place soon!

Hum… what IS this place?
After an abysmal meal up town last night, I wanted a drink. Specifically, I wanted a cocktail. Treacle was rammed, so we continued down the road but deeper in to pub land where ordering anything other than beer makes you an arsehole. But then, The Man had an epiphany and said «What about that Elbow place!»
We’d been meaning to check this place out since it opened, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
When we walked in, I got more of a pub-​ey vibe and didn’t see a cocktail list anywhere, so I opted for a Jack and coke. But then I saw a board which displayed the «cocktail of the month» and said «I want that!»
The bartender was lovely and had a bit of craic with us while he made my cocktail.
The drink was nice though I’ll admit I wasn’t incredibly impressed. I like to taste the tang of alcohol in my drinks and this just tasted like juice. Nice juice, but juice nonetheless.
There was just something about this place which didn’t feel quite right, it didn’t seem to fit into any boxes. The Man said it’s not the kind of place you would come with a bloke for a beer, and I don’t feel like it’s the kind of place I would come with a girlfriend for girly drinks because of the location and the unusual atmosphere.
The décor is a bit interesting — kind of 70s trash meets space chic, it’s a little weird. The light fittings are pretty cool, though. It also has a disco ball and old movies with subtitles playing on mute.
It’s definitely not a bad place to come, but something just didn’t seem to feel right or quite comfortable. It might just not be my scene, but I prefer places with a bit more life in them and a bit less disco ball.

No marks for location, unless you leave on pretty socially-​baron street in which case you’re onto a total winner.
What looks like a mishmash of culture is actually very carefully styled. A really friendly, down to earth place that might even rival hyper-​cool Dragonfly when it comes to the furniture.
Obviously, being new it’s trying to make it’s impression on the Edinburgh bar scene and is doing really well at it. Knowledgeable bartenders help with annoying, indecisive people like me. The menu, even though it looked rather compact was full of options such as 3 options of potato (duck fat, nomnomnom…) Nothing on the menu was over £8 (including sharing plates), this place has really earned it’s ⁵⁄₅ and I don’t doubt for a second that I’ll be back within the week.