Revolution - Edinburgh

I dislike this place strongly. Is that the diplomatic way of saying it?

Granted it has a party atmosphere you can't dance without breaking your ankle because the floor is covered in sweat, fake tan and apple sours. You know when you're on a night out and you take a photo with a disposable camera and the flash goes off harshly? Well when those pictures come back everyone looks rough and too drunk? That's what it looks like with your actual eyes inside Rev. The only song I can remember them playing was Livin' On A Prayer - which is never a good thing!

Never eaten there but I have a good idea of what the daytime atmosphere would be like. Please will someone enlighten me?

There's nothing that particularly offends me about Revolution, but then again, I've never once woken up in the morning with an alcoholic thirst that I felt could only be quenched with a rack of shots straight from the bar here. I actually think there's some really good bar space going on at Revolution, and compared to some of the other far more dubious hostelries in Edinburgh, I really don't have any issues with coming here for a few stop off beverages.

I still think of Revolution as being Beluga, which it was for aaaages, and which I always found a bit on the pricey side. Revolution is less on the pricey side and has a few drinks deals going on, with a fairly people pleasing, classic bar food menu that's been pretty decent on the few occasions I've tried it. There's a lot of drinking room on the downstairs level, but not so much on the upper level, which is a smaller space and tends to get pretty cramped of a Friday and Saturday eve. Highlights are the big cocktail pitchers, and the flavoured shots that are a random Russian roulette of tasty and potent

I'm afraid I have to support the crowd here. I've never really understood Revolution.

I agree partly with what Lynsey says about the two different experiences of this play, day and night. During the day this bar on Chamber St. isn't really too bad. It's nothing special but it doesn't so easily offend. Furthermore I can't really appreciate the food. It's true that there are two for one deals, but when you take into account that some of the burgers are almost £7 for what amounts to a very small burger in a bun, a few leaves of lettuce and a little bowl of chips, it hardly makes up for it.

At night the place does down hill. As Anna points out the bouncers are rude. The drink is expensive. It's also a haven for hen nights which can really turn a nice evening sour.

I get the impression that Revolution is trying to be like somewhere on George St. Expensive and flashy but geared toward the younger hedonistic crowd. It doesn't even manage that.

It's hard to rate Revolution because it's so not my normal night. I came here recently for a Christmas night out, though, so I'm giving it a go.

The food: realistically it was never going to be great, but it was absolutely fine. No one is going to come here expecting a gourmet (or good) meal. It fills a hole.

The service: mixed. Some staff were lovely while others bordered on surly.

The drinks: weak. Is there actually any alcohol in the pitchers?

The music: really fun at the beginning of the evening (flashbacks to my actual clubbing days) but it turned into I don't know what around ten, and that was my old lady exit sign.

That all sounds pretty bad but we actually had a really fun night. It was a great venue for a cheap Christmas night out.

As a deal-finder, I think Revolution is a great place on Mondays! This Revolution has nice sofas and tables, and the servers have been extremely friendly the two times I have been to this location. All food is 50% off on Mondays (yes, ALL food!) and we have also enjoyed going to other Revolutions in Cambridge and London.

We keep coming back (truthfully, we are only loyal on Mondays) because you can't argue about decent meals for two for under £10! The pizzas and burgers are fantastic for the price and really a great deal, and I'd also consider paying full price (around £8.95) for them sometime if my memory lapsed and I forgot what day of the week it was. Today I branched out and tried the salmon and prawn linguini with the smallest sliver of smoked salmon and overly heavy cream sauce, but the prawns were nice and I guess I could say at least it was good I tried to branch out from my old standbys at Revolution.

Unfortunately, Mondays at this location at 9pm is the very loud pub quiz night, so it doesn't make for a very romantic night out. Mondays are also obviously very popular days at Revolution because of the great deal, and last week the wait was just too long so we left. Every week the service is a bit slow, but 'you get what you pay for' right? For under a tenner for two, I'm usually willing to wait because the food is decent and the staff are friendly.

Frankly, I expected better from you Revolution. Having visited your counterparts in different cities up and down our fair isle, I was disappointed by the lacklustre service and poor organisation I encountered at this branch.

I was in Edinburgh for a water polo away match, and afterwards both the Manchester and Edinburgh teams wanted to fill their empty stomachs with some food, so we headed to Revs where an area had been previously reserved for us. Despite our afternoon reservation, the staff seemed utterly baffled and flustered by our desire to order food.

After several had placed their orders at the bar,the confused bartenders asked the rest of us to take our seats where someone would be around to take our order, yet after 10 minutes, none of the tables had been attended to, and we resolved to go back to the bar, where we were eventually allowed to place our order.

The lighting in this particular area of the bar is really dark, which would be fitting for an evening setting, but not entirely appropriate for 3 o' clock in the afternoon. In addition, the tables and even the menus, were really sticky. This I could forgive, if they'd been busy and having quick turnovers, but again, we'd reserved this area, and they were expecting us, so there's not really an excuse for uncleanliness.

The food took ages to arrive, and was really staggered, so that by the time half of our teammates had finished their meals, half of us still hadn't been served. There's also NO phone signal in this place, which I know isn't strictly Revolution's fault, but is still very frustrating.

The only good I can say is that we got a pretty sweet deal for our money. We managed to get some sort of deal where we got a burger/pizza and a pint for a fiver, which is pretty good really. The food didn't taste half bad either, once it had arrived. But I probably wouldn't go back, as I'm almost certain I could find somewhere else that provides much better service and still manages to produce reasonable food.

Well..

£3.50 for all cocktails on Thursdays and Fridays? Yes please!

Surprised at how amazing the cocktails were in here; very well prepared and with no exclusions whatsoever (some cost a good £7). The shooters are of course immense, if you're into that sort of thing (and why wouldn't you be?).

It is worth nothing that it's hard to chill out in here. It is very loud, and always busy with a dozen hen parties. In all likelihood you will also find members of staff kicking about trying to punt shots and other promos.

A chain bar aimed squarely at students, mainstream nightclubbers and 40-somethings who have Bebo pages, Revolution is rarely tolerable and never pleasant, but I suppose that during the week at least, it serves it's purpose of getting students very drunk for a fairly reasonable price.

At weekends, it becomes a lot more sinister and attracts the lower end of the Saturday night crowd. Best avoided.

Revs has stepped up their game.. Much better service, improved menus with a focus on quality, and they kept their food deals.. All in all they definitely deserved to get their stars back.

Whilst this place has the negative aspect of being part of a chain as well as getting hideously busy downstairs at the weekend in its favour it does have have three very well stocked bars, usually enough staff behind the bars to keep waiting to a minimum (you're best trying to use the upstairs one though as the space at the main lower one is reduced to a prety narrow strip due to two supporting pillars), a good menu containing a decent number of offers and pleasant waiting staff.


Without the restaurant side of the business I'd probably only give this a 2 but with it it's a very well rounded venue.


Having been invited to try out one of this place's new main courses for free last week it would have been rude not to go along. The new Italian Sharing Plate was a good starter between two. My Tuscan Chicken (breast with mozarella wrapped in parma ham) was reasonable although it looked to have been cooked too quickly whilst my companion's salmon would definitely benefit from the inclusion of some sort of sauce (that said he opted to not have the lentils that would normally accompany it so possibly they would have made the difference). Otherwise business as usual and still very good vfm.