I had a great night out in Glasgow this week. I visited several pubs which reminded me of my student days in that city and how good it's pubs are. Generally they are comfortable and cosy, selling good drink at good prices. Many of the city centre pubs are quite old but they are well maintained and spacious. They sell food but are not obsessed by it. They are warm and friendly.
I compare these pubs to those in my adopted home, Edinburgh which prides itself on having the best pubs in Britain (they even sell postcards and tea towels boasting about this). I'm afraid to say however that compared Glasgow the Edinburgh pubs are, in short, crap.
Edinburgh pubs generally fall in to 3 categories: tourist traps, total dives and pretentious bistro bars. My top 5 biggest dives I have ever visited are all in Edinburgh. These are bars where you hold on to your wallet and pray when you visit the toilet.
The bistro bars are all too common. They are frequented largely by ladies drinking white wine or craft gins, eating pretentious foods on piss up sessions called "going for lunch".
As for the tourist traps well they permeate the city. Areas like the Grassmarket, the Royal Mile and George Street are particularly prone to these places. Visit one of these joints and you find some poor Americans being conned in to paying £8 for a pint of some disgusting real ale (real piss more likely) with some supposedly wholesome name like Farmer Fred's Sweatly Bollocks.
Many Edinburghers take solace in the city's clubs which are generally quite good and golf and bowling clubs are full of social members seeking asylum from the dreadful pubs.
My recommendation to any visitor to Edinburgh who is looking for a good pub is to head to platform 14 at Waverley station and take the first train to Glagow