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Cougar Lounge

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Red Mezz
Red Mezz
First Reviewer
3 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
1
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Editor Pick

The Cougar Lounge

  • August 29, 2006
  • Rated 3 of 5 by Red Mezz from Inverness, Scotland
The Cougar Lounge

Off the central path and onto another bit of town brings us to The Cougar Lounge.

Both The Shore area and Leith have been rapidly changing in Edinburgh in the past few years with additions such as the flash new Ocean Terminal and the shore water front being cleaned up and turned into a very pleasant place to spend a warm Edinburgh afternoon along with other city dwellers sitting barefoot on the ledge near the water talking and relaxing--beer in hand with the smell of portable BBQs cooking on bare patches of grass across the street.

When I first moved to Edinburgh 4 years ago The Shore was somewhere you avidly avoided, but to my great delight it has become a wonderful spot in the past few years with a fantastic array of restaurants and shops and, of course, pubs.

But for many the area of Leith still has a tradition to uphold of being rather gritty and down to earth, and in general there for the locals. Which is probably why loungey places like the Cougar Lounge often get bad reviews from locals. And as is always the case, how good a place is depends on what you go in expecting. It's not a 'pub' in the Leith sense (therefore dirty, very old and traditional and largely full of very inebriated Scots of all ages) and not even especially true to the nature of many Edinburgh pubs.

Which is why I've decided to add it to my pub crawl. The name pretty much tells you what you want to know...this is more of a lounge than a pub, but nowhere near as pretentious as a lot of the locals seem to think it is. I do admit there are a fair amount of pseudo-trendy people that do enjoy hanging out here, but unless the place is packed with them, they really don't take away from the enjoyment of the place in my opinion.

First and foremost it’s very comfy inside. Almost more like a coffee shop than a bar with big leather couches and chair and expansive wooden tables and good lighting. Very chilled indeed. There are also a good number of picnic tables outside which are heavily but pleasantly populated by visitors and locals alike on warm and sunny days.

This may not be a great 'local' as far as pubs are concerned...but it does make an excellent place to pop in for a relaxed and enjoyable beer when you’re wandering around the Shore area, or escaping Leith walk.

They also have several types of live music that often play in the evenings. Whenever I've been in the evenings this has been a calm and relaxed place to have a drink. A great place to chat with friends or simply bask in the surroundings. Not as lively (or the music not as good) as in Finnegan's Wake or Whistle Binkies, but still a very classy bar indeed and wonderful for a beer or glass of wine.

From journal The Official Edinburgh Pub Crawl....

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