Love this place! Everyones very welcoming and it seems to do everything! Cafe, artists studios,…read moreperformances, classes/workshops, occasional club nights, gigs, book sales, flea markets, veg' markets, DIY workshops, vintage sales and even wiff waff Wednesday (highly competitive - in a fun way) table tennis! There's probably more on offer but I've just not managed to see it all yet! I've had the fortunate experience to perform here with a dance group (Code Butterfly) a few years ago and we danced all around the space and the audience followed us. There is an amazing network of old tunnels that surround the main hall and maze of staircases that the normal Joe Blogs wouldn't be able to explore unless they came to the show! Blessed! That aside, the cafe is cheap and they serve a lovely brunch at the weekends. There is plenty of local information for groups and community happenings. The perfect place to go to find activities to do or groups to join if you are new to the city. It's a beautiful, quirky venue in an original Drill Hall. Staff are very helpful and friendly. There is a homely, nourishing, homemade, community feel about the place. Child friendly venue, although at the same time it's not over-run with noisy screaming kids. Out Of The Blue's sister venue is Bongo Club, which explains some of OOTBs ethos. The only downside I'd say about OOTB is it's a bit chilly, they do try to heat the space with heat lamps etc, but it must be hard to heat such a vast space. Just wrap up warm and grab a hot chocolate and you'll soon heat up! :)

Out of the Blue is an old TA drill hall just off Leith Walk, now converted into a local community…read morecentre. There's a big central area that usually houses some sort of art exhibition, there's a little dance studio, and there are lots of small offices around the sides let to local businesses. And there's a small cafe that does reasonable coffee and is quite popular at lunchtimes. It's an interesting space and worth remembering about if you're down this way. The cafe service could perhaps be faster when they're busy, but they do a good veggieburger and there are some nice comfy sofas to sit on. A few years ago they first used it as a Fringe venue and it's a great space for that. They often have concerts and other small events on at other times. But it's always worth popping into if you're in the area to see what's happening as there's always something going on, and if you're lucky (and it's quiet) it's a great refuge from the bustle of the city in which to unwind for a while.

The main thing that springs to mind when I think about Meadowbank is Sports Days from back in the…read moreday when I was at school, and the Velodrome and athletics track, which seemed to go on forever at the time. Sadly, my athletics skills never won me any trophies, but I did enjoy basking in the sun with an ice cream and watching other sportier class mates sprinting round the track. Chomping ice cream and lazing about, despite being good times all round, isn't exactly beneficial to your fitness, so I would suggest coming here and taking advantage of the extensive facilities. Whatever your fitness method of choice, there's a good chance Meadowbank will meet your needs. There's a gym, two fitness studios with tons of classes on offer, seven days a week, plus three sports halls where you can play badminton, tennis and squash, outdoor pitches, a 400m 8 lane athletics track, and a 250m outdoor Velodrome.

The best thing about Meadowbank Sports Centre is that it feels like playing in a real stadium -…read moreeven when you are just playing on the Astroturf pitches. The proper pitch there is impressive- not only a perfect pitch, but the stands tower over you whilst on this pitch. It is most likely that you will visit here for the Astroturf pitches. Get together enough people and you should be able to get an hour's session for £4. It's not the cheapest, but in winter it can be the best on offer. The pitches themselves are fairly large - much bigger than Power League pitches and 7-a-side would be ideal. The only downside is the low fence at one end which does not stop quite as many balls as you would hope. Given that the gate is off to the side and given that they sometimes practise javelin throwing on the patch behind, this can be annoying - it will, however, teach you to keep your shots down.

No 11 Brasserie is the restaurant part of No 11 Brunswick Street Boutique Hotel. I've stayed in…read morethis hotel a couple of times now and absolutely love it. Without doubt the beautiful Vegetarian Cooked Breakfast is worthy of 5 stars, so I was keen to have an evening meal here. I dined with three others on Tuesday 8/11/2016. There's a fairly standard Scottish/ English menu with a couple of vegetarian options. There's also a range of themed menus e.g. Autumn, Christmas, Hogmanay and Burns Night. Plus special offers if dining early and a Pre-Theatre menu at a discounted price. We stuck to the standard Dinner Menu from which I ordered butternut squash, basil and ricotta crepe with a side of chips. My dining companions went for fillet steak and two roast red pepper, mozzarella and black truffle oil gnocchi. I enjoyed my meal, it was mildly flavoured and fresh. Apparently the steak was good but those who ordered the gnocchi dish were disappointed, complaining it was quite flavourless and bland. It's great to have vegetarian options available but they could be improved with more flavour, interest and oomph. We ordered four Raspberry Cranachan desserts which were delicious but all agreed we would have liked more oats throughout it rather than just sprinkled on top. Service from our Waitress was excellent. Wine was good and reasonably priced; we tried the Pinot Grigio, Prosecco and Malbec. Food was a bit more expensive but as guests staying in the hotel we received a 20% discount off our food bill. Atmosphere was lacklustre as there were only a couple of other tables taken when we had dinner at 8pm, however I often find hotel restaurants a bit dull anyway. Nonetheless if you want a quiet, calm, relaxing meal after a long day this is the perfect place. I'm 4 starring No 11 Brasserie as while our dinner was good, the vegetarian dishes could do with a makeover. Probably a strong 3 stars for dinner but 5 for the fantastic breakfast on offer, which we had each morning during our stay. So overall this averages out at 4 stars from me.

Not quite sure about this place really... Hmmm…read more.. I bought an itison voucher for this place as I always like trying new restaurants, especially when there's a good deal! It wasn't a restaurant I'd heard of before and I think I know why. It's not really a proper restaurant! They call themselves a brasserie but it's really part of a small hotel and a bit too out of the way to be convenient. In general, I don't choose to eat at hotels unless they've got their marketing right and positioned themselves as 'boutique' (Tiger Lily or Le Monde being examples). This place isn't in the same league (not that I'm a fan of aforementioned places) although I can see they're trying to be.... its just not quite right... In first walking in I waited at the small reception area while the waitress called someone a taxi. I could see into the kitchen which was strange, more so because someone clearly dropped something in there and all I could hear was someone shouting "f@ck" a lot. More swearing was to follow during the time I stood there. The waitress apologized for the language and hastily took me to my table so I could wait for my friend. The decor was just a little bit wrong. Tablecloths that didn't fit. A weird looking glass cabinet on a bunker that wouldn't look out of place in an old lady tearoom. Bread basket with plastic covering it on display. Scruffy really. My voucher basically involved a 3 course meal and a glass of house wine for 2. We got to choose a starter, main and dessert straight from the al a carte which in my vast experience of dining vouchers is unusual but it did give us plenty of choices. For starters - My friend went for a warm prawn cocktail and I went for the chicken and wild mushroom terrine. What she got were 5 fat prawns covered in a warm cocktail sauce, but it was only when she tried to unsuccessfully cut into them we realized they still had their shells on. Why would the chef then smother them in sauce?!? Her hands were absolutely covered trying to de-shell these things and when she dipped her hands in the finger bowl provided she screamed out loud as they'd given her boiling water! As I am clearly evil, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit - it was just so bizarre! My terrine? Well, it ended up being a massive wedge of pâté. Errrrr, nice but it's not a terrine! Mains - Nicola went for vegetable risotto with a Parmesan crisp. No vegetables in sight, just a fairly bland white risotto. Obviously the chef thought that by making rice with vegetable stock was sufficient enough to call it a vegetable risotto. No Parmesan crisp.... My main was the lamb stew with mashed potato. The mash was dry and lumpy and the lamb severely over cooked with a strange textured sauce, kind of like blitzed carrots or baby food. After a few mouthfuls I gave up. The thing repeated on me for the rest of the evening. Nice. Dessert - the one saving grace (oh, and the Pepper bread which was nice but lacked some butter!) I chose the sticky toffee pudding with ice cream. Clearly a shop bought ice cream but the pudding was actually quite tasty. Nicola went for the mixed fruit creme brûlée and she ate it all so no problems there. The service was actually pretty good. Very attentive throughout. I just couldn't bring myself to complain about the food as I'd gotten such a cheap deal with the voucher. That was until the owner asked how we enjoyed ourselves on our way out. I swithered but then was like "well......" He actually seemed to appreciate the feedback and I was nice about it! Promise! Unfortunately, I won't be back and I wouldn't recommend. If I had a half star option I might have given them 2.5 stars but mainly due to the friendly service. Shame really.

As well as Murrayfield, Tynecastle and Easter Road, Edinburgh is also home to Meadowbank Stadium…read more Not as large as other stadiums in the city, Meadowbank is probably the least well known, however that does not mean it is a poor excuse for a stadium. The stadium has one main stand which is where I have on occasions seen the fireworks display here. The stand has always been busy during the display and can sit a good few thousand people. Furthermore, the stadium also has an athletics track and a football pitch in the centre. The pitch is used also for other forms of athletics during local and national competitions. The stadium is also home to the Meadowbank Sports Centre which gives this stadium a little bit extra.

Meadowbank Stadium is often going to be overlooked in comparison to some of Edinburgh's other big…read morestadiums. It's part of the Meadowbank Sports Centre, and I went here to see a fireworks display last winter. It's an athletics track, speedway track and events space. There's a large grandstand on one side, which seated the hundreds of people who saw the fireworks quite comfortably. We also had a guest appearance from Little Boots, who played a couple of her songs before the show began. I couldn't really fault the facilities here at all on my visit. Sure, it's not as big and doesn't have the big atmosphere of Murrayfield, but it's a fair bit smaller, so this is to be expected! There are a fair number of events that use the stadium through the year, so consider going along to see what it is has to offer.

Edinburgh's most interesting venue for emerging and mid career live art. Bright spaces and…read moreconsistent programming

We stopped in for dinner here and the food here is solid! The ambiance is chill and it's a cute pub…read morewith some character. They were also having a film night here in a different room which we didn't check out but would love to the next time we're there.

Excellent stop for lunch. Fish & Chips and the Burger were delicious. Great prices. Right on the…read moremain drag.

A great place to bring kids…read more Plan at least 2 hours. All about the earth from 13.5 years ago to present. It does things from many different perspectives. Under the water. Volcanic. Rain forest. Forming of the universe and earth. Dinosaurs. And much more.

The worst, most boring overpriced place on Earth. I have never been anywhere I have like disliked…read moreas much as here (and I was briefly wrongly arrested.. it's worse than jail). It's somewhere that's supposed to teach children the wonders of the natural world around us. This is done by having a 2metre square ice cube in the middle of a tent. Can't even hang around in the cafe because if you want a carton of juice it'll cost you 6 and half thousand pound for the pleasure. Too far out the way to wonder down to, pointless when you get there, no parking, big ques. Rubbish.

We walked out of our hotel and right up the stairs and hill to one of the best scenic viewpoints of…read morethe city. Each way was a different vibe. It was a great time to think about the history of what was before you and all around. Many of the buildings are hundreds of years old so it creates an interesting atmosphere. I would highly recommend coming here. On one side is a cafe but we didn't go in. It was busy. Tons of trails and some dogs. We spotted a few off leash so keep that in mind I didn't see any trash on the grounds which was refreshing although there was a touch of graffiti.

Calton Hill offers arguably one of the best views across Edinburgh's city centre. From here, you…read morecan see most of the city, Arthurs Seat, and of course the castle. It's the perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and you'll be treated to awesome views of the castle in the distance. Calton Hill was formed over 340 million years ago. It has a huge history from the prehistoric era to today. It was originally a hill fort in ancient times, then King James II of Scotland granted the lands to Edinburgh in 1456. Calton Hill sits just off Leith Street near Edinburgh's popular commercial area. Like many of the parks in the area, it's free to enter so you won't need to reach into your wallet for this one. If you're looking for some of the best views in Edinburgh then make sure you spend some time here. There's also an art gallery up on Calton Hill and an unfinished national monument so there's plenty to see! If you only have time to visit one viewpoint in the city, let this be it. It's a fantastic place to watch the sunset or see the breathtaking views.

Morningside Gallery is a lovely art gallery in Morningside Road in Edinburgh, just a short walk…read morefrom the city centre. It would be very easy to walk straight past this shop, but it is definitely worth a look. Morningside Gallery has a fantastic display of eclectic art from a wide range of artists. They showcase original paintings as well as some limited edition pieces too. Morningside Gallery offer a wide selection of different paintings including places in Edinburgh, life drawings, nature scenes as well as some more abstract pieces of art. 3-D works are also available, as are sculptures. The paintings are truly beautiful and you are able to view the pieces of work available for sale on their website. Ceramics and jewellery are also available to buy at the Gallery. I cannot wait until I am able to afford some to the beautiful pieces of art for sale in the Morningside Gallery.