The Smoking Goat

Terrific new neighbourhood pub tucked away in an historic stone walled candlelit basement. The newly opened Smoking Goat bar has been totally remodelled and the result is impressive. If you remember the much missed Fouters Bistro you won’t recognise the place now!
The Smoking Goat is primarily a traditional pub with cosy nooks and crannies, real ales on tap and in bottles, and a great wee bar menu. The lunchtime options feature rare breed beef burger, venison sausage sandwich, pulled pork slider, smoked haddock fishcake, black pudding scotch egg with whisky mustard and more — all pretty imaginative stuff for this part of the world!
Vegetarians are valued customers and it was a rare treat to find myself swithering over the menu. I narrowed things down to the red pepper falafel or the jerk spiced portobello mushroom burger with pineapple salsa. I went with the latter and it didn’t disappoint, though I could have done with a few more of their lovely crisp fries on the side.
Yay for free wifi without a password. I found it impossible to get a data signal down there so it came in handy.
Customer-​wise this is a good spot for socialising as well as dining. There are events going on throughout the week including pub quizzes and they have a pull down screen which I think they are showing the 6 nations rugby on, though this is not a ‘sports bar’ and there are no TVs.
This is just a personal opinion, but I’d love to see the music turned down a wee notch to make conversation easier, and the lighting turned up a wee notch so the menu can be more easily read. Despite all the hard stone surfaces the acoustics were excellent. I can see this being a good venue for the occasional intimate music gig.
Recommended!