The Standing Order

Standing order is great for large groups.
Order at the bar and bring back to the table!
We mostly got drinks and they were well priced.

I'd give this 3.5 stars. This was a great find for someone like me visiting the city for a couple of weeks. In addition to cooking at my hostel, it was nice to get a cheap breakfast some day. I also had lunch and dinner here. The service was always friendly and quick, sometimes a little too quick it was questionable if my meal was for me or for someone else. Out of the six times I ate here, two times my food was cold when it came to my table. I sent it back once (that's hard for me to do) it was a cheeseburger and on a very rainy and chilly day I just couldn't eat cold food.

The ambience is very nice, if you're not willing to sit out in the main hall with the hustle and bustle there's three quiet rooms to choose from-just be wary of getting stuck in a corner if people take the tables around you!
If you're looking for free-wifi, stick to the rooms closer to the main hall! Ordering can be done through their app or at the bar and it's super easy through the app.

The free refills on coffee was what entranced me to come back. It's £1.45 and the machines have many choices including hot chocolate. I began to miss brewed coffee (a USA staple) and came here quite a bit instead of getting lattes every day. I also enjoyed the quieter side rooms (of course they get rowdy around lunch time and dinner).

Super fair prices over-all, especially if you want to save a bit of $£¥

Came here for breakfast. Cheap, fast, and decent breakfast. They were out of fresh fruit but the free refills on coffee made up for it. Order through the app or at the bar. Husband was happy with the large breakfast and the porridge I had was porridge - what more need i say?

For a pub this former bank is pretty spacious inside. It was a bit confusing at first because we weren't sure if we should wait to be seated or just sit ourselves. Yes, we're Americans so we wanted to make sure we didn't make some stupid mistakes After standing and deciding what to do I finally asked a waitress (who must have seen us looking a bit confused, but just walked by us). At this pub you find your seating, look at the menu, go up to the bar and order by giving your table number.

The table we chose still had glasses and used napkins from the previous guests. We chose the table because it was a booth where more than two people can be seated. We had to ask them to clean the table when we went up to order. Soon after another waitress came to clean, but not so friendly. Once the food came the experience actually turned pretty positive. The food was pretty good, fish batter could have been a bit less dense, but tasted good. Considering this place is in a fairly central location the prices of their food are good. A waiter came half way through our meal and asked us politely how everything is. We actually appreciated that.

My husband used the pub's restroom and said it was clean enough, but he overheard female customers coming out of the women's restroom saying to their husbands the condition of the restroom was disgusting.

As much as I want to give them better ratings I think it's either a 3 or 3.5 stars. Loved the interior, good price, decent food, mediocre service (maybe it is dependent on who is working), and apparently restrooms not cleaned well enough.

We usually come here in Edinburgh as a last resort, because it's really not anything special. I mean, the building is lovely with huge high ceilings and an old safe from its bank days but it's just a glorified Wetherspoon's for Pete's sake!

On Saturdays, you will never be able to get a table because it will be full of dads and grandpas catching the Rangers game while downing a pint or ten. Due to this, it always has a very rowdy atmosphere and seems very overcrowded and stressful.

There are plenty of choices when it comes to seating with about 5 rooms to choose from. The staff are friendly enough but you don't really see them much as they just bring your food orders and don't actually take your order.

The food is decent at best but I would honestly rather have a cheeky Nando's with the lads or one of Greggs' famous sausage rolls. They always seem to be out of fish and chips which is in my opinion the best thing on the menu.

The toilets are very clean but you will have to walk down 2 flights of steps and then up a long corridor to get to them. And if you meet somebody on the stairs, it will be a bit of a tight squeeze getting past.

So yeah, it's just a Wetherspoon's. A very lovely Wetherspoon's but still just a cramped, chaotic Wetherspoon's.

The Witherspoon restaurants and pubs are one of my favorite places for inexpensive and delicious comfort food while visiting the United Kingdom. First you find a table, taking note of the table number. Browse the menu and either order on-line with their phone application or order from he bar. You pay for your meal when you order. Your food and drinks will be delivered to your table in about 10 minutes. This restaurant is large and has many tables located in several interesting rooms. One room even has an old bank vault door and pictures of Thomas Telford. The main entrance is on Queen Street, however there is also an alley way entrance off of Rose Street as well. #edinburghpubs #edinburghrestaurants #edinburghcheapeats

To be honest, I'm starting to think all Wetherspoons are the same. I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing, but like Harry L said, you know what you're getting when you walk in to one. I quite like that about the chain.

My guy and I were out in Edinburgh, and were seeking some tasty beverages. With about a million people wanting the same thing, we decided to duck in here for a quick pint before we hopped to the next pub.

Just like most of the Wetherspoons I've been too, this one was mahoosive, very grand and packed full of all sorts of people. It almost felt like 5pm on a friday even though we were there on a saturday afternoon, as there were loads of people seemingly just out of work in a mixture of different outfits ordering a mixture of different drinks.

We were able to get two drinks pretty cheaply, we enjoyed them over a bit of chat about the day thus far, finished up and made our way to the next pub.

Cheap and chearful, easy peasy. If you're looking for a cheap drink or an affordable bite to eat even in an expensive city, stop in here- it's worth the go.

It's not amazing, but this was better than I expected. More inside space than pretty much anywhere else, felt like a nice change. The wine tap was awesome, the building is lovely, the pizza was decent. There isnt much service to speak of, and everyone is just watching the sport on TV, but it was good!

The only thing keeping this place in busniess is the fact that it's part of the Wetherspoons's chain. And it's an insult to perfectly good Wetherspoon's pubs at that.

I went in not so long ago, having drunk in here regularly for the past 3 years since I moved to Edinburgh, carrying a big bag. I'd just got off a train and was meeting some friends, but the manager at the door said I couldn't take my bag into the bar in case I had my own booze stashed away.

What...?!

It does beg the question that if I wanted to get pissed for free why wouldn't I have just met my firends back in my flat? But the manager who was supervising the door that night insisted that I leave my bag at the door with him. Despite him promising that I could get it back from him at the end of the night, come 1am I couldn't find him - or anyone else willing to help me.

I naively thought I'd call back in during the week and collect it, only when I did no-one seemed to know anything about it. First of all, the manager who was working on the day that I called in tried to insist that I'd already collected it, then when it became clear that I hadn't he tried to deny that he'd ever known anything about the bag.

Yes, it's a Wetherspoon's, so it's cheap. But it's by far the worst bar the you could find in Edinburgh's city centre. Even if you don't really care about my rant, I'd bet you any money you'll not even be able to find anywhere to sit after you've waited at the bar for at least 20 minutes.

The Standing Order is a superior JD Wetherspoon pub housed in in a former bank. It has a huge main hall with an amusing figure of a banker in the left upper corner. There are also three separate rooms which are a little quieter when things are getting busy (which they usually do after 5 p.m. on weekdays and from noon on weekends). Because of its competitive prices (in an expensive city) and huge range of alcoholic drinks it naturally attracts a lot of young people and boozers, and "white trash" in general (And,yes, that's definitely a thing in the UK!). Thankfully, there are so many options where to sit or stand you can normally avoid getting into trouble. But do expect a lot of sloshed people or binge drinkers, and hen parties, after 8 p.m.

While JDW frequently attracts justified criticism for providing cheap and nasty alcohol (all those rainbow-colored pitchers - Yeccchhh!) to teenagers, the chain is also a *major* advocate for British real ale, and they usually have a quickly rotating selection of cask ales (or ciders) on tap - especially at The Standing Order, where there are often 10 or more different microbrews on offer! In addition to the customary range of lagers, which is also huge.

Food is streamlined at JDW, the menu is (with very minor variations) the same for all of their pubs. Of course, the ones in England don't normally offer haggis, neeps and tatties - one of the signature dishes of Scottish cuisine (offered here without whisky sauce, alas!). There are "club" days almost every day, which means that a certain part of the menu is further reduced in price, or that there are additional dishes on offer on those days only. There's a "Mexican Monday", a "Fish Friday", a Thursday "Curry Club" (particularly good!) and, of course, the traditional "Sunday Roast".

The quality of the food does vary a bit between individual Wetherspoons, but if you like a certain dish at one you will almost certainly like it at any other "Spoon", too. I found the kitchen at The Standing Order to be efficient and the waiters to be friendly and helpful. Even when people complained about the quality they stayed friendly and got the customer a new dish.

The bar staff are also friendlier (and less robotic/moronic) than at other Spoons.

If you prefer a QUIETER place with the same range of food and drinks, consider THE ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL towards the western end of George Street. It's also a Spoon. Not nearly as big, and attracting a slightly older (and less trashy) demographic.

See my food photos of what to expect at The Standing Order (or at any other JDW).