The Merlin Reviews Summary

Atmosphere & Decor

Pros:

• "Great atmosphere and nice decor."
• "Upon entering the premises I was greeted with a glow of friendly faces."
• "Nice chill atmosphere."
• "The place is clean and has a good atmosphere overall."
• "A warm and welcoming pub with staff really giving that service with a smile."
• "Nice atmosphere and a good place to watch sporting events."
• "The Merlin has lots of space and is a nice bright place for a drink in Morningside."

Cons:

• "This place is soulless, loud, and lacks any atmosphere."
• "Totally soulless. Typical chain pub. No character and microwaveable meals."
• "It's a bit soulless - there's a function suite upstairs that has no character or charm whatsoever."
• "Lacks character and atmosphere."
• "One of those pubs that smells a bit inside like the floor is rotting."
• "The furniture is now all mis-matched rubbish like it’s come from a salvage yard and the seats outside were covered in brown rust residue."
• "The family area has the gambling machine right next to it which doesn't lend the place a great atmosphere."

Service & Staff

Pros:

• "Service and staff are great and make you feel welcome."
• "Visited yesterday afternoon which was pretty busy but this made no difference to service. Plenty of staff that managed to cope with everyone's needs very capably indeed."
• "Friendly staff and atmosphere."
• "Staff were friendly and gave excellent service."
• "Served quickly by the friendly staff there."
• "Without the help of all the staff working that day/night, we could not have achieved such a successful event."
• "Staff are attentive. Great place and not too far from city centre."

Cons:

• "Staff need retraining crying infront of customers in a stressfull situation doesnt look good and things could have been handled much better than they were."
• "The staff werent very welcoming."
• "The service was pretty slow (it wasn't busy) and none of the signature meals were available because they were short staffed."
• "The staff were not very welcoming of young kids or teenagers."
• "We were all having a great night, until a bartender was rude to us."
• "Manager is very rude and had no intention to look after the costumers properly."
• "Staff where distracted not interested, I passed the bar and clearly was leaving, several staff standing none acknowledged me or said goodbye."

Food & Drink

Pros:

• "I really enjoyed my freshly cooked fish and chips washed down with a pint of London Pride yesterday evening."
• "The burger sliders, which were delicious!"
• "Drinks but they were tasty and refreshing."
• "The fish and chips was absolutely amazing."
• "Every food item we ordered was cooked well and tasted great."
• "The food was yummy."
• "Food was piping hot and delicious."

Cons:

• "Food was very poor. No fish n chips even though they said they had it."
• "Food is awful, waited over an hour for a mixed grill for it to be cold."
• "Fish and Chips cold and dry."
• "Our food took forever to arrive as someone had apparently accidentally knocked the cooker switch off."
• "To try and charge top prices for something that is clearly frozen is just not on."
• "The food served had poor or even no quality... tasteless, expensive."
• "Food was dreadful - dried up fish with thick gloopy batter, cold yet burnt nachos."

Management & Organization

Pros:

• "Great pub we had a table booked for the Scottish cup final but Jason had not put it in the schedule the manager was so good and managed to accommodate us even though most tables were reserved."
• "The manager Artur has a great attitude and his team were fantastic."
• "We cannot recommend the Merlin enough, they have amazing staff and their attention to detail and working with others outside their own roles is outstanding."
• "The manager Cameron goes above & beyond to make everything is perfect."
• "We had our Wedding reception at the Merlin on 29th April. We had a fantastic time."
• "A wonderful end to our evening. From start to finish our experience was great."
• "The staff really made my day, especially Cameron!"

Cons:

• "What the hell has happened to The Merlin???????"
• "Now, it's just a glorified Wetherspoons."
• "Manager a very awful person to speak with so up himself and unwilling to cooperate to solve situations."
• "Manager found the excuse not to serve the foreigners after been so rude from the beginning."
• "The Little Manager need s to learn about customer service, This should be my local and every time I have been in there even the staff moaned about him, he needs to learn how to smile and how to talk to his customers."
• "It was a terrible experience!!!! Unexpectedly rude manager."
• "Major problem is there rarely if ever are enough staff on duty and there never seems to be a good split between the staff who serve food and those who serve drink. Needs better management."

Value & Pricing

Pros:

• "Prices are reasonable and portion sizes are your typical Wetherspoons size."
• "I live in Morningside this local watering hole has improved they have a better selection of wines NZ Sauvignon 175mls approx 5.60 a glass one of the best value in this area."
• "Two Pub Deal meals for 11.99 Sunday thru Thursday and a decent selection of choices in the Pub Deal."
• "Beers are cheap too - less than £3 for a pint."
• "£4.99 for a kids main meal, choice of side, Ice Cream and a drink you cant go wrong."
• "Who doesn't like greasy fried halloumi :) definitely recommend for pub food."
• "A great pub in a great spot with a decent variety of drinks and pub food to suit most anyone."

Cons:

• "It's a nice pup with reasonable prices. Visited a couple of times while in the area and both times the kitchen was closed that was a bit disappointing."
• "Cannot believe how many times we go into this pub and there's no food."
• "The selection of drinks is poor."
• "The beer (belhaven) wasn't great."
• "Nice staff but charging London prices when they don't have proper wi fi and dirty toilets is something Greene &king (Brewery, Owners) need to fix."
• "Wasn't very impressed with the prices or selection."
• "Not much to really say its a decent enough pub, the food is mediocre, the drinks are fine if not slightly overpriced."