Panda and Sons is a speakeasy bar that’s located on Queen’s Street in Edinburgh. Its right next to the estate agents Knight Frank.
The shop front looks like a vintage-style barber shop.
A bouncer greets you as you enter the door then you head down some stairs. At the bottom of the stairs you arrive at what looks like a bookshelf in the wall.
You pull on one of the books (it acts as a door knob/handle) and it pulls the wall open so you can enter the bar!
As its table service you have to tell a member of staff at the door how many seats you’ll need. As it was a Saturday night and fairly busy we had a little bit of a wait so we went to the bar to purchase our first drinks. By the time we’d placed our orders from the varied menu we had a table ready for us. We were seated on a very comfortable sofa under one of the speakers.
I didn’t have any of the Robinson Crusoe but Keith enjoyed it and thought it was rather nice! Yes that’s a wooden board they’re sitting on.
The Petal to the Ketel was rather nice but wasn’t my favourite drink of the evening. I could still taste the vodka which considering I don’t enjoy the taste of alcohol ruined it a little for me.
I really really liked Keith’s Haagen Glass drink. It was very creamy and tasted almost like an Oreo milkshake! I had severe ordering regret when I took a sip of the Remi Gaillard as I hadn’t read the menu properly and didn’t realise it was a whisky. None of the other ingredients could drown out the taste of whisky and I’m afraid I ended up downing it just so I could get rid of it. Keith thought it was rather nice as he doesn’t mind the taste of whisky so much.
The Monet Talks for 2 people was very interesting and was definitely our favourite drink of the evening. The 2 glasses and the little paint tubes are served on an artist palette with the half bottle of Prosecco in a little ice bucket. The premise of this is to pour the Prosecco in the glass like normal then squeeze out the fruit based paints into it to mix and flavour to your personal liking! The paint is Bellini paint and actually colours the Prosecco as well. Our favourite flavours were the peach and the mixed berry.
The waiters/waitresses walk around every so often carrying trays with glasses of water and baskets of popcorn! You aren’t charged for these which I thought was a lovely touch as it helps ensure you don’t get drunk too quickly! Definitely a clever strategy to ensure your patrons purchase as many drinks as possible while there. The popcorn must have had a touch of Tabasco sauce or something which was a rather interesting combination which I really enjoyed!
I’d say one thing though, its not a place to go to have many drinks as they’re quite pricey. Considering we’d ordered 2 cocktails each and the Monet Talks, the bill came up to £50 for the both of us.
If you’re looking for a place to enjoy some cocktails with table service while in Edinburgh I’d definitely recommend visiting Panda and Sons!
Helpful links:
Panda & Sons – http://pandaandsons.com/
Ratings:
Service – 4.0
Value – 3.0
Overall – 3.5
