From the outside the Ship Inn looks like a local bar on the "welcoming" side of the scale as opposed to the "Tourists Beware" side. On entering it is a spacious and cosy looking bar that is definitely suited for tourists with a collection of beer mats almost being used as wallpaper to cover most of the free space behind the bar, some of which I had never even heard of!
The decor and feel to the sitting area itself is traditional with a modern fusion, little tweaks like old spirit bottles (JD mainly) being used as candle holders are excellent to the vibe of the place and really let you settle happily in to one of the booths and take the surroundings in.
We went in here because my better half was feeling hungry (I was saving myself for the North Berwick Fry which is just next door to the Ship Inn, in hindsight I should have eaten here) and decided to pop in here for a drink & a bit of lunch/dinner, we definitely weren't disappointed.
A chicken and bacon burger was ordered and a chicken and bacon burger it was. Where the chicken that this chicken breast came from I don't know but it was definitely doing some serious weightlifting and bulking up. It was MASSIVE, in all it's chickeny beauty I found it hard to resist taking a huge bite out of the burger. Long stoy short, I ended up taking a huge bite out of the burger.
The chicken was beautifully juicy for general pub grub and the bacon was lovely, sweet but slightly salted which gelled all the flavours of the breaded chicken and the toasted roll together. Thinking about it now, I'm getting hungry again.
Every time I have a pub burger, the side salad always lets it down, every time, it's like the bars expect people not to eat it, but not this bar. The salad was crisp and fresh, served up with a deliciously sweet vinaigrette that was perfect for dipping a wee bit of the roll in.
The spirit measures were 35ml and the guest ales on offer covered breweries such as Innis & Gunn and The Inveralmond Brewery (who do beers such as Lia Fail and Ossian) which justified the bar being about 60-70p more expensive than the others we visited. read more