Black Bo's (Restaurant)

I'm surprised to read the comments here - just looked up this place after randomly discovering it a couple of weeks ago. Five of us came in off the street and were most pleasantly accommodated by a very charming waitress. Seated in a cozy booth, our food arrived quickly, was flavoursome and filling. Pretty decent value too for how much we enjoyed it (2 of our friends which are non vegies and sceptical before going in were particularly impressed!) Ended up going next door to the bar after our meal and enjoying a few tasty beers along with some great music from a DJ on decks. The two bar staff were friendly, efficient and full of fun chat. Maybe new management?. Anyway, thanks for a great night Bo's, I'll be back for sure.

I rang this restaruant to make a table booking and the person who answered the phone told me to F*** off and hung up. Apparently it was someone who was working behind the bar
I called to make a reservation for 3, possibly 4 people for 6.00pm on Tuesday evening. The chap asked me to be more specific and when I asked how much more specific he wanted me to be he said, is it for 3 or 4?. When I said I am not sure at this time but Will confirm as soon as I know, he told me he couldn’t do the booking and that I was to call back after 6 for someone else.
It all got quite difficult but eventually I learned that there were no tables available at all for 4 people at 6.00 pm. I then asked at which time there WOULD be a table available for 4 people and he said at 6.45. So I booked it. He asked me for my name and phone number which I gave. I then asked to whom am I speaking and he said "just someone who works here". When I asked for his name he said "who are you"? I said “I've just given my name and phone number I wanted to know who I'd made the booking with”. He then got very antsy. He said "is it so you can complain"? After heated words he told me to F*** off and hung up. He continued to argue with me on the phone but his attitude was poor all the way through - even at the point when he told me "we ARE really busy in Edinburgh you know"
I rang again the same evening and was told by a young lady that this restaurant does not have a manager. Their email also doesn't work.

The food would have to get four or five stars.
But we won't be going back.

As with other comments here one of the staff was appallingly rude.
Nothing like as bad as the unforgivable racism described by "Disappointed", but still not what you pay for.

My fiancee was busy talking to the friends and her brother when the older waitress came to take our order.
Most of us had decided so were quite quick - though she still mocked us for being unclear. When she came to my fiancee she further mocked with the "she's got a screw loose" action next to her head.

This was no jovial ribbing, with a light laugh afterwards.
This was dour and quite cruel. As if she had so many better things to be doing.
If she does not like her job, she should leave, but don't take it out on the patrons.

It was particularly embarrassing as we were with guests from other countries.
I should add that the younger waitress was very pleasant but yes the service was pretty slow.
I normally leave a tip even for average to poor service. I made sure I got all my change this time!

My other half decided on the spur of the moment to take us out for a tasty meal at Black Bo's on 29th March (our anniversary)! First to arrive and allowed to take any seat we wished I thought Bo's had a lot of promise and looking at the menu I was excited to find I could almost eat it all (not too many mushrooms involved). We ordered after a lot of deliberation and mind changing and sat and waited for our food....and waited....and waited...and waited! We had ordered 3 starters. Garlic bread with cheese, garlic bread with pepper salsa and a crepe. Not too difficult as we were the only customers. 45 minutes and a protion of unwanted oatcakes later they arrived! Garlic bread fine...crepe watery. Main courses followed about 20 mins after we finished. Very tasty but by that point I had lost my appetite for the place. To top it off their music system had broken so no music/no atmosphere! The service from the waitress was good but the time it took for our food was awful. I wont be going back in a hurry.

It's great to enter Bo's and enjoy the unique (the world is short of uniqueness)atmosphere of this real and friendly place,as I have done for over twenty years.

Amazing food! Unusual, innovative and great flavours. Lovely warm atmosphere - candles, quirky alcoves and friendly staff. Been back already for a second time in 3 weeks and had the same great food. Rapidly becoming my favourite place eat!

We came here for a dinner for two, one of us being a vegetarian for 15 years. The decor was a bit shabby (our table was rickety - seems petty but can get very annoying during the course of a meal, and surely isn't difficult to fix!). The service was friendly and fast, and the items on the menu seemed interesting. Unfortunately, the food didn't live up to its promise. It tasted bland and some vegetables were undercooked (not acceptable if you're talking about aubergine). The main issue we had was the price: too high for basically bland food in a bit of a shoddy setting.

There are better places for vegetarian food in this price range.

Bo's isn't that bad. Although the beer garden feels like a basement.

Black Bo's have a separate bar and restaurant.
There are a couple of notoriously grumpy bar staff.
Be warned....

Nice beer garden though.

We had a lovely meal at Black Bo's, and found the staff very pleasant (completely at odds with the comment above!).

On Friday the 3rd of October a number of my colleagues were enjoying a company evening out and decided to visit Black Bo's as it is one otheir favourite Edinburgh haunts. They had been for an excellent meal at Mother India's Cafe and arrived at Black Bo's at 10.30pm.

The barman was rude, brusque and provided 'Alf Garnett' type service to my Chilean colleague Juan and after racially insulting him because he did not understand the order asked him to leave. The bar manager was present and with a shrug indicated there was nothing he could do about the boorish and racist behaviour of his colleague.

Further. A female colleague who intervened and calmed the situation and who wished to speak to someone in management was later called a 'bitch' by the same barman for requesting his name. At no point did any of our colleagues use bad language or threatening behaviour and this whole incident was unprovoked.

I will make a point of disuading friends and colleagues from using Black Bo's, as will others in our company, until such time as the owners and management instill some common decency and decorum in staff who appear to have torn up the good practice rule book on how to attract customers and cater to long standing clientelle.