The Filling Station

Great warm atmosphere, excellent service, food delicious.
Would highly recommend, it’s child friendly, great for groups and caters for vegetarians and non drinkers like myself with a few virgin Piña colada’s to finish off the night and all at a good price.
What more can you ask from an evening at The Filling Station!

So, we ended up here our first night in Edinburgh because we had issues getting served– first on Rose St in the pubs and then at George St, because Tyler was under 18. We ended up here as a recommendation when we got kicked out of Whetherspoons, which I do not recommend— anyway, the food was traditional American fare and the drinks were good and they take kids, so no complaints whatsoever.

My family and I are here from the states and we stopped in the filling station last night. We really liked everything about it. The selection is much broader than in other restaurants. The food was absolutely wonderful. Mike, our waiter was very helpful, prompt, and nice. We’re going back again today and taking the rest of the crew.

Went to the filling station purely for dessert and got the pecan pie to share. The pie was great with a nice apple filling, good base, and a decent vanilla ice cream to go along.
As I mentioned we only went for dessert which all looked good, but judging by the look of some of the mains coming out of the kitchen I probably won’t be back unless it’s another dessert-​only trip

Typisch amerikanisches Restaurant mit entsprechend etwas übertrieben höflichen Personal. Der Laden war passend zur Festivalzeit gut besucht. Wir hatten Glück und mussten nur ca. 10 Minuten auf einen freien Tisch warten.
Die Wahl fiel auf Steak & Fries und BBQ Chicken Melt. Das Essen war o.k., auch wenn das Steak mehr durchgebraten war als bestellt. Trotzdem kann ich einen Besuch empfehlen.

Would I come back. hmm, no… well… no…
I don’t want to say I wouldn’t be back because this place is awful. It’s not… it’s just that there are so many other places that would probably be better deserving of my pounds… So, it’s a Monday morning. My husband has decided to go hike Arthur’s seat with a friend who ran up it and then came back down to meet him to walk up it. Yes. That dude did it twice in one day. I am a firm believer of know-​your-​limit-​play-​within-​it, so I went to breakfast with the others instead. Wonderful breakfast mates who wanted to shop after.
Place is empty. We get seated in a booth and brace ourselves for the American-​ness of this place. Meh. It’s a regular restaurant. I had the sausage and egg sandwich and an Americano. That’s easy. One friend got the vegetarian breakfast minus the eggs (she’s not, but was eating healthy to fit in her wedding dress) and her hubby-​to-​be got the bacon and egg sandwich with a side of hasbrowns. He asked what kind of hashbrowns they had. Our server looked at him like he asked what animal chicken eggs come from. I could feel the you’re-dumb glare. She said they were fried. Still didn’t explain: we were going more for are they homemade, are they potatoes just fried, are they packaged? I guess she thought we would know what American hashbrowns would be? For future, they have the disc kind, like the ones from McDonalds. Deep fried and good…
My sandwich was okay… my sandwich was just sausage and eggs. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s exactly as they say on their menu. It’s sausages stuffed into a bun with an egg. My egg was a little runny, which I like. It was just ordinary. It sufficed… the bun was a little sweet which worked well for the sandwich.
The place is good enough. Kind of expensive for what it is.

This review is based on several visits as a couple and lastly on a visit with a Christmas night out. of around 30 people.
American diner, serving American style food in reasonable to big portions. Alongside cocktail and American style beers (and Tennent’s)
Should I stop here? I could. Perhaps I should not to put you off. Still interested? OK.
The place is big, 2 floors and 2 bars and many tables and booths. The main bar on the ground floor is where the till works, the downstairs bar it has been kaput for absolutely donkeys years. So when eating downstairs you need to order at the table (group of 4 or less? no sweat) or go upstairs and wait, wait, wait… wait some more to get served. Just for your information, a corona is £3.95 — yes. a pint of Guinness is £3.20 — Pretty expensive for an MotR American diner. We were on a prepaid meal of about 30 people we didn’t want the hassle of divvying up the drinks bill so we had to go to the upstairs when thirsty. This lead to many people arriving to cold starters or mains.
Granted they offered to open a bill per table, but unbeknownst to us we opted for ordering at the bar.
The food was well received (especially the salmon and pesto pasta) but mostly bland. Or overuse of sauce (do I taste BBQ sauce — again?) salads and coleslaw sides — nah.
The food service was speedy and accurate (remembering each dish ordered belonging to whomever ordered it as a preorder. well done!)
however i will not be back in a hurry.

Not worth coming back I think… eh, I known!
Overpriced food and most drinks.
Reason they can survive doing this: they live from one-​off customers who come to visit the city…

Staff were nice and friendly when I came here but I wouldn’t go again for food and as this one is more of a place to eat than drink (unlike the one on the High St) I really don’t have any reason to try it again.
I had the worst carbonara I’ve ever tasted. It reminded me of tinned macaroni which isn’t the best either but at least it doesn’t set you back seven pounds.

It won’t win many, or perhaps any, awards for culinary style or innovation, but on a recent early morning stroll in the capital we were delighted to find that The Filling station was the only place in sight doing a full breakfast, and so gave it a whirl.
It was pretty good, even if the black pudding did taste a little dungy, but it was huge and along with some pancakes it put us in fine stead for a brisk day of sightseeing. I was also glad that they remembered to remove the revolting baked beans from the plate, the scourge of many a good breakfast.
Another good mark in my book, for a much maligned yet perfectly alright restaurant chain.

I popped in here a few weeks ago with G-​Bot for breakfast, it was too early to go for lunch and I really wanted a full breakfast with some pancakes. As we were walking along Rose Street we saw a group of people eating a fry up outside this branch of the Filling Station so we decided to venture in.
I opted for a bacon roll and pancakes and G-​Bot got the Caledonian Breakfast. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten and the pancakes were a little bit measly but my bacon roll was delicious as the roll it came in was delicious as it was soft but slightly crispy at the same time.
The girl serving us was nice but the service was more help-​yourself-​to-​a-​menu sort of style which was fine for me as I just wanted a basic brekkie.
Rather average but fairly tasty and I liked to laid back atmosphere too. The toilets were also very clean and much more modern than I’d expected.

I used to go to The Filling Station as a kid and always thought it was great. Once grown up though, it doesn’t seem as good. It is almost a cheap imitation of the likes of Hard Rock Café and TGI Fridays.
The menu is full of burgers, steaks, pastas, salads and sandwiches. We went in one lunch time when they were offering a cheap lunch deal. I had fish and chips which were too much like Birds Eye fish and McCains chips for my liking. I have been on other occasions and had a burger which I was quite happy, so it earns an extra star. The service is usually quite quick and friendly which earns it another star.
Overall there ain’t much to make this restaurant better than mediocre.

I’ve only ever been to this hideous poor man’s TGI Friday’s once, and I was so disappointed I was actually raging at having to pay for it.
My boyfriend and I wanted a quick bite and this place looked fine. It is an American diner, which usually means burgers, pastas and chips, just what we were looking for. I ordered the cajun chicken penne pasta with garlic bread.
Our meals came about 20 minutes later, which I thought was quite a long time to wait somewhere where the food is clearly not 100% freshly made. My pasta landed on the table, and I was really horrified. The sauce was burnt to the ramekin and the pasta was rock hard on top. I fished through it to find the chicken, of which there was maybe 3 or 4 small bits. It was packed full of peppers and onions too, the latter of which I despise, but it wasn’t specified on the menu they were in it. I picked at it for ten minutes before accepting defeat and nibbling on the dry garlic bread. Scunnered.
If I wasn’t such a loser I would have complained, but we paid our bill which came to around £26 and left swiftly. My advice: Just don’t do it!

The best karaōke in Edinburgh every Thursday night from 9pm.
The Filling Station has, after a short absence, brought back the OK Karaōke & Disco people who provide the best karaōke experience in Edinburgh.
Radio mics, great sound an amazing selection and a very cute presenter ;-)

I went here last week and had their lunch menu, which I think is very good value (from what I remember it was £6.95 for 2 courses) There didn’t seem to be as much choice as last time I had it, but there were still plenty of things to choose from.
For my starter I had the beer battered mushrooms with garlic mayo which were nice, the mushrooms were big, I liked the mayo and there were plenty of them. My boyfriend had tomato soup, which came with some bread, I tasted it and that was also really nice.
However for my main, I had the margherita pizza and — similarly to my experience in Frankie and Benny’s not long before — it had hardly any cheese on it at all! Also, there were slices of tomato on it, which meant that the cheese which was there hadn’t melted properly so I was quite disappointed! My boyfriend had macaroni cheese which he said was nice.

I absolutely love this restaurant, even though it’s a trifle expensive to go to as much as I’d like.
This is proper American food, served in proper American portions — HUGE!
They have burgers, fajitas, steaks, salads, and a lovely selection of desserts and cocktails. As an American, this is one of the very few places in Edinburgh that I will buy fajitas from and trust them to be reasonably authentic.
The Rose Street location is over two levels. It’s easy to miss the stairs down to the basement, but if the upper level is crowded, try the door at the side for a set of stairs down into the dimmer, larger, underground bar.
I recommend going for a booth if you can, after all, that’s the quintessential American experience.

Love the veggie burger here it good you can quite easiler have a main and be more than happy with it.
another good place for a quick and painless lunch.
Good prices and in a central location. great for quick feed on the go.
There a good menu filled with something for everyone. Also I nice range of drinks too.
Staff are nice enough

Handy to get to in town centre. Reasonable prices.
I have found the staff to be quite rude at times, and you have to wait forever to get someone to take your order, then ages again to get your order. Wrote a letter of complaint to the manager because of the rude staff and never received a reply. I wouldn’t go back here again.

good food, fast service, great place to go for big groups!