Yesterday evening we met our son at the Assembly Bar in Lothian Street in Edinburgh. It presents itself as a trendy type of bar to hang out, close to the university. There are some interesting murals adorning the walls and a mixture of tables with chairs and comfy sofas. We’d planned to sit outside but it started raining and I was sitting right next to an ashtray so we decided to move inside.

The Assembly Bar, Edinburgh

It offers a fairly standard menu of main courses such as burgers, pizzas, fish and chips and fajitas costing around £6. We plumped for the offer available from 5pm to 8pm where you can select two larger dishes plus a two pint pitcher of lager for a total cost of £16.

The member of staff how took and order and served the food was pleasant and polite. I had the vegetable fajitas and our son had the chicken fajitas which were nothing to write home about it but perfectly acceptable. I had a cafe latte which was good.

At that stage I thought that the Assembly offered a relaxed atmosphere, mainly geared to the younger market and was reasonable value, by Edinburgh standards where you pay an average of £3 for a pint of lager.

That was until I went downstairs to the ladies toilet and suffice to say they were so appalling that I would never visit that establishment again. I felt compelled complain about the state of the ladies toilets to a member of staff at the bar who didn’t make any comment. According to my husband and our son the gents toilet was fine.

Now I think that having clean toilets is essential for any bar, cafe or restaurant and establishments should take this seriously. What is the point in having a trendy bar with minging toilets?