Date and Time: 12 June, Wednesday, 7:00 PM

Tucked away on the south side of South Street, The Rule Pub is not in the direct line of fire for most tourists or locals wandering about town. However, it bills itself as serving ‘craft beer’ and a ‘lively, family pub’. Chosen for this review due to a cursory look at the burger menu which will very shortly become clear, The Rule, according to some of the St. Andrean intelligencia, is not the most beloved pub in the town. Figured we might as well find out whether that was true!

The beer was a Brewdog Punk IPA, a smooth IPA with some hoppy taste and texture, but lacking any citrus zing to it. A smooth IPA, which is a rare find in North America. Additionally, if supporting local-ish and socially conscious-ish businesses’ is your thing, then note Brewdog is a Scottish brewery with some colourful history, including a beer called – I kid you not – Tactical Nuclear Penguin.

After reviewing a few basic burgers over the last month, decided to kick things up a notch on this trip after viewing the menu.

The Ultimate Burger, as it is labelled, comes with melted cheese, a breaded chicken fillet on the bottom, BBQ pulled pork, BBQ burnt ends (whatever those are), onion rings, and a heart attack mushrooms between two lightly toasted buns. In order to offset this stack of deep-fried goodness, it was accompanied with some greens.

While easy to see how one would be disgusted by the excess in this burger, rest assured that all that revulsion does not negatively affect the taste. With the onion ring and fried chicken providing both top and bottom crunch on each bite, you achieve the desired level of crunch-satisfaction. The patty, mixed with the softer ingredients of cheese, pulled pork, burnt ends, and mushrooms, is firm and holds together nicely under the sustained contact required to consume this burger. Please note it requires many bites, and a willingness to really stuff your face in it.

Overall a very pleasing burger choice, however it does come with some criticism, mostly of the social nature. Does it have enough calories for an average human being for 2 days? Yes, at least. Does it cause climate change? Yes, the only way it could do more is by adding ‘penguin’ to that ingredient list. Does it sit in your gut like a rock for the next 24 hours? Absolutely. Is it Ultimate? That’s for you to decide.

The overall scene in The Rule is the most eclectic experienced thus far in St. Andrews. Between the two Eastern European guys with pointy shoes spending an hour at the electronic gambling machine, a man with two dogs who came in to swap his large pile of change for bills (but no beer), to the two women behind loudly discussing how big their student loans were, it seemed to have lots of character.

The floor layout extends quite far back from South Street, with a wide variety of options. There are five or six different rooms to sit in, some with TV viewing, some with sports-bar like booths and high-top tables, all light with a rather harsh and aggressive neon-sign type lighting. Traditional pub feel The Rule is not, as there are minimal darkly light, large comfy booths in which to sink and fade into the background.

The final odd wrinkle is the drink menu, which highlights several American beer options including Brooklyn Lager (which is, in fact, probably in my top 3 favourite beer of all-time, but feels out of place in this location, and at 5.70 GBP a pint, a bit steep). The assumption is that based on location being close to several tour-bus drop off spots on South Street that there is some low-hanging American tourist currency to pick off here.

Good For: Eating a gigantic, socially-unconscionable pile of dead-animal. Seeing a wide cast of characters. American beers at higher than you would like prices.

Bad For: A cozy pub feel. Price for your stack of dead animals is a not a bargain. Vegetarians (yes, I realize this is a running theme for this blog).

Cost: 16.40 GBP