Porty Vault, Edinburgh

Their first bar has more draught beers than seats to drink them in, and the opening of their second saw them launching a bunch of fireworks off the roof in broad daylight. If there’s one thing to expect from Vault City – the Portobello sour beer brewery whose fruity, experimental sours have been an unexpected but welcome crossover hit – it’s maximalism. Big flavours, big combinations, and lots of them.

The Porty Vault is Vault City’s newest outpost, sitting pretty on Portobello High Street with a wood and iron aesthetic that’s equal parts post-industrial bar and particularly cool gate showroom. By the bar is a typically outlandish chalkboard full of incredibly exciting and delicious flavour combos – the P.O.G.’s mix of passion fruit, orange and guava comes across like a boozy Rubicon, the Cloudy Lemonade hits like a turbo-powered turbo-shandy, and the Strawberry Sundae tastes remarkably similar to ice cream. Could be witchcraft, may simply be lactose, either way it works for us.

So what food pairs well with incredibly over-the-top and flavourful beer? The Porty Vault have gone for low-and-slow smoky barbecue, with a kitchen helmed by Darren Lim (eagle-eyed Edinburgh barbecue watchers may remember Darren from a stint at the excellent Smiddy in Canonmills). In the evening, it’s all big piles of smokey meat, but on our lunchtime trip things are a bit more refined and manageable.

Take the Texas chilli dog (£11), for example. It’s an incredibly juicy beef hotdog topped with some nicely-spiced bean chilli and white onion, and that’s it. The flavours are excellently smoky and unctuous, and while there could definitely be more chilli on this chilli dog (lay it on lads, this is supposed to be maximal!), it’s a tasty bit of lunch.

The chicken wings (£7.50) are also excellent – sweet spice and smoke all nicely balanced, and bags of flavour from the marinade and the white barbecue sauce on the side which clashes in the best way possible. Portion-wise it’s on the small side (they have amended this since we visited, so fair play), but the wings themselves are great. What’s not so great is the vegetarian pulled pork sandwich (£11.50), which tastes exactly like the coagulation of mustard, ketchup and pickles on top of a McDonald’s cheeseburger. It also just feels a bit too… healthy? It doesn’t really do it for us, but while there are some minor missteps on the big dishes, the sides are a great success.

The mac and cheese (£5.50) is a fantastic shade of orange, so it’s a surprise when the result is a mild and refined mac that’s all gooey, stringy cheese and pleasantly al dente pasta. The green chilli hominy (£4.50) provides a fine counterpoint to the rich meaty flavours elsewhere. Sharp tomatillos, a nice gnaw from the corn, and a flavour that cuts through the rest of the table.

The collard greens (£4.50) are the standout, though – they’re supremely savoury and absolutely packed with flavour. Granted, that flavour is in large part down to the big chunks of ham hock flecked through the juicy greens, but this is an excellent dish. It is excellent in no small part because of how much it packs in, and that’s the overall vibe from Porty Vault. If you’re ever feeling uninspired by food and drink, a brief stop off here will reset your taste buds by drowning them in as many flavours as possible. Your challenge is to pick the right ones from the seemingly endless list – bonne chance…

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243 Portobello High St, EH15 2AW Sun-Thu, midday-10pm; Fri-Sat, midday-1am
vaultcity.co.uk/pages/porty-vault-smokehouse-and-taproom