If you take a walk up to King Street, you’ll find Stirling’s newest sports bar, King Cons. Describing themselves as “Stirling’s newest and coolest neighbourhood bar offering food, drink and the best of times”, King Cons launched in September in the unit that was once home to the infamous Tingle (26-28 King Street).
I went down last week to see what was happening, here’s what I found.
A new beginning, and a great start
To start with, it’s almost unbelievable how much the new ownership have transformed the place.
Love it or loathe it, Tingle always had a sort of dungeon vibe to it. Now, the place is super bright and fairly trendy. It gives the place a really fresh vibe, and makes it feel like something distinctively new and exciting.
Part of what gives King Cons such great vibes is also the quality of the service its staff provides; everyone we spoke to was extremely friendly. Honestly, they couldn’t have done enough for you.
Perhaps more importantly though, they seemed very laid back – but not in a way which made you think they didn’t care. Rather, that they were really chill and that meant that the all round atmosphere was relaxed. That was nice, and I often think its what you want in a sports bar. Sometimes places can be a bit too much and it gives the whole venue a bit more of a stuffy vibe. If I visit somewhere like King Cons I don’t want napkin origami, I want some great scran, to have a few drinks and a laugh – and that’s exactly what they provide.
Speaking of drinks…
But, for as much as the refurb is exciting, the thing that will really draw people in is their all-new cocktail menu. When we visited we were feeling particularly fruity, and it had been a long day, so we decided to work our way through a decent bit of the menu (purely for scientific purposes, of course).
The main headline is that all of the cocktails we tried were really nice. Most of them packed a punch, but in a strange way they were also fairly refreshing.
The way they were presented also gave them a boujee feel, but at the same time ordering a few doesn’t necessarily break the bank. I think what I liked most about them, however, was that they were sort-of different from most other places.
On their menu, you will find the usual suspects – pornstar martini, daiquiris, that sort of thing. But, they also bring a few inventions of their own to the table – we tried the Spiced Apple, Peach Cosmo, Sunrise and the Long Pornstar; all of which went down a treat.
If you’re not a massive cocktail fan (and if not, why not?) then the good news is they’ve also got a fairly decent selection of other drinks too. Their offering of shots also seemed fairly extensive, though obviously not as extensive as Tingle was, but definitely extensive enough to get you pretty jolly.
And now for the main event…
By the time you’ve had a few to drink, you might start looking for something to soak it all up. The good news is King Cons’ food offering is really impressive.
The menu consists of most of what you would expect from a sports bar; some sides, burgers and pizzas. What is particularly cool is that all of their burgers can also be made with chicken, which gives you that extra bit of choice.
And it is all really tasty too.
You may want to take note of this, but the salt and pepper fries are absolutely out of this world. Like, honestly, there aren’t enough words to describe how tasty they are (thus the incredibly cheesy headline, for which I make no apologies).
I had the ‘pepizo’ pizza, which was an Italian delight topped with pepperoni and chorizo. It was really delicious, but I also found it was also super filling.
My boyfriend had the ‘hot hot hot’ chicken burger. Obviously, I forced him to let me try it (for journalistic purposes, of course). True to its name, it was indeed ‘hot hot hot’. But it was also super tasty, and nice and succulent too (sorry to the people who hate that word).
Their menu is also not too pricey, and they run a selection of fantastic offers during the week. It’s perfect if you’re a student who just wants something quick to eat!
Overall, it was a really great experience and if you’ve thought about going in, I would heartily recommend it. They say to live like a king, you have to work like a dog – I’d say a trip to King Cons will definitely leave you feeling like a king.
Featured Image Credit: King Cons
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