56 North.

56 North

The gin they pour here is distilled on the bar's own stills, standing inside the room you drink it in.3

Why go

This corner has been a dedicated gin bar since 2008, which puts it at the front of the Scottish gin boom, and the bar calls itself Scotland's first.3 The back bar is the argument. Rosalind Erskine counted about 400 different gins stocked behind the bar and called it one of the most extensive ranges in the country, and the list is arranged by what the gin tastes like: citrus, oriental spice and teas, seaside, historic, floral, and a section called mad flavours that runs to spiced chocolate orange and mocha.2 That is a buyer sorting a shelf the way a drinker actually chooses, and it is why you can hand the staff a flavor and ask them to find it.

Then they started making their own. The July 2026 list carries five South Loch expressions: a Scottish Dry at 42.1%, a Black Raspberry Old Tom at 41.4%, a Rhubarb and Ginger NewTom at 40%, a Cranberry and Clementine Spiced and a Pink Grapefruit Citrus.4 The kitchen runs alongside all of it, out of a short menu of burgers, a rump steak and shared plates, served through the day and the evening.

Order this / avoid

• Order: a flight of three South Loch gins, GBP 19.95 for the set as of July 2026, which is the cheapest way to taste what the still in the room actually does.4
• Order: a gin and tonic built for you. Keith Davidson's suggestion is Rock Rose gin from Caithness with Fever-Tree tonic perhaps, and there are a dozen tonics and mixers and 14 separate garnishes to move it around.1
• Order: the steak frites if you are eating properly. It is a 28 day aged 6oz rump with skin-on fries and peppercorn sauce at GBP 23.95, and it is the one plate on the summer 2026 list with any aging behind it. Otherwise the butcher steak mince burger in brioche, from GBP 17.95.4
• Avoid: planning around a gin count. The last published figure is Erskine's, from 2019, and the bar's own current gin menu prints no total, so ask what is on the shelf.

What locals & experts say

• Keith Davidson, Time Out: the one published call on the cooking, and it comes with its own ceiling. And gin aside, its food is a cut above pub average with quality steaks and gourmet burgers starring on the menu. He describes the format as a style-bar-with-kitchen that offers gin masterclasses, has a list of the spirit that runs to several pages, and dates the bar to 2008 on a site that had held a run of style bars before it, next to the University of Edinburgh's main campus. His write-up is undated, so the July 2026 menu overrules it wherever the two disagree.1
• Rosalind Erskine, Scotsman Food and Drink (October 2019, page updated September 2023): she put it in her eight-bar Edinburgh pick and rated the house spirit, writing that the team have recently started their own distillery in the bar, and are creating South Loch gin, which is well worth a try. She credits the staff, and reports that they scooped Gin Bar of the Year at the 2017 Scottish Gin Awards.2
• The bar's own claim: the July 2026 gin menu says the South Loch expressions are Distilled by us on our bar stills, with 17 scottsih gin awards, their spelling. That is the venue talking about its own distillate.4

Good to know

• Where: the Southside, on West Crosscauseway, a short walk from the university's main campus and about ten minutes from the Old Town.
• Booking: book a table through the bar's own system, and book the gin experiences and distillery tastings separately, so a walk-in does not get you onto one.
• Timing: open through the day and into the evening. The bar publishes no fixed hours, so check before a late arrival.
• Groups: the bar reserves space free for 10 to 100 people, and full private hire works out at 80 to 150.5
• The Secret Garden: an outside bar at the rear with its own service point, partially covered by a stretch tent and heated, opened at selected times of year for groups of 40 plus, including the Six Nations and through spring and summer.5
• Eating: the summer 2026 menu runs bites, starters, sharing plates, sides and puddings around the burgers, with vegetarian and vegan items marked in every section. Haggis bon bons with peppercorn sauce are GBP 9.95.
• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 8 November 2023 (FHRSID 68590). That inspection is about two years and nine months old, well past the 18-month window this project treats as current, so it is stale evidence and not a current clean bill.

Jeff's take (his words)

The case for it is a gin bar that has been buying deeply since 2008 and now distills five expressions on a still inside the room, and the honest limit on that case is that the only critic to write about the food calls it a cut above pub average.

Verdict

could-visit — For a bar the glass is the culinary signal, and the craft case here is depth. This corner has run as a dedicated gin bar since 2008, which puts it at the front of the Scottish gin boom, and the shelf is sorted by flavor category, citrus through seaside to spiced chocolate orange, which is how a drinker actually chooses and is a buyer's decision. Then they put a still in the room and started making South Loch, five expressions with their ABVs on the July 2026 list. Buying depth plus production under one roof is close to unique in this city, and it is the reason the rung is not lower. What keeps it off the detour rung is the age of the evidence and the state of the plate. The 400-bottle count is Rosalind Erskine's, published in 2019, and the bar's own July 2026 gin menu prints no total at all, so the single strongest depth claim cannot be asserted about tonight's shelf; five house expressions is what is verifiable today. Eight query shapes found no bylined coverage since that roundup. Keith Davidson's undated verdict is that the food is a cut above pub average, a compliment with a ceiling in it, at GBP 17.95 to GBP 18.95 for a burger and GBP 23.95 for a 6oz rump. The hygiene register last looked at the premises in November 2023, past the 18-month bound, so it is stale about this kitchen and not a clean bill. Go if gin is the reason or you are already in the Southside. Order the flight and eat while you drink it.