Old Town
30 rooms on the Edinburgh list
Thirty-five rooms on this list sit in the Old Town, and the useful ones work the same way: the cooking finished before you arrived, so you queue to pay and not for a kitchen. Mary's Milk Bar churns its whole cabinet before eleven. Civerinos Forrest Rd/Meadows cuts pizza off a tray by the slice, Pronto Slice does the same a few steps from the Castle esplanade, and Oink Victoria Street carves a pig that went into the oven the night before. The other Old Town strength is what you drink and what you take home. The Bow Bar holds seven Scottish air-pressure founts, Cadenhead's Whisky Shop sells single-cask bottlings you cannot buy online, and I.J Mellis Cheesemonger has cut cheese to order on Victoria Street since 1993. For a sit-down meal the street to know is the Canongate, where The Black Grape rewrites its card every twelve weeks and Wedgwood The Restaurant cooks the ingredients its chef picked himself. Two caveats belong here. The Devil's Advocate and Jolly Judge both hide down closes and you will walk past them. Anything on the busiest block of the High Street makes its money from the foot traffic, so read the menu in the window before you sit.
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Here, for
Known for, here
The cheap pint in an old room4 here
- Jolly Judge — CAMRA's Edinburgh branch has voted this its Cider Pub of the Year three years running, on six ciders in rotation.
- The Bow Bar — Seven Scottish air pressure founts stand on this bar, which CAMRA's branch records as more than any other pub anywhere.
- Sandy Bell's — Free folk plays here every evening and every afternoon through August.
- Halfway House — Four cask lines rotate with nothing permanent on any of them, in a tiny room partway up Fleshmarket Close.
Whisky bars3 here
- Cadenhead's Whisky Shop — This is a shop and not a bar, and it is one of three on earth selling the Authentic Collection single cask at cask strength.
- The Bow Bar — The gantry holds more than 400 single malts, and the pub fills its own casks on top of that.
- The Devil's Advocate — The dram list is the reason the drinks trade sends people down the close to this one.
Haggis, past the Burns supper4 here
- Wedgwood The Restaurant — Crumbles haggis over pigeon ham with neep ketchup, and sets a venison haggis beside the Avon Valley roe deer.
- Oink Victoria Street — Haggis is the stuffing choice that turns the hog roast roll into an Edinburgh sandwich.
- The Doric — John Gilmour's haggis comes under a light Glenkinchie whisky jus with neeps and tatties, and the bon-bons are rolled in oatmeal and fried.
- Oink Scottish Hog Roast — The shop makes its own haggis and offers it against sage and onion, which is the choice that makes the roll an Edinburgh sandwich.
Restaurants15
Civerinos Forrest Rd/Meadows
Listed · Pizza by the slice · Old Town · $$
walk-in
Two dough clocks run behind this counter: 72 hours for the panuozzo and, on the group's own account, 96 for the New Haven pies.
The Devil's Advocate!
Listed · Bar · Old Town · $$
book ahead
The head of bars at Gleneagles picks this Old Town close for its drinks list, and the kitchen at the same address holds a failing hygiene rating.
Mother India's Cafe?
Listed · Indian · Old Town · $$
book ahead
Punjabi spices and yoghurt, baked over the haddock the east coast lands, for GBP 9.75.
Cold Town House
Listed · Bar · Old Town · $$
book ahead
Scott Campbell cooks at Badger & Co for a living, and this is the Grassmarket room he brings his own kids to.
Wedgwood The Restaurant
Listed · Modern Scottish, foraged · Old Town · $$$
book ahead
Paul Wedgwood picks his own kelp, sea aster and channel wrack off the East Lothian coast, and he moves the spot each trip so he never strips one stretch out.
Ikigai Ramen Southbridge!
Listed · Ramen · Old Town · $$
This room was one of Teddy Lee's own Maki & Ramen restaurants before it was an Ikigai. The group says so in as many words: "The property was originally a Maki & Ramen."
Oink Victoria Street
Listed · Restaurant · Old Town · $
walk-in
Two Borders farmers built their own roasting oven after the 1999 pig price crash, and the pig you can see through this window has been in it for fourteen hours.
David Bann Restaurant
Listed · Restaurant · Old Town · $$
book ahead
The cheese pudding is double-baked on smoked Isle of Kintyre cheddar, in a kitchen that has cooked no meat since it opened in 2002.
Pronto Slice?
Listed · Roman pizza al taglio · Old Town · $
walk-in
A pizza counter opened by a street-food operator whose test kitchen was a five-month dough factory in Portobello.
Oink Scottish Hog Roast?
Listed · Restaurant · Old Town · $
walk-in
The shop makes the haggis that goes in the roll, and the pig it goes on has been in the oven for fourteen hours.
The Milkman!
Listed · Coffee · Old Town · $
walk-in
Two coffee shops at either end of Cockburn Street, both named in the Scottish Independent Coffee Guide and both picked in the local paper's hot chocolate round-up.
Whiski Rooms
Listed · Bar · Old Town · $$
book ahead
Whiski Rooms runs a tutored tasting every day, in a room built for it beside its own whisky shop.
Art and Vintage?
Listed · Coffee · Old Town · $
walk-in
A chef and an artist run it together, the exhibitions on the walls change, and The List calls the coffee arguably the best cup in town.
Albanach
Listed · Bar · Old Town · $$
walk-in
A single-malt bar at the top of the High Street, and almost nobody has written about it since 2016.
Monteiths
Listed · Bar · Old Town · $$$
book ahead
Difford's Guide rated this bar 4.5 out of 5 when it picked Edinburgh's best cocktail bars, and that piece is dated May 2017.
Provisions3
Cadenhead's Whisky Shop
Solid · Whisky · Old Town · $$$
walk-in
One range on these shelves is single cask, cask strength, and sold in three shops on earth. This is one of the three.
I.J Mellis Cheesemonger
Solid · Cheese · Old Town · $$
walk-in
Iain Mellis chose this basement in 1993 because it was damp, small and cave-like, which made it right for maturing cheese.
Royal Mile Whiskies?
Listed · Whisky · Old Town · $$$
walk-in
The shop bottles its own single casks and sells them in 5cl as well as 70cl, so a 17 year old Orkney costs a few pounds to try before it costs a lot to own.
Craft beer1
Salt Horse Beer Shop & Bar?
Solid · Craft beer · Old Town · $$
book ahead
The burger mince is one rare native breed, dry-aged whole for six weeks before anyone butchers it.
Pubs & cask7
Jolly Judge
Solid · Pub · Old Town · $
walk-in
CAMRA's Edinburgh branch has voted this its Cider Pub of the Year three years running, in a city that argues about cask.
The Bow Bar
Solid · Pub · Old Town · $
walk-in
Seven Scottish air-pressure founts stand on this bar, which CAMRA's Edinburgh branch records as more than any other pub has.
Sandy Bell's?
Solid · Folk sessions and cask ale · Old Town · $
walk-in
Free folk plays here every evening, on Friday to Monday afternoons, and every afternoon through August.
The Doric
Listed · Pub · Old Town · $$$
book ahead
One butcher, John Gilmour, supplies the haggis, the sirloin, the burger mince and the lamb for the shepherd's pie, and the haggis arrives under a light Glenkinchie whisky jus.
Halfway House
Listed · Pub · Old Town · $
walk-in
The bar sits midway up the Fleshmarket Close steps, which is where the name comes from and why people stop.
Royal Mile Tavern
Listed · Pub · Old Town · $$
walk-in
Musicians play here every night from 10 until 1, and the pub charges nothing at the door.
The Holyrood 9A
Listed · Pub · Old Town · $$
walk-in
The side-turning cask taps went out of use in October 2022, so the beer here is keg and the cider comes in bottles.
Wine1
The Black Grape
Solid · Small plates · Old Town · $$$
book ahead
Three weeks before the doors opened, on a street that sells shortbread by the ton, Gaby Soutar reported the promise: "there will be no haggis bon-bons."
Coffee1
Origin Coffee?
Solid · Specialty coffee · Old Town · $
walk-in
Their beans were pouring at Ondine, The Fishmarket and Gleneagles Townhouse before they took a counter of their own in this city.
Bakes & sweet1
Mary's Milk Bar
Solid · Dessert · Old Town · $
walk-in
Mary Hillard opened this Grassmarket counter in 2013 and told the Evening News that for the first three years almost nobody came in.
Places to stay1
BrewDog DogHouse Edinburgh Hotel?
Listed · Craft beer hotel · Old Town · $$$
booking essential
This is the only DogHouse left in the United Kingdom.
Elsewhere in Edinburgh