Bittersweet leith
Two of its bartenders have placed in national competitions in three years, and the bar ferments its own mead and kombucha for the drinks.5
Why go
Fowwaz Ansari won De Kuyper Mixologist of the Year at the 2024 Scottish Bar and Pub Awards, listed in the Scotsman's full winners roster as Fowwaz Ansari - Bittersweet, Edinburgh
.6 Three weeks later SLTN reported that in the inaugural Edinburgh Bar Awards Best Shake contest, Fowwaz Ansari of Bittersweet triumphed
.3 In March 2026 CLASS published the World Class GB top fifty and it includes Sam Chatterji, Bittersweet
.5 The bar itself was a Top 50 Cocktail Bars ones-to-watch finalist for 2025 and made the Edinburgh Bar Awards Best Bar longlist that year.78
Time Out describes a bar founded by two Italian brothers, Fabrizio and Simone Cioffi, built on Italian aperitivo culture, with a classic and modern negroni and spritz section
and in-house ferments including mead wine and kombucha, plus arancini, bruschetta and sharing boards if you want feeding.1 A bar reviewer at CLASS, writing about somewhere else entirely, characterised it as feeling open and welcoming to a broad crowd, but at the same time offering enough cocktail craft for the drinks aficionado
.2
Good to know
- Address: 24 Henderson Street EH6 6BS.4
- What the awards actually say: three of the five belong to bartenders rather than to the bar. The two that attach to the venue are the Top 50 ones-to-watch finalist placing and the Best Bar longlist.
- Price: nobody publishes one.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 7 May 2024, FHRSID 1488336. Twenty-seven months old.4
- Searching the hygiene register: filed as
Bittersweet
, without the Leith suffix Jeff's list uses.4
Verdict
should-visit — An Italian aperitivo bar on Henderson Street run by the Cioffi brothers, and the reason to go is the people making the drinks. Fowwaz Ansari won Mixologist of the Year at the 2024 Scottish Bar and Pub Awards and Best Shake at the first Edinburgh Bar Awards the same month; Sam Chatterji is in the World Class GB top fifty for 2026. Two bartenders from one Leith room in national competitions two years apart is not a coincidence. The list is negronis and spritzes with in-house ferments behind it, the food is arancini and boards, and CLASS describes a room that stays welcoming while doing real cocktail work. Should-visit, held off must-visit only because no one has reviewed it directly.