Black Ivy.

Black Ivy

The Scottish Bar & Pub Awards named the heated, awning-covered terrace over Bruntsfield Links the best outdoor area in Scotland in 2023, then again in 2024.2

Why go

Billy Lowe opened this in November 2017 in the shell of the old Links Hotel, after building and selling two Edinburgh pub groups, Thistle Inns and Saltire Taverns, the second of which held Le Monde and Angels Share.4 He runs it through Caledonia Inns.5 His stated aim at the launch was local luxury for all.4 There are 21 bedrooms upstairs, a conservatory dining room, a bar called the Drafthouse that runs live music, and the terrace, which is the reason most people come. Tank beer is the centrepiece of the beer list, served unpasteurised from bulk vessels behind the bar, and there are cocktail masterclasses as a bookable thing.7

The March 2026 dinner menu names two suppliers and both are worth knowing. The haddock in the fish and chips is Welch's of Newhaven and the sourdough boule is from Company Bakery.9 The rest of that menu runs a grill section of Scotch sirloin and ribeye, burgers on pretzel buns, duck bao buns, a hot-honey baked camembert and a hot-smoked mackerel and beet bowl. No source names a head chef, and the menu claims no dry-aging, wood or charcoal work anywhere on it.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the beer-battered fish and chips, £22, with the Welch's of Newhaven haddock, thick-cut chips, tartare and chippy sauce. A smaller fish is £15.7
• Order: the steak pie, £19.50. Slow-braised Scottish steak, house gravy, puff pastry, tenderstem and chantenay carrots.
• Order: the mussels with chorizo and cider, £12 as a starter and £18 scaled up to a main, with bread for the broth.
• Order: the haggis bon bons with whisky sauce, £9, or the Highlander burger at £20, which puts haggis and bacon on a steak patty in a pretzel bun.
• Order on a Sunday: the roast, noon to 10pm, with Scotch striploin, chicken supreme or a vegan nut roast. The giant Yorkshire puddings and the gravy are both unlimited, which the venue states twice.
• Avoid: reading the three national awards as evidence about the cooking. Two are for the outdoor area and one is for the hotel bar. The only scored critical read of the food is Gaby Soutar's, from February 2018.1
• Avoid: sitting out here for the view. Callum McCormack found the terrace lined with foliage, which buys privacy and screens the Links.3

What locals & experts say

• Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman, February 2018: The venue may look fancy, but the food at Edinburgh's Black Ivy is best forgotten, says Gaby Soutar. That is her standfirst, written weeks after the kitchen opened. On her prawn cocktail: our take on a classic turned out to be three average-sized crustaceans (that's £2.48 each) in a cayenne pepper-ish Marie Rose, with a pile of chopped iceberg underneath. Her closing line is the one that has aged into the entry's caveat: With so much competition - even if their branding is slick, the interior Instagrammable and the cocktails decent - the food shouldn't be an afterthought. She scored it Food 5, Ambiance 7.1
• Callum McCormack, Edinburgh Evening News, September 2024, went out to see the terrace on the peg of its second consecutive win and stayed for a roll. The food itself from the Black Ivy is top quality as you would expect, and fairly priced with a double roll costing £5. He was there mid-morning eating one item, so read it as a note on the breakfast counter.3
• Scottish Bar & Pub Awards, Best Outdoor Area, 2023, winner. Gary Flockhart reported the field it beat: The Bruntsfield bar, which also has a restaurant and boutique hotel, beat off competition from Hugo's Bar and Pavillion in Dalgety Bay, The Ivy Lodge in Aberdeen and The Fox and Willow in Ayr. It repeated in 2024.2
• Scottish Bar & Pub Awards, Hotel Bar of the Year, 2025, winner, run by the trade magazine DRAM. The shortlist was Bar 1819 at Apex Waterloo Place, Nor' Loft, Glasgow's Red Sky Bar and this one, so three of the four finalists were Edinburgh rooms.10
• Billy Lowe took the same body's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, for 35 years in the licensed trade, on the night the terrace won its first title. That award belongs to him and does not travel to the door.2

Good to know

• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 18 November 2019, with no re-inspection pending as at 4 August 2026. That is six years and eight months ago, so the hygiene register says nothing current about this kitchen in either direction. Treat it as missing information.8
• Hours: breakfast from 8am seven days, food until 10pm, and the bar, the restaurant and the terrace all serving until 1am every night of the week. No closed day. The kitchen stops three hours before the room does.7
• Price: starters £7 to £14, mains £12 to £29, surf and turf £39, sides £5 to £6.50, afternoon tea from £30. Read off the March 2026 menu on 4 August 2026. Monday to Thursday there is a main and a drink for £16, or two courses and a drink for £21.50.
• Booking: worth doing. The terrace page says terrace spots are reservable by phone, on 0131 564 1901. Deck chairs book separately. Afternoon tea needs two days' notice, and the Sunday roast is subject to availability on the day.7
• Groups: there is a private dining room and a space called the Clubroom, and no source publishes a cover count for either.
• Getting there: the top of Bruntsfield Links, on Alvanley Terrace where it meets Bruntsfield Place. LeftField is 265 m away and PIGGS is 475 m up the road. On-street parking sits right outside, free at weekends and overnight, charged 08:30 to 17:30 on weekdays.7
• Location correction: Jeff's list files this under Marchmont. It is Bruntsfield, which the venue, the Scotsman's own tag on the review, the Evening News headline and the launch trade report all agree on. Marchmont is across the Links to the east.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Large terrace"
• On that: he has the size right. Callum McCormack had the run of the place on a late-morning visit and wrote up the massive seating area, the outdoor TVs on it and the kitschy antique lamps that surround the area.3

Verdict

could-visit — Three national wins, and none of them is for food. The Scottish Bar and Pub Awards named the terrace Best Outdoor Area in 2023, over Hugo's Bar and Pavillion in Dalgety Bay, The Ivy Lodge in Aberdeen and The Fox and Willow in Ayr, then again in 2024, and gave the room Hotel Bar of the Year in 2025 out of a four-name shortlist. Those are current, specific verdicts on a space, and the space earns them: an awning over the whole seating area, heaters circling it, outdoor TVs, and drinks until 1am seven nights over Bruntsfield Links. The kitchen has been scored once. Gaby Soutar gave it Food 5 out of 10 in February 2018 under a standfirst saying the food is best forgotten, and in the eight years since, nobody has published a scored read of it. No source names a head chef, the March 2026 menu claims no dry-aging, wood or charcoal work anywhere on it, and the only provenance it names is Welch's of Newhaven haddock and Company Bakery sourdough. Craft carries the most weight in this rubric, so a decorated terrace over a kitchen this thinly evidenced lands where the terrace sends you and no higher: go if you are on Bruntsfield Place on a warm afternoon, sit outside, drink the tank beer, and read the awards for what they are.