Cloisters Bar
Nineteen taps, and eight of them are a different beer every time you come back.1
Why go
Time Out counted the lines in February 2024 and got nine cask and ten keg, with eight rotating constantly, and dated the operation at more than twenty years on the short stretch between Tollcross and the Meadows.1 The room is a converted church, and The Skinny lists what survives in it: an open fire, cosy booths and arched ceilings.2 CAMRA members put it on their own suggested Ardmillan to Meadows real-ale crawl alongside the Caley Sample Room and the Athletic Arms, which is a beer drinker's route, and it weighs as one.4
What locals & experts say
- Time Out Edinburgh (February 2024) on the cellar:
The beer choice is legendary – nine cask taps and ten keg – with eight of those rotating constantly.
1 The same piece rates the food atdecent pub grub,
which is a compliment with its limits stated. - The Skinny (Jamie Dunn) on the building:
Situated inside an old church, Cloisters is a bit of Edinburgh history.
2
Good to know
- Address: 26 Brougham Street, in Tollcross, a few minutes' walk from the west end of the Meadows.3
- Hygiene, and read this before you order food. The bar's own Food Hygiene Information Scheme rating is a Pass inspected 11 April 2019, which is seven years and four months old and says nothing about the premises today.5 Separately, the kitchen registered at this same address, filed as Rost @ Cloisters Bar, holds an IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED inspected 9 July 2024.6 Whether that kitchen still operates here could not be established from any source, so both rows are on the page and neither is explained away.
Verdict
could-visit — A cask pub inside a converted church at the Tollcross end of the Meadows, running nineteen taps with eight of them rotating constantly. Time Out counted nine cask and ten keg in February 2024 and said the choice is legendary, which is the strongest published line on the place, and it dated the operation at more than twenty years. The Skinny describes what you walk into: an open fire, cosy booths and arched ceilings in an old church. CAMRA's own members route a real-ale crawl through here. That is a good pub with a serious beer buyer, and it is worth a stop if you are walking between Tollcross and the Meadows. Two things keep it off any stronger recommendation. Nobody with a byline has actually reviewed it, so the record is descriptive rather than critical. And the hygiene picture is poor: the bar's own rating is a Pass from April 2019, seven years stale, and the kitchen filed at the same address holds an Improvement Required from July 2024. Drink here with confidence in the cellar. Read the register before you eat.