Kay’s Bar
The local CAMRA branch has given this bar its Real Ale Quality Award four times since 2021, and that award is decided on members' beer scores, which makes it a measure of cellar work.
Why go
John Kay and Sons sold wine and spirits out of 39 Jamaica Street for over 150 years, and when the merchants closed in the seventies the room carried on as a pub with the shop fittings left where they were.4 Three standing casks pour Fyne Ales Jarl, Theakston Best Bitter and Timothy Taylor Landlord, with three guests turning over alongside them, and CAMRA's branch record notes a malt whisky collection large for the size of the place.2 The freehold belongs to Heineken UK while the pub is run independently, so the range on the bar is the licensee's decision and the four awards sit with the people pulling the pints. There is an open fire in the corner and a back room that holds two tables.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Jarl, or whichever guest has just gone on. Callum McCormack went in for the Evening News on the strength of the award and reported the outcome plainly:
The bar has all the usual favourites, including Guinness, but with it picking up the nod for its real ale, I opted for a delicious pint of Harviestoun Ptarmigan.
3 - Order: something off the malt shelf if you are staying past one drink. The whisky is the other half of what the bar buys.
- Avoid: arriving as a group. This is a two-room pub and the second room is two tables, so a party of six splits up or stands.
What locals & experts say
- Callum McCormack, Edinburgh Evening News (2025):
The interior of the main bar is small, but it is absolutely brimming with character.
He arrived around lunchtime on a Friday and found itpacked with people enjoying pints
, and left calling itone of the city's absolute crown jewels
.3 - CAMRA Edinburgh & South East Scotland, Real Ale Quality Award: winner 2022, runner-up 2023, winner 2024 and 2025, with the venue also listing an Edinburgh City award for 2021. The branch's own test for the award is that a pub
must consistently sell real ale in good condition as measured by members beer scores
.1 - CAMRA branch survey (January 2026):
A cosy and convivial pub, with regular customers from far and wide, that retains many features from its days as a Victorian wine merchant. Considering its very small size, it offers an impressive range of real ales.
The same record notes the press named it in 2023 among the best five pubs in Scotland with a real fire.1 - On the heritage question, a checked negative: this pub holds no listing on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, and its own CAMRA record carries no heritage grading at all, where the Cafe Royal's carries Three Star and the Guildford Arms' carries One Star.
Good to know
- Size: one small front bar and a back room with two tables, and it fills at lunchtime.
- Timing: the bar runs to 11pm Monday to Thursday and Sunday, midnight on Friday and Saturday. Food is a lunchtime service only, roughly midday to 2pm, and the venue's own site gives Monday to Friday while CAMRA's record says Wednesday to Friday, so confirm the day.
- Booking: none taken. Walk in and take what is free.
- Children: not admitted.
- Ownership: Heineken UK holds the freehold; the pub is run independently.1
- Getting there: Jamaica Street West runs behind the townhouses of India Street, about five minutes down from Queen Street and the same again up from Stockbridge.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 14 January 2026.
Jeff's take (his words)
The case for it rests on four branch beer-quality awards in five years and on a cask list bigger than the room.
Verdict
should-visit — The award behind this pub is the one worth caring about. CAMRA's Real Ale Quality Award is decided on members' beer scores over a year, so it measures how a cellar is run, and this bar has taken the local branch's version four times since 2021 with a runner-up placing in the year it missed. It does that out of a former wine merchant's shop with three standing casks, three guests and a fire, which is craft carried by depth in a room with barely any square footage to hide in. The counterweight is scale: the front bar is small, the back room seats two tables, food runs two hours at lunch and the doors shut at eleven most nights, so plan an hour here and something after it. It stays short of must-visit because good cask kept well is a thing Edinburgh has more than one of, and nothing here is unavailable elsewhere in the city.