Nauticus
Kyle and Iain built the drinks list around Scottish producers and then arranged it by what Leith actually shipped, so tea and spice, gin, sherry and whisky each get a chapter of the menu.
Why go
By the bar's own account roughly nine in ten of the things it pours are Scottish or Scottish-linked. The bar runs to midnight most nights and to 1am at the weekend.
Order this / avoid
- Order: a beer and a whisky. That is what Michele Mariotti, head of bars at Gleneagles, comes here for, in those words.1
- Avoid: squeezing it between two shows. Getting out to Leith and back eats the gap; make it the end of the night.
What locals & experts say
- Michele Mariotti, head of bars at Gleneagles (The Scotsman, 2025):
if the crowds start to feel a bit much, Nauticus is my go-to for a beer and a whisky. It's near Leith, so just a short journey away, but well worth it. The drinks are great, and the service is genuinely some of the best in the city.
1 - Edinburgh Bar Awards 2025, Best Pub, winner. The city's own drinks programme gave its pub category to a Leith cocktail room, with The Mother Superior commended behind it. The vote is half public and half trade by the organiser's published method, so it reads as the city rating its own.4
- Mike Aikman, owner of Bramble, Lucky Liquor and The Last Word Saloon, also put it forward in the same piece, which makes two of the four drinks-trade voices asked. His own words for this bar are not given.1
Good to know
- Timing: to midnight Monday to Thursday and Sunday, to 1am Friday and Saturday, with an earlier Saturday open.
- Booking: enquiries through the venue's form; a weekend table in August is worth arranging.
- Getting there: Duke Street in Leith, a bus or a half-hour walk from the Old Town venues.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, but the inspection dates from April 2022, so nothing current has been published about the premises.
Jeff's take (his words)
The case for it is Mariotti and Aikman, two of the four drinks-trade voices The Scotsman asked.
Verdict
should-visit — Kyle and Iain built the list around Scottish producers and then arranged it by what Leith actually traded, so the tea and spice routes, gin, sherry and whisky each get a chapter. That is a real organizing idea rather than a theme, and it gives a drinker somewhere to go. Michele Mariotti, who runs the bars at Gleneagles, calls it his go-to when the Festival crowds get heavy and rates the service 'genuinely some of the best in the city'. It sits a deliberate distance from the Old Town, which is the whole point in August. Held below must-visit because no critic has judged the drinks themselves.