The Polwarth Tavern
The city's first Edinburgh Bar Awards, in September 2024, named this pub a highly commended finalist for Best Pub.1
Why go
The placing is the whole published record on this pub. SLTN's report of the inaugural awards puts it second in the Best Pub category behind Nauticus in Leith, and describes it in one clause as a charming pub known for great drinks and a friendly, down-to-earth vibe.
1 SLTN describes the 2024 vote only as peer-nominated, so the placing measures how the trade rates this pub, and no critic has rated it at all. No published source says what is on the taps or what the kitchen sends out.
What locals & experts say
- Edinburgh Bar Awards, Best Pub, 2024: highly commended finalist behind the winner Nauticus, and SLTN's whole description of it is
a charming pub known for great drinks and a friendly, down-to-earth vibe.
1 - Nobody else has written about it. No bylined review, roundup entry or chef pick names this pub.
Good to know
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 14 May 2009, FHRSID 118780. Seventeen years old. It is a pass, and it describes the premises of another decade.2
- Same address, other businesses: the hygiene register files two more food businesses at 35 Polwarth Crescent, King of Feasts with a 2023 Pass and Coorie awaiting inspection as of February 2026. Nothing read here establishes who cooks for the pub.2
- Getting there: Polwarth Crescent runs off Polwarth Gardens in Merchiston, about ten minutes' walk south of Fountainbridge along the Union Canal.
- Hours, price, booking: nothing published anywhere. Treat it as a walk-in and check before making a plan around it.
Verdict
listed — The city's first bar awards named this Merchiston local a highly commended finalist for Best Pub in 2024, behind Nauticus. That is the whole published record. Nobody with a byline has written about what is on the taps, what comes out of the kitchen or what the room is like, and the statutory hygiene record on the premises was last refreshed in May 2009. The award placing is enough to keep it on the list and not enough to send anyone across town for it. Walk in if you are near Polwarth Crescent.