Salt Horse Beer Shop & Bar.

Salt Horse Beer Shop & Bar

The burger mince is one rare native breed, dry-aged whole for six weeks before anyone butchers it.

Why go

The beef comes from Butchery at Bowhouse on the Balcaskie Estate in Fife, from Lincoln Red cattle that are pasture-fed, moved to fresh grass daily and Soil Association organic certified, and the carcass hangs six weeks before it is broken down and minced. Salt Horse publishes that whole chain on its own food page, and no third party corroborates it.2 That is a longer age than most steakhouses give a whole animal, and it goes into a smash patty. Fourteen draught lines and more than 200 cans and bottles sit behind it, drawn from Otherworld, DEYA, Burnt Mill, The Kernel, Verdant and Garage Beer Co on tap.3 The Belgian shelf is the part worth crossing town for: Trappist from Westmalle and Chimay, abbey beer from St Bernardus, saisons from Brasserie de la Senne, Dupont and Orval, and lambics and gueuzes from Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Boon, Tilquin and Timmermans.3 Everything in the fridge is drink-in or take-home, which is the shop half of the name doing real work. The room opened in 2016 on Blackfriars Street, a minute off the Royal Mile.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the smash burger. Lincoln Red is a slow-finishing native breed and the marbling is why a thin patty stays juicy at that thickness.2
• Order: the fried chicken, double-coated, and take the Nashville hot version for the cayenne-and-fat lacquer over the crust.2
• Order: the chips. Hand-cut and cooked twice, which is the only way a chip gets a glassy outside and a floury middle.2
• Order: a bottle off the big shelf. They keep 750ml bottles and magnums from Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Burning Sky, Mills Brewing and Crossover Blendery, which is a barrel-aged and wild-fermented shelf, built on time in wood.3
• Order (if you are not drinking): the alcohol-free range runs Verdant, Lervig and Rothaus, and the gluten-free comes from Arbor, Pilot and Burnt Mill.3
• Avoid: arriving expecting cask. The CAMRA branch record lists cask ale as not available and files the place as a pub with an off-licence pouring ten changing keg beers plus a real cider.5

What locals & experts say

• Keith Davidson, Time Out Edinburgh (January 2017): the only bylined review of the room, and he lands it on the staff. There is no avoiding the H word when it comes to Salt Horse, what with its sipping glasses of strong craft beer, handmade burgers and 'slaw, but as hipster venues go this is a good one. It's seconds from the tourist noise of the Royal Mile and the staff actually care about the quality of the product. He also caught why the measures are small: some of the beer runs 7% abv and above, so that's no bad thing.1
• The List: on what a fridge that size actually feels like to shop. Choosing isn't easy but staff are helpful and well-informed, and out the back is the cutest secret beer garden.6
• CAMRA, Edinburgh & South East Scotland branch: the practitioner read, refreshed 22 July 2026. Ten changing beers, no cask, Hogan's real cider in keg and bottle, Cidre Breton in bottle, and real ale in a bottle in the attached off-licence. The bar pours pints where a beer allows and otherwise schooners, halves and thirds.5
• Awards: none. Salt Horse appears on no Scran, SLTN or Scottish Bar & Pub winners list, and the CAMRA branch page records no branch award.

Good to know

• Hygiene, and read this first: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme has no rating in force for this premises.7
• Hours split two ways. Bar: Monday to Thursday 4pm to 11pm, Friday and Saturday noon to midnight, Sunday 12.30pm to 11pm. Kitchen: an hour or two earlier at each end, closing 9pm Monday to Thursday and 10pm Friday and Saturday. After the kitchen shuts it goes walk-in only.4
• Booking: optional by design. Half the room is held back for walk-ins.4
• Kitchen history: in 2017 the food was a Jones & Son residency doing burgers and barbecue. It is in-house now, with its own named supply chain, so treat any pre-2020 write-up of the food as being about a different kitchen.1
• Outside and dogs: there is a garden out the back, and CAMRA records the place as dog-friendly.5
• Getting there: Blackfriars Street runs off the Royal Mile down to the Cowgate, 450m from Waverley. The Devil's Advocate is two streets west and The Bow Bar is a seven-minute walk up the hill.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Craft beer and tasty food"
• On his note: both halves check out, and the second half is more specific than he made it. The beer is fourteen taps and a 200-bottle fridge with a Belgian and lambic shelf that no other Old Town bar matches. The food is a short burger, chicken and chips list off a named Fife estate.

Verdict

should-visit — The fridge is the reason and it is a buyer with a position, not a list. Lambics and gueuzes from Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Boon, Tilquin and Timmermans, Trappist from Westmalle and Chimay, abbey from St Bernardus, saisons from Brasserie de la Senne, Dupont and Orval, and a separate shelf of 750s and magnums from Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Burning Sky, Mills and Crossover Blendery. That is somebody buying barrel-aged and wild-fermented beer on purpose in a city where most good bars chase hop releases, and it is depth in the rubric's sense. It is also moving: CAMRA's branch record, refreshed 22 July 2026, files ten changing beers and zero regulars across fourteen lines, so evolution and depth are both present, which is exactly what the Laurieston ruling says separates a real drinks programme from a room trading on its shell. CAMRA matters twice here, because it is a practitioner body and it is the one source in the file that is not the operator talking about itself. The kitchen holds up the bar rather than tolerating it. Smash patties off Lincoln Red from Butchery at Bowhouse on the Balcaskie Estate, pasture-fed, organic-certified and dry-aged whole for six weeks before anyone butchers it, is a supply chain most bar burgers do not have and most steakhouses do not publish. And the fridge is the shop, so anything you drink you can carry out, which makes it a stop rather than a destination you have to finish. Worth the detour for anyone who cares about beer, and the detour is short since it is a minute off the Royal Mile. It is not a must-visit and the gap is evidence, not quality. No award from any body, no critic has judged the current kitchen at all, and the only bylined verdict on the room is Keith Davidson's from January 2017, written about a Jones & Son residency that no longer cooks here. Every food claim is the house's own copy, which the entry now says out loud, and the premises was re-registered with the food authority in July 2026, which usually means a new registered operator and would put those claims under a name nobody has checked.