The Abbey.

The Abbey

The back bar keeps its own single-cask bottlings alongside the standard range, which means there are drams in this Newington pub you cannot pour anywhere else in the world.

Why go

Depth is the whole argument here, and two counts exist for it. The pub's own figure is over 700 Scottish and international whiskies; The List's guide put it at up to 700 whiskies on the back bar at any one time in June 2025, and CAMRA's Edinburgh branch, whose volunteers survey the room themselves, records over 300 whiskys are always available.12 The flights are the way in, sorted by region, age, decade or one distillery, with sets for blends, grains and the house bottlings.1 Beer is a real second string: three changing casks rotate through Broughton, Greene King and Williams Bros while Deuchars IPA holds the regular line.2 Worth knowing who owns the building, because it shapes what the taps can do: CAMRA lists the freehold as Greene King, so this is a brewery-owned house whose whisky buying is the part that runs free.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: a flight, and ask for one of the house's own casks inside it. The kitchen runs Scottish and plain: haggis, neeps and tatties, fish and chips, and a specials board the pub changes daily with dishes like Scottish venison stew.4
• Avoid: treating this as a hushed tasting room. The whisky is serious and the room is a working local with the football on, so pick your hour if you want to concentrate on what is in the glass.

What locals & experts say

• The List / Eat & Drink 365 (2025): With up to 700 whiskies on the back bar at any one time, including a selection of their own single cask bottlings, The Abbey is a fine place for a dram. The same entry describes flights curated by region, age, decade or distillery or groupings like blends, grains, own bottlings, and a 'once they're gone, they're gone' list.1
• CAMRA, Edinburgh & South East Scotland branch (record updated November 2025): A friendly pub frequented by locals, students and tourists. Wooden floored alehouse, divided by an island bar, one side mainly an eating area. The branch also notes the pub is marketed as the 'Abbey Whisky Bar', which is the closest thing to a caveat anyone has published about it.2
• Edinburgh Evening News (Gary Flockhart, 25 August 2024): the paper's South Side real-ale crawl runs Dagda Bar, Cask and Barrel, Southpour, The Abbey and Greenmantle, which is the honest way to use this pub in one line.3
• Tom Kitchin's head chef, via Kitchin's Relisher interview of August 2026, and the attribution matters: Kitchin names two whisky bars and credits both to my head chef, who is our resident whisky man rather than to himself. This is one of the two, put at over 700 bottles from Scotland and beyond, which is a third independent statement of a number the house and The List already agree on. The line that separates it from its rival is the useful part: Where Diggers is the time capsule, The Abbey is the corner local that happens to take whisky deadly seriously.6
• No critic has reviewed the food or the room here. The lines above are a guide entry, a branch survey, a route listing and a chef's relayed recommendation, so the cooking is described by the house alone.

Good to know

• Timing: 9am to 1am Monday to Saturday, 9am to midnight Sunday, with breakfast running into dinner.4 A 1am licence puts it among the Southside rooms still serving after most kitchens have shut.
• Booking: walk in.
• Getting there: The Queen's Hall concert venue sits at 85-89 Clerk Street, a two-minute walk up the same street.5 The Pleasance and Summerhall are both a short walk from the door, and the Newington bus corridor runs past it.
• Outside: pavement tables from April to October. Pub quiz every Thursday at 9pm.2
• Dietary: the house states vegetarian and vegan options on the standing menu.4
• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 21 April 2026. The FSA record lists the premises as The Abbey Bar.7

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Whisky pub".
• Two words, and the sources back both of them. The back bar is deep enough to carry the first, and the island bar, the seven screens and the cask line settle the second.

Verdict

should-visit — Craft is weighed first and here it is depth, which is the right axis for a whisky room. An independent guide counts up to 700 bottles on the back bar and, more usefully, records that some of them are the pub's own single casks, so there are pours in this building that exist nowhere else. Three rotating casks and Deuchars on the regular line mean the beer side holds up for anyone who is not drinking spirits. The room is a working Newington local with seven screens and a Thursday quiz, so the send is the glass and the hour: a 1am licence, no booking, and the Queen's Hall two minutes up the street for anyone eating around a concert. It stops short of must-visit because no critic has judged it, the kitchen is unreviewed, and the city's whisky award went elsewhere in 2025.