The Burrow.

The Burrow

A basement room under a pizza restaurant that holds twenty-five, with a wine list naming the producer, the region and the vintage on every line.3

Why go

The three friends who run Three Blind Mice, the Romana pizza room at street level, opened this underneath it on 13 September 2024.7 It runs as its own bar with its own hours and its own booking, and the two rooms share a building and a phone number. Cocktails sat mostly at GBP 10 when the bar trade reviewed it in January 2025, which is cheap for a room three minutes off the Royal Mile.1 The wine is where the ambition shows: pours by the 125ml, 500ml and 750ml, with Pol Roger, a Sancerre from Domaine Roger Millet, La Zerba Gavi and a Central Otago pinot from Te Kano all listed by producer and vintage.3 Old and rare whisky is the second shelf. Nobody has published its size or its prices, so go and read it before you plan a night around it. The bar hangs a work it presents as an original Banksy, and nobody has published a title, a medium, an owner history or an authentication for it.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Fresca Mule. Natasha Corfield had it on a neighbouring table's advice: tequila, strawberry, yuzu, pink pepper and ginger beer, and a tingly, tart triumph.1
• Avoid: the Plume, calvados and cognac with peach, egg white and soda. Corfield's is the only critical line anyone has published about a drink here: it was more style than substance.1
• Avoid: arriving thirsty for beer. CAMRA's branch record puts it plainly: cask ale not available, no real ale.2

What locals & experts say

• Natasha Corfield, CLASS (January 2025), is the only critic who has reviewed this bar, and she scored it 6 out of 10. She split her verdict across two drinks: the Plume was more style than substance, and the Fresca Mule was a delightful surprise. Her closing line is the honest summary of the room: Will I be a regular? Probably not, but it's worth a visit.1
• CAMRA's Edinburgh and South East Scotland branch surveyed it in November 2024 and recorded the operating facts in one line: Basement bar with Banksy artwork beneath Three Blind Mice pizza place. Card only.2
• Edinburgh's own tourism body put it in an unranked eight of the city's hidden bars, alongside Panda & Sons and The Voodoo Rooms, and described a hushed, thoughtfully created lounge bar where handcrafted cocktails and rare whiskies are just waiting to be explored. The piece has no byline and reaches no judgment.4
• Nobody else has written about it. No award has gone to the bar, and no Time Out, Skinny, List, Harden's or Difford's coverage exists, which is ordinary for a small room under two years old with no kitchen.

Good to know

• Hours: Thursday 4pm to 11pm, Friday and Saturday 4pm to midnight, Sunday 3pm to 10pm. It is shut Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so a midweek plan fails here. The two nights that run past eleven are Friday and Saturday.3
• Booking: the operator's own listing asks for it: Due to The Burrow's intimate environment, we recommend booking a table to avoid disappointment.5 The stated capacity is twenty-five.3
• Cards only, no cash, on the branch surveyor's own record.2
• The bill: a discretionary 10 per cent service charge is added, stated on the venue's own drinks list.3
• Price: the cocktails were mostly GBP 10 in January 2025. That figure is nineteen months old and nobody has published a newer one.1
• Hygiene: this bar has no Food Standards Agency record, which is correct for a premises that serves no food. The building's food business is registered as 3 Blind Mice at 17-21 Blackfriars Street, Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 15 October 2024. That is the pizza room's rating and it is twenty-two months old.8
• Two rooms, one door: the pizza restaurant upstairs is Three Blind Mice and it closes at 9pm. This page is the basement bar at number 19. A review of the pizza is a review of the other room.6
• Getting there: Blackfriars Street runs downhill off the Royal Mile, a few minutes from the High Street.

Jeff's take (his words)

The only published score on the room is Corfield's 6 out of 10 for the bar trade, and the case for going is a cheap cocktail list and a wine list that has had real thought put into it.

Verdict

could-visit — One critic has ever reviewed this bar. Natasha Corfield of the UK bar trade's own title gave it 6 out of 10, found the Plume more style than substance, liked the Fresca Mule on a neighbouring table's recommendation, and closed with 'Will I be a regular? Probably not, but it's worth a visit.' That is close to a definition of this rung, and the rest of the evidence agrees with her. The wine list is the one place real buying shows: pours by the 125ml with producer, region and vintage on every line, Pol Roger in champagne, a Sancerre from Domaine Roger Millet, La Zerba Gavi, Te Kano pinot from Central Otago. Cocktails at GBP 10 in the Old Town are honest money. Weigh the glass first and the rest thins out. The whisky shelf every source calls the second pillar has never been described by anyone, the only documented cocktails are two drinks from January 2025, and no evidence exists that the list moves on any cycle, so the room meets the evolution test and the depth test equally poorly. Its marketing hook is a work it presents as an original Banksy that no authentication supports. Go if you are on the Royal Mile and want somewhere quiet with a properly built glass of wine. Nobody should cross the city for it.