The Keller

A whole separate menu here runs on smoke, from the vodka to the beer to the martini.

Why go

Emily Jones and James Meikle met working the bar at No 8 Lister Square in Quartermile and opened this on 19 May 2021, both of them thirty.1 A bierkeller is the model, and the bar itself is built from planks reclaimed from old ships. Ten draught lines went in at opening, five German and three held for Scottish beer rotating monthly, with Bavarian ABK alongside Barney's and Bellfield from a mile away. The smoking is what makes it worth the walk down the lane. A dedicated menu runs smoked vodka, a smoked chilli rum, Kyro's wood-smoke malt rye, Bunnahabhain's Toiteach a Dha, a mezcal, and Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen at £6.75 for 500ml.5 Rauchbier is malt dried over an open beechwood fire before it is ever mashed, so the smoke is in the grain rather than added later, and Schlenkerla is the Bamberg brewery that kept the technique alive. The cocktails follow: a smoked gin martini at £12, a smoked vodka martini at £11, a mezcal sour at £10. They distill next door too, four gins under their own labels, printed in the building because a lithographer once occupied it: Stravaig on juniper, pine and pepper, Gallus on lemongrass and sweet orange, Gloaming on mango and cardamom, Coorie on heather and raspberry leaf.3 The brewing has stopped for now. On a May 2025 visit Imran Rahman-Jones found the brewery next door currently shuttered as they look for someone else to take it over, with the dried hops still hanging along the low ceiling.2 A brewing company signed on at this address in December 2025, which is a paperwork fact and not a reported reopening.

The door is down a cobbled lane through an arch off Broughton Street, and the room is a good deal bigger than the entrance suggests.

Order this / avoid

Order: a German lager. It ran £5.90 in May 2025, which Rahman-Jones put at the Edinburgh average, adding I've certainly paid more for inferior pints elsewhere.2
Order: the smoked gin martini, £12, which is the drink the whole smoked list points at.5
Order: a Schlenkerla Rauchbier if you have never had a smoked beer. £6.75 for 500ml, and it tastes like a fire because the malt was dried in one.5
Order: one of their own gins. Four are distilled next door and Coorie is the soft one, heather and raspberry leaf.3
Order: a cocktail if you are not in a hurry. Rahman-Jones found them popular enough that they can sometimes result in a longish wait.2
Avoid: the pool room. Ten pounds an hour, and the critic who paid it summed it up in one word: (unacceptable).2
Avoid: treating the £8 pretzel-and-dip plate as dinner. Bar snacks are the whole food offer either source describes.

What locals & experts say

Imran Rahman-Jones, Edinburgh Pub Reviews (May 2025): he states his own bias before he rules, which is what makes his verdict useful. I like them old, with good real ale and preferably with some decent memorabilia dotted about the place. This pub has none of that, so the fact that I enjoy it anyway is a testament to its owners getting a modern pub right. It's comfortable, convivial and homely. He also names the limit: at those prices if I want to spend more time here, it will be nursing drinks rather than settling in for a session.2
On the room, same source: Down the centre of the room is a long table with benches either side, evoking a German beer hall and provoking conversation between disparate groups sharing the space. The window seats are hanging swing chairs, which he notes would be a struggle to manoeuvre in and out of after a cocktail or a lager. There is a wood-burning stove, which is the argument for the room in January.1 2
Emily Jones, on why she wanted a pub at all (2021): As a child I always wanted to be like Peggy Mitchell and have my own pub. On what she moved to Edinburgh for: The vibrancy and sense of community provided by a pub atmosphere changed my entire career path; I knew this was what I wanted to do.1
Local rec: Jeff's saved-places note here reads "Local rec". Someone in the city sent him here and his note does not say who.

Good to know

Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 5pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday 1pm to 1am, Sunday 3pm to 11pm, as published in May 2025. Closed Monday. The Friday and Saturday one o'clock close is late by Edinburgh standards and is the reason to keep it in mind.
Finding it: through the arch off Broughton Street and down the cobbled lane. It is easy to walk past.
Groups: the long central table with benches takes a crowd, and the layout puts strangers next to each other by design.
Booking: walk in. The venue takes reservations through its own site if you want the beer-hall table on a Saturday.
Hygiene: the register carries no rating for this premises. The current registration is dated 17 June 2026 with the status Awaiting Inspection, which means the inspectors have not been yet. That is an absence of information and it is neither a pass nor a finding.4
Prices: lager £5.90, bar snacks £8, pool £10 an hour, all read in May 2025. Off the smoked list, a 25ml pour runs £4 to £9 and the martinis £11 to £12.
The beer split is a 2021 figure. Five German lines and three Scottish is what the owners announced at opening. The most recent visit confirms the shape, "a good selection of German bier on draught, alongside some kegs from local breweries", without counting them.

Jeff's take (his words)

Note: "Local rec"
On the note: it says someone in the city sent him here and it does not say who, so no recommendation on this page is attributed to anyone. If Jeff remembers the name, that is the one fact the page is missing.

Verdict

could-visit — THE RUNG DID NOT MOVE from round 1, and the case underneath it changed substantially. The second pass put the glass at the center of this entry where the room used to be. A dedicated smoked menu is real and was read directly off the venue's own page on 4 August 2026: Chase smoked vodka, Illicit Spirits Blacklist smoked gin, Project #173 smoked chilli rum, Kyro wood-smoke malt rye, Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire 10 year, Bunnahabhain Toiteach a Dha, Lagavulin 16 and Quiquiriqui Matatlan mezcal, all at 25ml, with Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen at 500ml, a smoked gin martini, a smoked vodka martini, a mezcal sour, and I.J. Mellis smoked Kase with oatcakes. That is a buying idea carried across five spirit categories, a beer and a cheese, and it is the reason to walk down the lane. The gin count also doubled on evidence: four are distilled in the unit adjoining the taproom, Stravaig on juniper, pine and pepper, Gallus on lemongrass, sweet orange and angelica root, Gloaming on mango and cardamom, Coorie on heather and raspberry leaf. Weighed with craft first, that is a stronger reason to go and it is still not a detour. Nothing on the smoked list is smoked here. Every bottle on it is a commercially available product, two of them are ordinary peated Islay whiskies any decent back bar carries, and eight pours is a theme rather than the kind of depth that earns a rung on its own. The independent evidence has not moved at all: one bylined visit, Imran Rahman-Jones in May 2025, who ruled the place comfortable, convivial and homely, named the price ceiling himself, and does not mention a smoked list. The brewery next door was shuttered on that visit while the owners looked for someone to take it over, so the production side has already contracted once, and nobody has counted a tap or named a beer since the 2021 opening figures. There is no kitchen, no award and no Michelin standing. Solid, does one specific thing well, go if you are passing or if smoked drinks are the reason you are out. What would move this to should-visit is narrow and nameable: a dated verdict on the smoked list or the house gins from someone other than the venue, or confirmation that the distillery next door still runs.

The Keller.