The Beerhive's Guide to Edinburgh Food & Drink
After years of working with brewers, wine and spirit importers, chefs and restaurant teams across Edinburgh, we've built a list of the places we most often recommend to customers visiting the city.
These are our favourites and our friends across Edinburgh: independent bottle shops, BYOB restaurants, fine dining destinations, proper pubs, craft beer bars, cocktail spots and whisky haunts. Some are businesses we've worked alongside for years, others are simply places we think are doing things exceptionally well.
If someone walks into The Beerhive and asks where they should eat or drink in Edinburgh, this is where we send them.
The Beerhive Edinburgh Food & Drink Map
Good Beer & What's Near
Edinburgh has one of the most exciting food and drink scenes in the UK, traditional pubs and brewery taprooms, Michelin-starred restaurants, natural wine bars and independent bottle shops. This guide brings together the places we find ourselves recommending most often, whether you're visiting for a weekend or looking for somewhere new in your own neighbourhood.
Save the map for later because you'll need some dedication to work your way through it all. If you're looking for a place to start, these are just a few.
Now remember, these are in no particular order and are also not necessarily our top spots - those are a secret - just some great venues that span the city!
Proper Pubs
Traditional pubs are the foundations of a great beer city, and Edinburgh has plenty. Cask pints, clean kegs and unbeatable atmospheres.
Malt & Hops - stunning little pub on Leith Shore, great pints, better atmosphere decorated with old brewery memorabilia, hops and an all wood interior. Fire place in the winter gets extra points.
The Guildford Arms - an old school pub with a revolving door! Regular cask tap takeover and great beer in the fridge and on keg too. Classic warming pub food and amazing location right next to Waverley.
Kay’s Bar - tucked away from the Stockbridge chaos, Kay’s Bar is an icon. Red carpets, fire on, dogs running around, great for cask and the baked potatoes come in at a very low price.
The Dagda - it's small but somehow doesn't feel crowded at its busiest. Clean cask beer, local beers on keg, Schneider Weisse tap and Belgian beer in the fridge. One of the greats in the Southside.
Taprooms and Brewery Pubs
Craft straight from the tank. It's about as fresh as it gets and each Taproom and brew pub has it's own quirk. Worth visiting them all if you have the time!
Newbarns Brewery Taproom - on Jane Street, just off Leith Walk you'll find a warehouse that has been so well converted you'll feel like you're in a traditional pub built in the 1920's. Lager and session specialists with the occasional food pop-up, good size beer garden, and a great neighbouring pizza stop Pala which you're more than welcome to bring inside.
Campervan Taproom - Jane Street again! About 5 minutes from Newbarns you'll find a more modern style brewery with an eye for hazier styles and sour beers. Campervan have a huge beer garden, host regular events including, sports viewing, open mic, comedy and pub quizzes.
The Royal Dick - in the Southside, just off The Meadows, The Royal Dick pours all things Barneys! Huge beer garden, food trucks and loads of events on - especially during The Fringe Festival!
The Cramond Inn - Something a bit different here, not an Edinburgh Brewery pub but a Samuel Smiths. Out in the stunning setting of Cramond pouring Pure Brew Organic Lager, stone fermented ales, the building dates back to around 1670.
Some things to note if you make the journey: don't get stuck on Cramond Island; no swearing in the pub; no phones in the pub and definitely no laptops in the pub!
Craft Beer Bars
Local beers are readily available across Edinburgh, but where are all the hype DIPAs and imported smoothie sours? We hear ya, we see ya, and we have the answers.
Lost in Leith - Owned by local brewery Campervan, LiL has the core range from Campervan alongside a huge amount of rotational guests and regular tap takeovers. Situated in the lovely archways on Leith Shore. Biggest beer garden in Edinburgh?
The Dreadnaught - on the boarder of Leith and Newhaven The Dreadnaught is a little further out, but 100% worth the journey. Amazing keg and cask lines and probably the cheapest pints on craft in the city. Staff are amazing and they have regular events on too, sometimes a beer garden!
Salthorse - in the Old Town where most of what you can find are gift shops and street performers Salthorse is there to satisfy those tastebuds. Great beer on Keg, Gueuze in the fridge and takeaway cans available too which is always handy!
Cloisters Bar - if you're walking around Tollcross looking for some craft-craft, you might think this is a traditional pub with great cask but nothing to quench your hazy thirst. You'd be half right - the cask is great - but Cloisters so much more. Great rotational keg, extensive spirits range and Belgian beers in the fridge.
BYOB Restaurants
BYOB restaurants are very popular with people who work in our industry. In Edinburgh we are SPOILED for choice, so many amazing restaurants let us bring bottles from the cellar we've been saving for a special meal.
Dumpling Banquet - amazing Chinese food in the Southside is everywhere, you'll see on the map. BYOB always sways a dinner choice in our industry and Dumpling Banquet is one we keep revisiting. Bring along your favourite Riesling, Moscato or fine cider to pair with your Biangbiang and handmade dumplings!
Hungry Wolf - authentic Georgian food just off Leith Walk. The pairings for Khachapuri are endless, Saperavi, Barolo, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Cozy interior and perfect location for an after dinner pint with Tourmalet, Robbie's and Brass Monkey right next door
Vietnam House - if you're out Haymarket way with a hankering for fantastic spring rolls, fried noodles or Pho, here's your spot! The inside is cosy and welcoming, we've been known to take chilled reds, white Burgundy, Chenin or Pet-Nat - our staff nights out are fun.
Kim's Mini Meals - Korean cuisine back down in the south. No bookings so you might have to queue, that being said the line moves fast and the food is worth the wait! Pairings for here aren't as straight forward as there's constant specials, difference in spicy and umami weight, anything from Alsace will probably work mind you.
Great Wine Spots
Where there's great food, there's great wine. Everything from precision-made fine wines to the funkiest natural wines in the UK, Edinburgh has it all!
Smith & Gertrude - cheese and wine, fine wine and fun events. Locations in both Stockbridge, and, if you want a glass of wine after a walk on the beach, Portobello. A great range that spans more funky and wild but also classico wines from Burgundy. Lovely staff and great service.
Spry - very trendy wine bar situated in Elm Row with a focus on minimal intervention wine. Great food offering, fine wines by the bottle and if it's too early for a glass of wine, their sister café is directly underneath where you can get fantastic coffee and food in the earlier hours.
Bar Zero Zero - clue is in the name with this one, almost 100% natural wine list (with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 bottles) down in the Southside. Great Pet-Nat, chilled reds and funky orange by the glass and bottle. Recent pop ups with Dynamic Vines for take out and sit in, and, of course great cheese.
Ardfern - sister bistro to Little Chartroom and Elenore, Ardfern is up in Leith just off Great Junction Street. Great wine range, of course, and a lot more space for 'just drinks' than than the sister venues. Food is also fantastic if you do get peckish!
Skua - late nights at Skua are always grear. A basement bar off the main streets of Stockbridge, they always have great offerings by the bottle and by the glass. Their bar snacks are unmatched.
Fine Dining
Sometimes it's fine or nothing. We all deserve this level of service from time to time, maybe for an occasion or just because want to, Edinburgh is littered with stars and rosettes.
eòrna - Chefs Table dining with Brian Grigor (chef) and Glen Montgomery (sommelier) in Stockbridge. Both are Edinburgh Michelin veterans at the top of their game. The food is unbelievable, the wine is, also, unbelievable. Hosting and presentations are in a league of their own.
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Heron - casual fine dining decorated with a star. Tasting menus available for all dietary requirements which can sometimes be difficult to find! Vegans, Vegetarians and allergens are all catered for with no drop in quality. Hosting, wine and food are all out of this world, thanks to Sam Yorke in the kitchen and Seoridh Fraser directing the beverages.
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Lyla - Edinburgh food legend Stuart Ralston's starred venue with wines impeccably paired by Stuart Skea. Now with rooms so you can stay at the venue whilst you're visiting Edinburgh, will this be Edinburgh's first venue to gain 2 Michelin Stars?
Cocktail Bars
St. Bernard's Bar - has to be one of Edinburgh's quirkiest bars. Hugo who runs the place is kitted out in the three piece suit complete with top-hat. All music is played from vinyl. Full of ever changing cocktail lists, Kwak on draught and of course lots of local beers, one of the Stockbridge greats.
Nauticus - another 'don't judge a book by its cover' bar. It is a great local pub for those that live around The Meadows in north Leith with great local beers on draught but Nauticus also have an ever changing cocktail menu that comes complete with table service. Known also to host guest cocktail making royalty from round the world for pop ups too.
Bottle Shops
Edinburgh is spoiled for bottle shops.. Each with a different focus, range and style. If you're not in Canonmills and need a bottle of something these are the places to seek out.
Cork & Cask - amazing little bottleshop in Marchmont. Huge range of organic and minimal intervention wines from all over the world, beers mainly focused on Scottish and English craft and a huge range of independant whiskies and independant bottlings. Always super helpful and knowledgeable
Cornelius - the longest running beer focused bottle shop in Edinburgh! Gueuze, jeraboams, German, Belgian and of course all the locals. Huge range of wines and spirits too. 2 locations in Leith, Easter Road and Leith Walk.
Drinkmonger - a vast range of liqueurs, spirits and wine with some local breweries featured too! If anyone ever needs a specific liqueur, this is where we send them.
Leith Bottle Shop - your friendly neighbourhood bottle shop, with local beers, imports and wine. Now with an on-licence so you can enjoy a beer or two in the venue.