The Best Cocktail Bars in Edinburgh: An Honest Shortlist

Edinburgh punches absurdly above its weight in cocktails. This is a city of half a million people with a bar whose menu was named the best in the world, a basement that has shaped British drinking for the best part of two decades, and one of the largest amaro collections outside Italy — all within a short walk or a bus ride of each other. The problem isn't finding a good cocktail in Edinburgh; it's choosing between them.

This is our shortlist: the rooms we'd actually send you to, each checked as open when this guide was written (date at the top). Bars change fast — if you're planning a special night around one, glance at their site before you set out.

Panda & Sons — the world-beater behind the barber shop

Edinburgh's most famous hidden door: what looks like a vintage barbershop on Queen Street opens into a Prohibition-styled basement that has become one of the most decorated cocktail bars in Britain. Its menu was named the best in the world at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards — the industry's biggest prizes — on the strength of genuinely experimental technique: freeze-drying, pressure-infusing, sub-zero tricks that arrive in the glass as flavour rather than gimmickry. It's a bucket-list bar that stays fun rather than reverent, which is the harder trick. Book — the world knows about it.

Bramble — the basement that started it

An easy-to-miss basement on Queen Street that has been the beating heart of Edinburgh cocktails for nearly two decades. Bramble is named after the great gin cocktail, the list leans gin and whisky, and the room — low ceilings, loud music later on, bartenders at the top of their trade — is what most "speakeasy-style" bars are trying to imitate. If Panda & Sons is the show, Bramble is the institution. Go early for a seat, late for the atmosphere.

Hey Palu — the amaro room

A small Italian-hearted bar on Bread Street with one of the most extensive amaro collections outside Italy, and the best Negronis in the city — plural, because the menu runs several variations on the classic. If your taste runs bitter, herbal and grown-up, this is your Edinburgh bar; if you don't yet know whether it does, one evening here will settle it. Aperitivo culture done properly, without a whisper of theme-bar cosplay.

The Last Word Saloon — Stockbridge's local wonder

From the same founders as Bramble, tucked on St Stephen Street in Stockbridge: a dim, easy-going neighbourhood bar with seriously creative cocktails and a whisky shelf running past a hundred bottles. It's the least touristed bar on this list by some distance, which is precisely its charm — you get world-class drinks with the atmosphere of a good local. Pair it with an evening wandering Stockbridge and you've had the least obvious, most Edinburgh night out available.

The Devil's Advocate — the Old Town one

Down Advocate's Close off the Royal Mile — a steep, atmospheric Old Town close — in a converted Victorian pump house, with over 300 whiskies behind the bar and a cocktail list that puts them to work. It's the answer to a specific and common problem: you're in the Old Town, everything around you is a tourist trap, and you want one genuinely good drink. Here. It's also the natural bridge between a cocktail evening and a whisky one — start with the list, finish with a dram.

Nauticus — where Leith drinks

Down Duke Street in Leith, Nauticus is the most Scottish bar on this list by design: around ninety per cent of what it pours is Scottish or Scottish-linked, and the menu is organised around the trades — tea, sherry, gin, whisky — that moved through Leith's docks. It's a proper neighbourhood bar with a point of view, and the reason to cross town: drinks built on Scottish produce, in the part of Edinburgh that historically shipped it. If you're eating in Leith anyway, this is non-negotiable.

Making a night of it

A cocktail bar is rarely the whole evening. Our travel sister site TripSCOT covers the rest — the best live music pubs in Edinburgh for where the drinks come with a band, and trad sessions in Edinburgh for finding a proper session within a walk of most bars on this list. For what's actually on this weekend, their live Edinburgh what's on guide pulls the city's listings.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best speakeasy in Edinburgh?

Panda & Sons — through the fake barbershop front on Queen Street — is the famous one, and unusually for a famous hidden bar, it deserves the queue. Bramble, in its unmarked basement two minutes away, is the original the style copies. Do both in one evening; they're neighbours.

Which Edinburgh cocktail bar is best for gin?

Bramble's list has leaned gin since it opened, and Hey Palu's Negroni variations are the city's best use of it. If you'd rather work out your gin taste first, our gin finder and Scottish gin and tonic guide are the homework.

Where can I get a good cocktail near the Royal Mile?

The Devil's Advocate, down Advocate's Close — a converted pump house with a serious whisky-led cocktail list, close enough to the Mile to rescue an evening and far enough down the close to escape it.

Can I do a cocktail masterclass in Edinburgh?

Yes — several of the city's larger venues run bookable masterclasses, though the small rooms on this list mostly don't have the space for them. Book directly with the venue and check what's included. For drinking rather than shaking, the bars above are the better spend.

What about Glasgow?

Its own guide — the best cocktail bars in Glasgow — covers the Merchant City speakeasy scene and the Finnieston strip.