Morten Andersen has watched too many sports bars treat beer as an afterthought, a row of the same four kegs under the screens. Hanover Tap, on the slope down from George Street, is the New Town room that gets both halves right: the matches and the pint in your hand.
The pub sits at 112 Hanover Street, just off George Street in the heart of the New Town, a few minutes from Princes Street and St Andrew Square. It is run by the Social Pub and Kitchen group and sets out its stall as a sports pub with HD screens carrying Sky Sports and TNT Sports, paired with a craft beer and cocktail list and a full kitchen (Social Pub and Kitchen official site). The screens run throughout the room rather than clustering at one end.
The layout is the New Town two-level format, a street-level bar and a downstairs room, which lets the place carry a noisy fixture upstairs while the lower floor stays workable for a table and a meal. CAMRA and DesignMyNight both log it as a city-centre sports pub rather than a pure drinking den, and that dual billing is accurate (DesignMyNight). It reads as a pub first, with the sport built in, not a barn of monitors. The fit-out keeps timber and tile rather than the black vinyl of the chain rooms, so the place still feels like a pub between fixtures. That matters on a quiet midweek afternoon, when a sports barn empties and a real pub keeps its trade.
The drinks are the reason to choose it over the chain rooms. The tap list leans into craft and rotating lines alongside the macro lagers, the cocktails are made rather than poured from a gun, and the kitchen runs burgers, tapas, pizzas and burritos for a match-day table. Order a craft pint and a burger before kickoff, keep the cocktails for the after-work crowd, and you have covered the two things this room does best.
Who it is for is the New Town worker or visitor who wants the match shown well without giving up a decent pint or a proper plate. It suits an after-work fixture, a Saturday afternoon with friends, and the supporter who cares what is in the glass. For a quieter heritage pint nearby, our Edinburgh craft beer guide maps the city's serious taprooms, while the full best sports bars in Edinburgh roundup sets Hanover Tap against the louder Old Town rooms.
Best time to go is a weekend afternoon fixture or a midweek European night, when the upstairs bar turns over to the football and the food keeps a table viable through extra time. The pub opens at noon daily and runs to 11pm midweek and midnight at the weekend, so an evening kickoff is comfortable. Avoid expecting a quiet corner upstairs during a marquee Premier League game, because the screen-facing seats go early.
The case for Hanover Tap is balance. Edinburgh has plenty of rooms that show the sport and plenty that pour good beer, but the overlap is thinner than it should be, and this is one of the few central pubs that does not force the choice. For an after-work crowd that wants the score and a pint worth drinking, it is the New Town pick.
Hanover Tap earns its place in this guide as the city centre's best-balanced sports pub, screens and craft taps in equal measure just off George Street. For a broader tour of the city, start with our Edinburgh bar guide.
Sources: Social Pub and Kitchen official site; DesignMyNight listing; CAMRA WhatPub.
