Pub · New Town · Edinburgh
Kay's Bar
A red walled Victorian wine merchant's shop on a cobbled New Town corner, now pouring seven real ales and fifty malts.
The Pitch
The Smallest Great Pub in the New Town
Kay's Bar holds the corner of Jamaica Street West, a cobbled mews street in Edinburgh's Georgian New Town. The building sold wine and whisky as John Kay's merchant shop in Victorian times, and the pub keeps the red painted walls, gas lamp scale, and barrel relics to prove it.
The Edinburgh Evening News calls it an award winning hidden gem serving some of the city's best pints, and CAMRA members have voted it a Real Ale Quality Award winner. It sits in the Good Beer Guide year after year.
Who would hate it? Anyone arriving in a group of six. The front room seats perhaps twenty people on one long bench, and that is the entire point.
The Room
One Bench, One Fire, One Back Library
A single red room with a long bench wrapping the wall, five or six round tables, and a coal effect fire doing the winter work. Edinburgh Pub Reviews notes the closeness gets strangers talking within a pint. The tiny back library room seats six under shelves of old books and takes the best table in the New Town.
The Drinks
Seven Casks and Fifty Malts
Seven handpulls run permanent lines like Timothy Taylor Landlord and Theakston Best alongside rotating Scottish casks from breweries like Loch Lomond and Orkney's Swannay, per Yelp reviewers. Pints sit near £4.50.
Order whatever Scottish guest cask is freshest and follow it with a malt; the gantry runs past fifty whiskies. Skip lager entirely here, the casks are the reason the room exists.
The Crowd
Genial Locals and Lucky Finders
Afternoons belong to New Town regulars and their newspapers; evenings squeeze in ale travelers who found the cobbled corner on purpose. The banter from behind the bar carries the whole room, per Tripadvisor reviews.
What regulars say:
- Yelp reviewers (30 reviews) call it the New Town's warmest welcome and praise the bar staff by name.
- Edinburgh Pub Reviews describes couples from different tables becoming one conversation.
- The Edinburgh Evening News review said it felt like a country local in the middle of the city.
Who it is for:
- Real ale drinkers working through the Good Beer Guide
- Anyone wanting the pub as Victorian Edinburgh built it
- Avoid if you need a table for a crowd; The Bow Bar in Edinburgh has more elbow room
The Verdict
Where It Lands
Edinburgh's best argument that small is a feature. Take the bench, take the freshest cask, and earn the library room.
Good to Know
Visit Information
Getting there: 39 Jamaica Street West, EH3 6HF; eight minutes downhill from the Princes Street trams.
Timing: Open daily from midday; weekday afternoons get the quiet room, evenings fill by 8pm.
Cost: Cask pints £4.50 to £4.60, malts from £5.
Pair This Bar With
More Nights Out
Own or manage a bar in Edinburgh?
Sponsored listings, newsletter placements, and city guide partnerships put your venue in front of the right audience.
Worth Going To
Keep Exploring