Lulu sits one flight down from the pavement on George Street, in the basement of the Tigerlily hotel in Edinburgh's New Town. It is the late-night room of the building: a cocktail bar that turns into a club, all mirrored surfaces, deep booths and low amber light, a few doors from the gallery shops and Georgian frontages of the city's most polished shopping street.
Who would love it: a group dressed for the evening who want cocktails first and a dance floor later without changing postcodes. Who might not: anyone after a quiet pint or a conversation, because once the DJ starts this is a loud, late, dress-to-impress room rather than a neighborhood local.
The format is the appeal. Lulu runs as part of the Montpeliers group that also operates the Tigerlily bar upstairs, and it leans into the contrast between street-level glamour and a darker club below. Listings on Skiddle show a steady run of resident and guest DJ nights across the weekend, with house, R&B and chart sets depending on the room.
The drinks programme is built for the setting. Cocktails are the headline, mixed long and bright for a dance-floor crowd rather than fussed over as sipping drinks, and bottle service runs to the booths for groups who book ahead. Expect to pay around 12 to 14 pounds a cocktail, which is standard for a George Street late-night venue and reflects the postcode more than the pour.
Priya Nair's read: come for the room and the timing, not for a quiet drink. Lulu works best as the second or third stop of a night out, when an early cocktail somewhere calmer has set the tone and the plan is to keep going past midnight. Arrive before 11pm on a Saturday to skip the worst of the door queue and to claim a booth while there is still one to claim.
The crowd is a New Town mix of birthday groups, hen and stag parties and visitors who walked over from the hotels and restaurants nearby. It skews dressed-up and celebratory, and the energy climbs sharply after midnight when the dance floor fills. The 350-capacity room can feel tight at peak, so the booths are worth the booking if a group wants somewhere to land.
The space carries the Tigerlily design language down the stairs: plush seating, patterned surfaces and mirror work that bounces the light around a low-ceilinged basement. Sight lines run from the booths to the floor and the bar, which keeps the room feeling social rather than cavernous even when it is full.
Best time to go: a Friday or Saturday from around 10:30pm for the full club atmosphere, or a quieter Thursday or Sunday if the point is cocktails and a dance without the weekend crush. The kitchen is not the draw here, so eat first on George Street and treat Lulu as the night-cap venue.
What regulars consistently flag, across Yelp and Tripadvisor listings, is the late-night energy and the central location, with the main cautions being the weekend door queue and George Street prices. Reviewers who arrive expecting a relaxed bar tend to be the ones disappointed, while those who come for a proper night out rate it highly.
It earns its place among Edinburgh's late-night cocktail rooms by pairing a smart basement setting with a reliable DJ programme right on George Street. See where it sits among the best cocktail bars in Edinburgh, read our wider guide to the best cocktail bars in Edinburgh, or browse the full Edinburgh bar guide.
Pair this bar with
For the street-level cocktail bar in the same building, start at Tigerlily Bar Edinburgh before heading downstairs. For another glossy George Street option, compare Le Monde Bar Edinburgh. And for a darker, design-led cocktail room a short walk away, Black Ivy Edinburgh makes the natural next stop.
Sources
Skiddle events listing · Yelp Edinburgh · Tripadvisor reviews · venue listings (accessed 2026-06)
Reviewed by Priya Nair, barsforKings. Published Feb 22, 2026.
