Two floors of Guinness, big-match screens, and live folk most nights of the week.
Malones sits on Forrest Road between the University of Edinburgh and the back of the Royal Mile, the kind of pitch that gives it a steady mix of students, tourists, and locals who want a Guinness and a screen. The fittings and most of the furniture were shipped from Ireland when the bar opened, and the room reads more like a genuine Dublin local than the city-centre Irish bars built from a brewery template.
Two floors give it the rare combination of a quiet ground-floor stool and a riotous upstairs on a Six Nations weekend. The bar won SLTN's Best Venue to Watch the Match in 2025 and is the only Edinburgh entry on Guinness' Harp Guide 2026, two markers that explain the pull. Anyone hoping for a craft beer list with rotating Scottish IPAs is in the wrong room; anyone after a properly poured stout and a packed match day is in the right one.
Dark wood, stained glass panels, low-slung lamps over the bar, and a separate upstairs room that becomes the main event on weekends. Multiple screens run on the main floor with the largest pulled out for major fixtures. The kitchen serves through to late, including the pub's own pizza-to-table service that Fanzo's pub guide singled out.
The Guinness is the order, and the bar's place on the Guinness Harp Guide makes that explicit. Standard pints sit at £6.20 in 2026, cocktails at £10 are basic but honest, and the bottled list runs the Irish staples (Smithwick's, Murphy's). Skip the more elaborate cocktails on a busy match day, when the bar staff are running stout pours back to back.
Students on weeknights, hospitality industry after 11pm, and a Six Nations crowd on rugby weekends that fills both floors by 2pm. Tripadvisor reviewers consistently flag the live music nights (Scottish and Irish folk, several nights a week) as the moment the upstairs room earns its layout.