The Best Cocktail Bars in Edinburgh

Hidden beneath a barbershop on Queen Street, Panda and Sons is the most celebrated cocktail bar in Edinburgh and one of the best in the UK. The entrance — through a secret door behind a bookcase — is theatrics done correctly, not done cheaply. The drinks programme draws on Scottish botanicals and unusual spirits from small producers worldwide. The bar team changes the menu every quarter; every iteration is worth experiencing.

Order: The current seasonal cocktail featuring Scottish botanicals — ask for the bartender's recommendation

The bar that started Edinburgh's cocktail revolution in 2006 and has remained one of its best venues for nearly two decades. A basement space in the New Town, with exposed stone walls, low lighting, and a no-frills approach that lets the drinks speak. The menu covers classic cocktails executed with precision alongside a rotating selection of originals. No reservations, no social media presence — it runs entirely on reputation.

Order: The Bramble Cocktail — blackberry liqueur and gin, invented here and copied everywhere else

An nautical tiki bar on William Street that takes the tiki concept and applies serious craft to it. The rum selection is exceptional — 200 bottles from 40 countries — and the cocktails are built around long, complex recipes that use the rum library intelligently rather than decoratively. The décor is theatrical; the drinks are the real attraction. Edinburgh's best bar for a longer evening.

Order: The Captain's Reserve — a 10-ingredient rum punch that takes 8 minutes to make

Leith's most characterful bar, serving cocktails in teapots and cups alongside a menu of Scottish craft beer and natural wine. The cocktails are served cold in decorative teapots for the table — a gimmick that works because the drinks inside are genuinely well-made. The bar has a loyal neighbourhood following and fills up quickly on weekends. Arrive before 8pm or expect to wait.

Order: The house Pimm's teapot — serves two, comes with the correct garnishes

A Stockbridge institution that operates as a café-bar from morning to midnight. The cocktail menu is short but competent, and the setting — a converted tenement with large windows overlooking Howe Street — makes it one of the better places to spend an afternoon in Edinburgh. The kind of bar where you arrive for one drink and leave three hours later without regret.

Order: The house Gin and Tonic with Pickering's Gin — Edinburgh's best local distillery

A Swedish-themed bar on Leith Walk that has accumulated a cult following among Edinburgh's bar regulars over 20 years. The cocktail list mixes Scandinavian aquavit-based drinks with standard cocktail bar fare, and the result is more interesting than it sounds. The beer selection is solid, the schnapps selection is serious, and the crowd is reliably local and unpretentious.

Order: The house aquavit Mule — house spiced aquavit, ginger beer, and lingonberry

A converted Victorian pump house below street level in the Old Town, with a whisky selection that runs to 300 bottles and a cocktail programme that uses Scotch whisky as the base for creative original recipes. The conversion from pump house to bar was done with exceptional care — the original industrial machinery is still in place and forms the backdrop for the bar. The food menu is better than it needs to be.

Order: The Islay smoked Old Fashioned — house peated whisky, house bitters, caramelised malt

The bar programme attached to the Edinburgh Gin distillery, housed in a Georgian basement beneath the distillery itself. Gin-focused by design but not exclusively — the cocktail menu covers the full spirits spectrum with the same attention to detail that goes into the distillery's own products. The Edinburgh gin cocktail tasting flight is the best way to understand the full range in a single sitting.

Order: The Edinburgh Gin Martini flight — four variations showing the range of the house gins

A compact Queen Street bar with a short, excellent cocktail menu and some of the best value drinks in the New Town. The bar team takes its programme seriously without taking itself seriously — the menu has occasional jokes and the pricing suggests they want people to come back three or four times rather than once. Our regular Edinburgh recommendation for a first visit.

Order: The rotating seasonal Sour — always the best thing on the menu and always under £10