The 12 best cocktail bars in Edinburgh I'd actually send you to, ranked, from world-ranked speakeasies Panda & Sons and Bramble to Leith's Nauticus, with the concept, one honest catch and whether to book at each.
Edinburgh punches well above its size for cocktails. Two of its bars, Panda & Sons and Bramble, carry World's 50 Best Bars pedigree, and in late 2025 Panda & Sons was named the number one bar in the World's Top 500. The city is small and dense enough that you can walk between a dozen serious cocktail bars in a single evening. This is my pick of the 12 best, ranked, with the concept, one honest catch and whether to book at each.
The scene splits neatly by neighbourhood. The New Town hides the speakeasies: Panda & Sons behind a barbershop, Bramble under a dry-cleaner, Lucky Liquor and Never Really Here down their own quiet doors. The Old Town keeps its cocktail bars down basement stairs off the Royal Mile. And Leith, as usual, is where the value and some of the newest talent are. For a booked show-stopper I'd send you to Panda & Sons; for a walk-in classic, Bramble; for a first date, The Last Word in Stockbridge.
Two practical notes before you go. Expect to pay roughly £10 to £14 for a cocktail in the centre, a little less in Leith, and know that most of these bars don't print prices online because their menus change so often. And book the small ones. Panda & Sons, The Burrow and Bittersweet fill up on weekends, and a lot of these rooms seat fewer people than you'd guess. Turning up at a twenty-seat basement at nine on a Saturday is how you end up drinking somewhere worse.
Panda & Sons is the most decorated bar in Scotland right now, and it earns it. You get in through a working vintage barbershop on Queen Street and down into a two-level speakeasy of taxidermy and 1920s-explorer clutter, where the cocktails are quietly some of the most technical in the country: directional-freezing for clear ice, barrel-ageing, in-house infusions. In late 2025 it was named the number one bar in the World's Top 500, it sits at number 34 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2025, and number 2 on the UK's Top 50 Cocktail Bars.
Book it. Reservations are effectively essential at weekends, same-day online booking closes once they open for the evening, groups are capped at eight and it's over-18s only. It can feel a little touristy at peak times, which is the tax on being this famous, but the drinks always hold up. If you want one show-stopping cocktail night in Edinburgh and you're happy to plan ahead, this is the one I'd book.
Book ahead for weekends; same-day online booking closes once they open for the evening, groups are capped at eight, and it's over-18s only.
Once again Panda & Sons does not disappoint. The cocktails were 10/10. from a Google review
Bramble is the Edinburgh cocktail bar the industry quietly reveres. It has held a place on the world stage for years (a World's 50 Best Bars alumnus, widely reported to have peaked at number seven back in 2009, and still on the UK's Top 50 and the World's Top 500 in 2025), yet it remains a small, dark basement under a dry-cleaner on Queen Street, marked only by a plaque you'll walk past. Bare brick, candlelight, leather armchairs, weekend DJs playing hip-hop and soul, and a proper version of the Bramble (gin, crème de mûre, lemon), the modern classic it takes its name from.
The catch, and the charm, is that it's walk-ins only. No bookings, a tiny room, so at weekends you either arrive before eight or you queue. If you only do one cocktail bar in Edinburgh and don't want to plan around a reservation, make it this one. It's the pick I'd send a friend to without a second thought.
No bookings, so arrive before 8pm at weekends or expect to wait. The entrance is an easy-to-miss plaque by a dry-cleaner; order the namesake Bramble.
Reviewers consistently describe a small, dark, welcoming speakeasy with excellent, unfussy cocktails and a below-the-radar charm; the drawback they name most is the wait for a table at weekends.
Hey Palu is Edinburgh's Italian cocktail bar, and one of the most consistently awarded newer rooms in the city: number 17 on the UK's Top 50 Cocktail Bars for 2026, and a fixture on the list in recent years (number 16 in 2025). It sits just off the Grassmarket on Bread Street, built around Italy's great aperitivo serves and one of the UK's biggest amaro collections. Order a Paper Plane and they'll run a little house game with it; ask the bartenders to walk you through the amari and you'll leave having tried three things you can't get at home.
It's a small, intimate room and it fills up fast, so book ahead at weekends. The flip side of that popularity is that walk-in space is limited on a Friday, so treat a reservation as the default rather than the exception.
Order a Paper Plane (they run a house game when you do) and browse the amaro list. It's a small room, so book ahead at weekends.
This place absolutely deserved all the high ratings. The cocktails are inventive and complex, yet all the flavors pair perfectly together. from a Google review
Nauticus is the best cocktail bar in Leith, and one of the most interesting in the city. The whole menu is a love letter to Leith's maritime trading history (the tea and spice routes, the gin craze, the sherry and whisky booms), poured almost entirely from Scottish spirits, with genuinely good no- and low-alcohol options too. It won Best Pub at the 2025 Edinburgh Bar Awards, and its Porridge Colada, a Scottish-porridge twist on a piña colada, was Highly Commended for Best Cocktail the same year.
It's a small room on Duke Street with no online booking (group enquiries go through a form) that opens only from mid-afternoon, so it gets busy and you may wait at peak times. Go early, sit at the bar, and let the staff steer you toward a Scottish spirit you've never heard of. It's the reason to make the walk out to Leith.
No bookings, and it only opens from mid-afternoon, so go early. Ask about the Porridge Colada, and lean on the staff for the Scottish spirits you won't have heard of.
Really lovely bar, delicious cocktails, great customer service from the moment we walked in. from a Google review
The Last Word Saloon is the one I'd pick for a first date. A candlelit basement on Stockbridge's prettiest street, opened in 2012 by the team behind Bramble, with a fireplace, low ceilings and over a hundred whiskies behind the bar alongside inventive, homemade-ingredient cocktails. It's the kind of room where you plan to stay for one and leave three drinks later, and its 4.7 on Google reflects exactly that.
One honest note: a lot of the cocktails are pre-batched, so this isn't the place if you want a bartender to build something bespoke to your taste. The entrance is below street level and easy to walk past. Go for the atmosphere and the whisky as much as the cocktails, and you'll have a lovely night.
It's from the Bramble team, so trust the list. The entrance is below street level and easy to miss; a candlelit table by the fire is the one to angle for.
A candle lit gem in Stockbridge. Excellent cocktails and a very good selection of whisky served by friendly staff. from a Google review
Lucky Liquor Co. is built entirely around the number 13. Thirteen spirits, thirteen cocktails, and the whole menu torn up and rebuilt every few weeks, in a narrow black-and-white room on Queen Street with a 100% vinyl soundtrack and a pool table downstairs. It's another from the Bramble stable, and the constant reinvention keeps the bartenders sharp; you're drinking things you won't find anywhere else and won't find here again next month.
That's also the one drawback: there are no house classics to come back for, so it's a bar for the curious rather than the loyal. The room is tiny and doesn't take bookings through its own site (reservations run via DishCult up to 9:30pm), so expect to queue at busy times. Ask what the team is proudest of this cycle and order that.
The whole menu is rebuilt every few weeks, so there are no house classics to fall back on. Ask what the bartenders are proudest of this cycle.
Recommended to us by a local, this bar is an absolute gem! Fabulous cocktail list and wonderful staff. from a Google review
The Cocktail Geeks is the most fun on this list, and far better than the theme-bar idea has any right to be. It's tucked into a railway arch off East Market Street near Waverley, and it completely re-themes its decor and its menu around a pop-culture world every few months (past runs have included Stranger Things and Spirited Away), so no two visits are quite the same. At 4.8 on Google across more than two thousand reviews, it's one of the highest-rated cocktail bars in the city.
The current 'Journey's End' menu runs until early September 2026, the arch is small so booking is worth it, and it's over-18s only. The catch is that the theme and menu are temporary by design, so the exact drink you fell for won't be there next season. It's also the rare Old Town cocktail bar that's genuinely wheelchair accessible, which most of the basements on this list are not.
The theme and menu change every few months, so treat it as a one-off. Book ahead, the arch is small; the current 'Journey's End' run ends in September 2026.
Love this place! Love how the theme changes and you can try all different things. from a Google review
Bittersweet is the other Leith bar worth booking, run by two Italian brothers, Fabrizio on the drinks and Simone in the kitchen. The cocktail list is themed on rap lyrics, which sounds like a gimmick and isn't, and the spirits lean on Fabrizio's own Old Poison distillery, backed by Italian small plates and house-made mead and kombucha. It rates a near-perfect 4.9 on Google, and the warmth of the place is what reviewers mention first.
It's evenings-only and closed Sundays and Mondays, so check before you cross the city, and it's a bar first with food second rather than a full restaurant. On a quiet weekday evening, with a couple of the small plates and a cocktail or two, it's one of the most enjoyable rooms in Leith.
Come on a weekday evening for the calm, book for weekends, and treat the Italian small plates as part of the plan rather than an afterthought.
Great service, nice atmosphere and really good food! from a Google review
Never Really Here is the bar for people who think they've seen every speakeasy. There's no sign, no menu, and an unmarked graffiti door on Rose Street North Lane that you knock on to get in. Once inside, you don't order from a list; you tell the bartender what you're in the mood for and they build something bespoke on the spot. It's a genuine hidden room, and at 4.6 on Google it clearly wins people over.
The catches are real, though. It's effectively booking-only (you message them on Instagram, which is also the only place they properly exist online), it's cash only, and the whole trust-the-bartender format won't suit you if you'd rather choose from a menu. Go with an open mind and some cash, and it's one of the more memorable drinks you'll have in the city.
There's no menu and no card machine. Book ahead by messaging them on Instagram, bring cash, and let the bartender build something to your taste.
Don't expect a cocktail menu or even mixers. Just say what you fancy and something will be invented for you right there. from a Google review
The Devil's Advocate is where I'd point a whisky drinker who also wants a proper cocktail. It's set in a converted Victorian pump house down Advocate's Close, one of the steep Old Town lanes off the Royal Mile, with more than 300 whiskies from Scotland and beyond feeding a cocktail list that leans smoky and spirit-forward. The dramatic stone-and-glass room is a genuine event in itself, and it's an all-day bar-restaurant rather than a late-night-only spot.
Two honest catches. It's down a historic close with internal stairs, so it isn't step-free, and the hidden entrance is genuinely hard to find the first time (look for the close, not a shopfront). Cocktail prices aren't published online, but a whisky Old Fashioned or a bartender's-choice dram is the order here.
It's whisky-forward, with 300-plus bottles, so a whisky-based Old Fashioned or a bartender's-choice dram is the move. The entrance down the close is genuinely hard to find the first time.
Reviewers praise the dramatic converted-pump-house setting down a Royal Mile close, the huge whisky list and strong cocktails; the recurring caveats are that it gets busy and the hidden entrance is easy to walk past.
The Burrow is a tiny Old Town basement below the 3 Blind Mice pizzeria on Blackfriars Street, just off the Royal Mile and a world away from the tourist pubs above it. The draw is a rotating menu of handcrafted cocktails and a rare-whisky selection in a dark, comfortable room, plus an actual original Banksy on the wall. It only opened in 2023 and the review count is still small, but the scores are excellent.
It's only open Thursday to Sunday and the room is genuinely tiny, so book through their SevenRooms link rather than chancing a walk-in. That reservation-led setup can feel a touch formal for a spontaneous drink, but for a planned Old Town cocktail stop it's a lovely, characterful room.
It's only open Thursday to Sunday and it's tiny, so book. The Banksy on the wall is the real thing; the cocktails and a rare-whisky list are the reason to stay.
Ended up here by chance, a small, comfy atmosphere with a random Banksy original… cocktails were excellent in taste and presentation. from a Google review
The Voodoo Rooms is the grand one. A set of ornate, gilded rooms above the Café Royal just off Princes Street, all moulded ceilings and arched windows, with a serious back bar heavy on rum and tequila. It's as much a live-music and events venue as a cocktail bar (it runs a couple of hundred gigs a year), so the main bar is your walk-in spot while the ballroom and other rooms open in line with whatever's on.
A few honest notes: it's up around thirty steps to an upper floor so it isn't step-free, it's over-18s only, and on a gig night the vibe is more party than quiet cocktail den. Come for the room and the occasion. If you want a hushed, drinks-first bar, one of the basements above suits better.
The main bar is a walk-in; the ballroom and other rooms open in line with the gig schedule, so check what's on. Big rum and tequila lists if that's your thing.
Reviewers love the ornate gilded rooms above the Café Royal and the buzz on a gig night; the honest caveats are the stairs, the over-18s door policy, and that it's as much a live-music venue as a cocktail bar.
The city is small, so you can string three or four of these together in an evening. These are the three routes I'd actually walk:
New Town speakeasies (the classic): start at Bramble on Queen Street (walk-ins only, so hit it early), wander two minutes to Lucky Liquor a few doors along, then finish with a booked table at Panda & Sons. All three sit within a five-minute walk of each other, and it's the best concentration of top-tier cocktails in the city.
Old Town basements: begin at The Devil's Advocate down Advocate's Close, drop to The Burrow on Blackfriars Street for the Banksy and a rare whisky (book ahead), and if you want to keep going, Hey Palu on Bread Street is a ten-minute walk toward the Grassmarket.
Leith: make an evening of it out east. Nauticus on Duke Street for the Scottish spirits (go early, no online booking), then Bittersweet on Henderson Street for cocktails and Italian small plates, finishing down on the Shore. It's the most relaxed of the three crawls and the best value.
Prices: budget roughly £10 to £14 for a cocktail in the centre, a little less in Leith and Stockbridge. Most of Edinburgh's best cocktail bars deliberately don't publish prices online because their menus change so often, so treat low-to-mid teens as the working number, a bit more at the fancier speakeasies.
Booking: reserve for Panda & Sons, The Burrow and Bittersweet, and use the online booking at Hey Palu and Lucky Liquor for weekends. Bramble and Nauticus are walk-ins only, so go early or expect to wait. Most of these rooms are small, and weekend tables go faster than you'd think.
For more ways to drink in the city, see our guides to the best bars in Edinburgh overall, the best whisky bars, the best rooftop bars and the best traditional pubs. Planning a night out for two? The date-night guide pairs several of these with dinner.
Planning your trip? Save these bars into a day-by-day plan with Tourli, the app that turns travel guides into actionable itineraries.
Stop reading lists.
Start the trip.
Tourli turns any guide into an actionable day plan — pinned to a map, walking directions and offline access included. One tap to save every place on this page.