The Blackbird attracts a hip-young-thing clientele who create a not-unpleasantly-busy atmosphere most nights of the week. Beers are typically either continental or craft, and the cocktail list is well curated too, with edgier titles like Fake News and Lychee Collins backing up the more traditional negroni, daiquiri and martini crowd.
The Scottish capital has it all: majestic landmarks, sites of historical wonder and overwhelming beauty. But when the sun goes down, the city also has a lively and colourful nightlife to behold – nobody does it like the Scots, so they say. To warm yourself up ahead of a sweaty night in one of Edinburgh’s best clubs, why not down a few tipples in some of the many bars it has to offer?
From buzzy speakeasies to swanky cocktail joints, the city is ripe for spending days floating between venues, savouring all manner of recipes and concotions across its burgeoning drinking scene. Buckfast in a cocktail? A vending machine for ingredients? The choice of over 400 gins? Edinburgh has it all. Whether you’re trying to impress with something high-brow or looking to loosen up in a unique and quirky dive-bar, you’ll find what you’re looking for from this list of the best bars Edinburgh has to offer.
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Chiara Wilkinson is Time Out’s features editor, originally from Edinburgh. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.
