Pubs & bars

With Boswell and Johnston supposedly meeting here, The White Horse has pedigree and 250 years on it remains popular with a diverse clientele. The stone walls provide some historic character but friendly bar staff and comfy seats contribute more to the…

In a cutting-edge setting, AMPM Bar serves cosmopolitan cocktails and modern cuisine in upmarket Kensington. Set within the Hilton London Kensington Hotel, the glitzy dining room showcases Scandinavian-style interior design, with a chic bar serving an…

Located in an old tobacco merchant’s house on the periphery of the Merchant City, Babbity Bowster is a pleasantly secluded place for a drink and some good food, particularly in the beer garden if the sun is shining on this evocative street. Babbity…

Tapas eating can fit into a shopping expedition like few other culinary styles – it’s restorative, flexible and convivial, and rarely too heavy or time-consuming. So Barça’s location in Princes Square makes a lot of sense, and after eight years it ranks…

Given its neon signage and the staff’s long-standing penchant for Hawaiian shirts, the Basement has never been a byword for subtlety and sophistication, but instead is a slightly ironic slice of Miami teleported into a Scottish cellar. It’s clearly a…

It could be the glowing fire or the island malt but ten minutes here and you feel the warm glow it usually takes a ramble across the glen to earn. Somewhat like being in the front room of a long lost relative, there’s much to enjoy from the extensive…

The latest addition in the effort to turn Leith Walk into Edinburgh’s premier street for welcoming and quirky local boozers, the Brass Monkey is the sister venue of Drummond Street’s long-established original branch, a bar with a mainly studenty crowd…

New Ownership from March 2013 and is now a Freehouse serving Harveys and other seasonal guest ales.

Zinc tables, novelty spirits behind the bar, walls papered with banknotes and postcards from around the globe: at first glance Brutti Ma Buoni has all the trappings of a travellers’ bar rather than a traditional bistro. But it would be a shame to miss…

Opened in 1863 with the contemporary style of elegant Parisian hostelries in mind, and formerly housed in a forty-years-older building (now demolished) across the way, the Cafe Royal Circle Bar's aesthetic of murals, marble, wood panelling and long…

Beer is now the only religion left in Cloisters: a dark sanctum of guest cask ales, and a shrine to craft beer bottles from Alloa to Australia. And lo, all else was sacrificed to the holy trinity of malt, yeast and hops. Once the token, no-nonsense pies…

This multi-level eating, drinking and gambling emporium is one of the G1 group’s flagship enterprises, with attention paid to creating a dazzling venue. The main dining room is astonishing; everything is on a huge scale, from the enormous glazed dome…

This grandiose building in the very heart of the city centre is vast and ornate, even by JD Wetherspoon standards. What was once a Bank of Scotland now feels like the living room of a stately home. An impressive domed ceiling rises above the central…