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The Basement

3.8 (93 reviews)
ModeratePubs, British, Mexican
Closed 12:00 pm - 1:00 am (Next day)

The Basement Photos

THE BASEMENT ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Loud
Casual
Outdoor seating
Good for groups

Recommended Reviews - The Basement

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Cold town beer
Samantha L.

My friend and I stopped in here on our first night in Edinburgh based on a recommendation from our Airbnb host. We were glad we listened to his advice. The atmosphere was very hip and the service was great. We started off with the margs which were dangerously delicious and easy to drink! Then we ordered the vegan version of the nachos which tasted great as well. For my meal, I ordered the Birria tacos and a side of guac. I was very impressed by the tacos! The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the guac. It seemed to be lacking in seasonings/flavor. Overall, it was a great experience and I would have definitely came back if we were staying in town longer.

Quac made at the table.
Dee H.

Food was delicious, service great! A lot of food!!! Tuesday's buy 2 tacos and get 3rd free was a little confusing. But we enjoyed it and would recommend to others!

Duck taquito and pollo croquettas
Rebecca D.

What an absolute treat that turned out to be. It's no secret that I'm a fan of Tex-Mex, as is Paul, and this is what had drawn him to the restaurant in the first place, that and, "it looked cool." To be fair, it certainly does. It's a half-floor down and has a very funky feel to it, it's warm, vibrant and fun. They seem to be aiming for flexibility. While their menu is clearly laid out in the standard way, with nibbles, starters, mains and desserts, it also highlights that the dishes are shareable. They're not starters, they're "small plates." The "large plates" are also, "perfect for sharing." If you wanted to, you could just order a selection of food for the table and then mix and match. We opted to share our starters and to order individual mains (although I've never yet eaten in a restaurant with P and not asked if he wants to taste what I've ordered and vice-versa). We went with the chicken croquetas and the duck taquitos. Then I got the fish tacos and P chose the pork burrito. The duck taquitos were great but I loved the croquetas even more. They were golden, crispy and fluffy with gooey chickeny cheesy stuff that flowed out from the middle when you cut them open. Both dishes were served with a dip, both had a fair pinch of spice and a smattering of side salad and both made me wonder if we really might have been better off getting a selection of tapas style dishes from the small plates menu. Until my main arrived. Battered white fish, crisp, fresh thinly sliced salad and chilis, hot sauce, some kind of spiced sour cream, soft silky tacos. So. Much. Delicious. Food. The spice crept up on me. I wasn't fully aware of it until my lips were stinging and by then it was too late. Everything was exactly what I want Tex-Mex to be. Conversely, P's burrito looked a bit bland. He said it was good, but it didn't come with guacamole or sour cream (which made him happy because he's weird) or salsa (which made him unhappy because even he isn't that weird). The result just looked a bit plain and quite dry, but he said the fillings that were there were good, just that he'd request salsa next time. I so, so nearly left it there. Technically, I was full. But they had churros and I think the last time I ate churros was in 2013. It's ok, I know where to get churros if I really want them, it's just that I've either been distracted, full or avoiding the extra calories every other time for the last four years. I crumbled. I have literally not one single regret about this. They were softcrunchysweetcinnamondelicious and the chocolate and chilli dipping sauce was amazing. I would literally go back to The Basement just to eat churros. I had forgotten how good they could be.

Tortillas menu
Erica M.

Really great atmosphere with eclectic seating options and candle light, good service and food. I did not see a sangria on the menu but they were able to make a tasty red sangria for me! The chili con queso was a surprise! It was lit on fire in front of me! This did seem to leave a bit of a different kind of taste, but I enjoyed it. Smaller portion than expected, same with the tacos but for me I liked the smaller portion size. I then ordered the fish tacos which had a bit of a kick so I had to ask for water as well. Fresh taste though and nice presentation. I'm also just a sucker for Mexican food though.

The chili mxocha cocktail for desert. Espresso and chili and very tasty!
Kelli W.

I'm giving this place 5 stars because if you live in the UK, you know Mexican food is hard to come by, especially GOOD Mexican food. I've been here for two years and this is the first and only good Mexican I've had. Margarita is fantastic, had it on the rocks. I only wish it was larger! Definitely order the guacamole, they make it right in front of you. You can opt to leave out any ingredients you don't want. Avocados were so fresh! I ordered two small dishes, the ceviche tostada and the special, a butternut squash Crustada. The ceviche was amazing and I don't even really go for ceviche normally. It had a light citrus dressing. Highly recommend for the foodie in the mood for Mexican!

Alice C.

3 words. Homemade tortilla chips. Had what everyone raved about - guac :) I know I'm from California so nothing compares and it doesn't, but at least they had delicious chips!!! Fajitas were good, tortilla not so much - would be better if it was heated up! Don't get the duck tostado or ceviche. Nothing what you would think. Great and friendly service so the 4 stars along with the chips. Did i say chips?

Chicken Enchilada
Richard T.

We enjoyed a fantastic Mexican meal here after reserving a table via Yelp and Open Table. Reservations are recommended as the place gets very, very busy and tables are at a premium. The restaurant bar is downstairs in a very relaxed atmosphere with tables and small and cosy dining booths that you share with other groups of people. The service was fantastic, with the staff making fresh Guacamole at your table, and the food and drink was top notch. I had the Chicken Enchilada, which was some of the best Mexican food I've ever had! There is a decent range of tasty cocktails too. Great venue, Good food, good service. Highly recommended - but remember to reserve a table!

Austen M.

The basement was by far my favourite bar that I visited on Broughton street. I know it does food as well, but I did not get to try any of that. So I can only comment on it as being a bar. This is what I would call a hipster bar. Cool, dark and with a trendy crowd. They had ten interesting craft beers on tap and loads of bottles as well. I could have spent a good while drinking my way through the various options on offer. Cool modern place doing good beer and I would definitely recommend going for a drink and I will hopefully be back to at some point.

Fiona H.

It's probably a good thing I don't live massively close to this place, otherwise I'd end up spending far too much money and time here. I'm a sucker for tex-mex food, for starters, and the fact that they sell alcohol too is just an added bonus. This place reminds me of Under The Stairs on the edge of the Grassmarket, but with a more latino feel to it. That said, the food here isn't cheap. As cool as this underground bar-eaterie may be, if I'm going to pay just under £10 for a main course I could go to loads of other more upmarket places; for a gatropub-style basement place it does seem a little steep. But, there's always a really nice relaxed atmosphere to this place, thanks to its largely twentysomething clientele, and that's something that you can't guarantee in a lot of other places. Prices aside, I love this place.

Cod, steak, duck and ribs.
Marie U.

With empty stomachs, and wet socks we climbed down the stairs to enjoy the offerings that the Basement had to after on a Tuesday evening. Not until after we tried to get in through the wrong door of course (it's the furthest to the left by the way). We were promptly seated and the staff were great. Not overbearing, but helpful enough and recommended a few dishes for us to try. We'd also read a few reviews recommending the guac, so ordered that first. I loved the fact that the guacamole was made right in front of us, and the waitress asked which ingredients we wanted. Obviously we had the lot, and although the guacamole was certainly fresh, it wasn't anything special like I thought it'd be. I'm not sure how though, as we physically saw her put the spices in it, that should make it great?! Weird. We Then moved onto a selection of tacos and small plates for us to share. We had shredded duck, cod cheek, steak tacos and then the ribs. Again, the food was good. Not great, but we scoffed the lot without there being any problem. This all equated to a usual 4 star review. So why the 3 stars? The main reason is because of the price. With small tacos priced at £6.50 for 2, the bill was over £40 including 1 drink each. This meant that it was about the same price as an El Cartel and unfortunately the quality was nowhere near.

Emma C.

The Basement is brilliant little bar/restaurant situated in (you guessed it...) a basement at the top of Edinburgh's trendy Broughton Street. The bar has an extensive range of drinks on offer: wine, beer, spirit and cocktail drinkers are all comfortably catered for. One of the reasons why I rate this place so highly is that it's one of very few bars to have my favourite beer, Bacchus Framboise, on draught. It's a lovely Belgian fruit beer with a subtle taste of raspberries served in an ice cold glass, I can't recommended it enough! If you're feeling in the mood for tequila, ask for a 'donkey' (the bar man will know what you're on about) it comes served with a slice of orange and it's meant to be sipped and enjoyed like a malt whisky, they have been known to be knocked back as well though! The restaurant isn't the largest of spaces and the tables are quite close together, however this just adds to the sense of intimacy. The menu comprises of a decent selection of starters/light bites and more substantial mains. Everything is freshly prepared and the food ranges from traditional pub grub with a bit of a twist (merlot and rump pie or Grolsch battered sea bass) to classic Mexican dishes like burritos and nachos. The dessert menu is quite short, but the Banoffee pie is phenomenal and they do a selection of dessert based cocktails. Food is served from 12pm until 10.30pm, seven days a week and you can book a table via the website.

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6 months ago

fish tacos and birria tacos were top choices. Great cocktail and beer options. Service was also great

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The Basement Reviews in Other Languages

Review Highlights - The Basement

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The Devil's Advocate - Smoked fish plate

The Devil's Advocate

(629 reviews)

££

Old Town, Royal Mile

Just an awesome, rockin' final meal in Edinburgh - fantastic food, good service and energized local…read morevibe! Absolute must to get reservations! We tried on our first week in Edinburgh and failed, but were able to make reservations 3 weeks out for our last night in Scotland, and we are glad we did. Pork cracklins were a bit hard and crunchy, but everything else was perfect. We had fresh bread and langostinis for starters, along with a smokey whiskey cocktail, the Smoked Indiscretion! For mains we enjoyed the poached Cod, and the Pork with Barley. Service was very good, and wine selection was extensive. Atmosphere was loud with music and locals' chatter in the bar below, but dark tables and heavy wood panels made it a perfect place for a couple celebrating 3 weeks of travel. Highly recommend a visit to the Devil's Advocate, if you can book a table in advance.

The Devil's Advocate is undoubtedly a treasure to find in Old Town Edinburgh, especially if you…read moreaccidentally take the News Steps to get there, only to realize you should have simply taken the steps up Advocate's Close from Cockburn Street. But they call these lessons, "character building," apparently. No matter, the Devil's Advocate is worth the search. Located in an old Victorian pump house halfway up (or down) Advocate's Close, the Devil's Advocate is known for a killer whisky shelf of more than 300 different bottles from various distilleries across the Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Campbelltown, the Islands, and Islay. I finally sipped on a 15-year Tamdu that has convinced me to keep a bottle at home. Then there's the Clydeside 2024 Limited Edition Cask Strength that was wicked impressive. The bartenders are class at making and serving seasonal and regular cocktails that have their spin and character. My wife enjoyed gin-based cocktails such as the Clean Slate (with St-Germain, citrus, and sugar), Rose Garden (with Yellow Chartreuse, Cocchi Rosa, apple, lemon, and mint), and Bee's Knees (honey and lemon). I went full speed ahead with the scotch cocktails, which are essentially classics with a scotch-substituted twist. The Double Shot is an Espresso Martini with Dalmore 12 in addition to Kahlua, espresso, and demerara -- quite smooth without being too sweet. The Scotzia is a Negroni with Fettercairn 12, while the Boxcar is a Sidecar only with Aberfeldy 12. We enjoyed the bar for a few hours, watching the bartenders make magic while sipping on cocktails, while listening to 80s pop tunes. A great evening indeed.

The White Hart Inn

The White Hart Inn

(113 reviews)

££

Grassmarket, Old Town

Our first day in Edinburgh and as usual our first order of business is to ride the hop-on-hop-off…read morebus. Today when the Red route took us to old town and I saw The White Hart Inn I said to Jan let's do an early dinner there and she agreed. We continued the route and stayed on back to the stop in old town. We love Alfresco dining but it was too cold and windy today. We went inside and the restrauant was packed. It's open seating. No hostess, no sign in. We were lucky and just happened to be standing next to a table that opened. We had been there about 5 minutes. The restaurant/ pub is rich in history, established in 1516. It's small with limited bar seating and prehaps 8 to 10 tables. It is noisy from conversation, tosting and music, but we didn't have a hard time communicating. It has a great vibe. It's a fun venue and popular with the locals. The menu is not large and has several Scottish offerings. To start, Jan was cold and wanted an Irish coffee. I ordered an Innis and Gunn larger. Innis & Gunn is an acclaimed Scottish brewery founded in 2003 in Edinburgh. It had a slightly citrus flavor. Jan ordered muscles and I ordered the steak and ale pie, served with a charred Hispi cabbage wedge, buttered mash and Merlot beef dripping gravy. It was very tasty, very robust flavor. I loved the cabbage; great flavor. I had to look up hispi cabbage and it is a variety of green cabbage. The muscles were good and the broth very nice. We had a lovely time and a good meal. Our good luck at freelancing dining venues while we explore Ireland and Scotland continues.

We chose this place for being one of the oldest establishments in Scotland dating back to the 18th…read more Century and a place where poets like Wordsworth, Burns etc gathered for a sip. The setting still looked ancient and the overall ambiance was befitting. Small place though. The food and drinks however disappointed. They could have put more efforts to turn the place into something much more than it is. Service was efficient without being really excellent.

Queens Arms

Queens Arms

(114 reviews)

££

New Town

Out of all the places I've been to in Scotland, I think Queens Arms was one of my favorites…read more We had reservations for this place recently and when I took one step inside, I was already in love. I mean who doesn't love a good pub? You get great drinks and great food at an affordable price. As I write it makes me think of think of when Zidane reunites with Freya in FF9. Sometimes we don't wanna eat at fancy Michelin restaurant that has small plates but charges a premium. Sometimes we just wanna cut all the BS and just get a nice hearty meal. And thats what we got. When we sat down we found out that they were doing a Trivia night. Normally I would have told my girl to pick another spot to eat but for some reason I was cool with it. There was even a table nearby with kids(yuck). And you know what? It was fine. That's because we had been sipping on some amazing cocktails. If you also partake, Gin and Mezcal enjoyers will love the Bramble and Hibiscus Crush. What color are Luigi's overalls from Super Mario? That's such an easy question. Wait...what do you mean Luigi's overalls are blue? They are green. Look at this picture onli...Oh... One of the stars of our meal was the Haggis. This was the first time I had ever tried it and after trying it at multiple places Scotland, Queens Arms I feel has done it the best. I love the complexity of the flavors of the meat with the creamy and pepper flavors of the peppercorn sauce. If you've never had Haggis, you definitely have to try it here. The best part is that it comes with mashed potatoes too! Shoutouts to the Fish and Chips if you are also into that. One of my friends ordered that and I definitely had to go back in for multiple bites. Finally the roast. The Sunday Roast should just be an automatic order if you happen to come here on a Sunday. You get so much food and it's all so damn tasty. They'll cook a roast to whatever doneness your heart desires. We went with Medium Rare and it came out perfectly. If you didn't have enough flavors with all the extra sides it comes with, they also give you gravy to pour on anything you want. Thanksgiving basically came early this night. But as I looked around and admired all the bookshelf's and all the families have a nice dinner with their loved ones, I just thought about how happy I was. I was finally here! This was the start of my trip. Queens Arms has set a high ceiling on great experiences in Scotland. We even went back there a couple of days ago just because we knew we would be able to end the night on a good drink. But in the end I think if you are Edinburgh, you have to come to this place. It is one of my favorite experiences I've had in Scotland so far and I dream about when I can come back again.

We got 3 reservations to split up our group of 8 adults and 2 kids, so we were all able to make…read moresure to get a table and have the Sunday roast. We shared the ultimate sharing roast and everything was delicious and so filling. It was also nice to be able to sit and watch a match while enjoying the food. The coffee was pretty good too. This is definitely a good option if you're looking for a Sunday roast in the area

The Basement - pubs - Updated May 2026

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