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    Thistle Street Bar

    4.6 (36 reviews)
    ModeratePubs
    Open 12:00 pm - 11:00 PM

    Thistle Street Bar Photos

    THISTLE STREET BAR ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Good for groups
    Outdoor seating

    Recommended Reviews - Thistle Street Bar

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    John K.

    It's the place you hope to find when visiting Edinburgh. It's got the years, and everything that entails. It takes years to add the layers of depth this place poses. Owner operated by Robert and Dorothy, and operated exceptionally. They are a wealth of knowledge about the spirits they serve, as well as Edinburgh. Stop by for a pint and swig of whisky. It's a must.

    Jennifer M.

    Received this pub as a recommendation from Secret Scotland tour guide. After a long 24 hours of travel and sightseeing it was exactly what we were looking for. Tucked back from the main roads, this is a really cool pub that seems more of a local hangout than a tourist destination. The pub was lively but you could still relax and enjoy a conversation. As seats became full a local couple shared our table with us and we enjoyed chatting with them for a bit while they waited for their bus. Would highly recommend for anyone looking for a cool pub with a local feel.

    Exterior View at night

    What an adorable bar in Edinburgh! It's the kind of bar where you wish you lived around the corner so you could go there every evening. Robert and Dorothy (the owners) run a great bar, but are also a wealth of knowledge about every Edinburgh. Robert suggested several restaurants and they were all spot on. I'll definitely stop back on my next trip to Edinburgh!

    Lauren G.

    The Thistle Street Bar is definitely one of favourite pubs in Edinburgh - and that is saying something! Situated in Thistle Street, Thistle Street Bar is right in the city centre and just around the corner from the pub central area in Rose Street, and so it is a convenient place to reach. It is pretty small inside, but it makes it fell nice and cosy as there are plenty of corners to sit in with friends and there is a beer garden at the back which is a lovely place to sit on a sunny day and enjoy a drink. The Thistle Street Bar serves the usual selection of beers, ales, ciders, wines and the standard range of spirits, and drinks are very competitively priced with a large glass of the house red wine costing less than five pounds. Behind the bar is a collection of world money notes and there is a big TV screen which tends to show all the sporting events going on. The staff are really friendly and warm and there is always background music playing. The one thing which kind of puts me off this pub is the toilets as there is only one toilet each and so you can be waiting ages to go to the bathroom. I love to come here on a pub crawl or for pre-drinks before a big night out. There is always a lively atmosphere in here, and they serve delicious cocktails - amazing!!!

    One word- Little! This bar ticks all the boxes for me! Traditional, tiny, cosy, authentic, unpretentious and cheap! I love the dark wood, the booths, the teeny tiny beer garden with about 5 chairs and the general ambience in this place. Probably somewhere best visited with a small group or in a couple, as it is so small and gets busy quickly. Grab a seat while you can.

    Tennant's Lager - the banner beer of Scotland

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    8 months ago

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    11 months ago

    Great place to share a pint and pass the day. Nothing like a great pint and bag of crisps to complete the day!

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    5 years ago

    Excellent service, ambiance, and fun! Went two nights in a row and had a blast each time.

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    8 years ago

    Nice little bar. Bit too hot though. One very grumpy staff member unfortunately. Would be back nonetheless

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    16 years ago

    Visited in 2009 during Festival time. The quintessential pub, loved it! Right in the midst of everything in New Town.

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    17 years ago

    Great selection of drinks, Friendly bar staff and great atmosphere.. what more do you want in a pub??

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    Thistle Street Bar Reviews in Other Languages

    Review Highlights - Thistle Street Bar

    Robert and Dorothy (the owners) run a great bar, but are also a wealth of knowledge about every Edinburgh.

    Mentioned in 4 reviews

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    The Devil's Advocate - Smoked fish plate

    The Devil's Advocate

    4.3(630 reviews)
    0.4 miOld 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.

    Photos
    The Devil's Advocate - Whiskey flight tastings

    Whiskey flight tastings

    The Devil's Advocate - Fish Filet

    Fish Filet

    The Devil's Advocate - Double Shot with Dalmore 12, kahula, espresso shot, and Demerara.

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    Double Shot with Dalmore 12, kahula, espresso shot, and Demerara.

    The White Hart Inn

    The White Hart Inn

    3.9(113 reviews)
    0.5 miGrassmarket, 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.

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    The White Hart Inn
    The White Hart Inn
    The White Hart Inn - Cozy place

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    Cozy place

    Queens Arms

    Queens Arms

    4.4(114 reviews)
    0.1 miNew 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

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    Queens Arms
    Queens Arms
    Queens Arms - Wellington upfront and Mac and Cheese in the back

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    Wellington upfront and Mac and Cheese in the back

    Thistle Street Bar - pubs - Updated May 2026

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