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Beer of the Week (w/e 14th December 2025) with Thuck Phat
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by Colin Walker
Submitted on Monday, 18th November 2024
With picture contributions to 1632 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (62 more images)
Detail Pages
The Cafe Royal Bar, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
EH2 2AA
Served areas
Reviews of The Cafe Royal Bar (Average Rating: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
David Walton left this review about The Cafe Royal Bar
Visited 05/11/25
Cask was Pentland IPA, Backing Blue session IPA and Jack Back session IPA all from Stewart Brewing, the Gloaming 80/- and the Bonnie & Blonde pale ale both from Loch Lomond brewing, the Royal Mile IPA from Broughton, the Jeely Piece double APA and the Songs of Haze hazy IPA both from MoR. The keg offering was Asahi, Stewart's Lager and Stewart's 80/- both from Stewart Brewing, the Edinburgh Pale from the Beer Factory, Thistly Cross cider, Guinness, the Pilot Blond, Paolozzi lager, the Lawless Village IPA from Bellfield, the Peach Melba Sour from Pilot, Estrella Galicia and the lager from Innis & Gunn.
Another grand pub, but not as opulent as I had worked myself up to experience - here was me thinking Trump's gold laden remodelled Oval Office in an old school Edinburgh pub and Oyster restaurant! The venue is tiled with an ornate, but not opulent island bar with tall stool seating around the bar counter. High painted ceiling - OK a fair amount of gilding thereon and around the tops of the walls between the grand windows. To the left of the entrance (mind the step down immediately inside the entrance if you are looking for the opulence), a series of semi-circular booth style tables with leather seating in the windows and regular chairs the other side thereof. Nice art deco style globe lighting suspended from the ceiling and a fair quota of typical houseplants. In front of the entrance and along an ornate wooden mirrored partition screening off the formal restaurant and stretching to the rear wall the other side of the bar counter was a line of tall round tables each with two tall, backed stools occupied by elderly ladies doing lunch. The rear (from the entrance side) wall has large tile art framed works of first division inventors (think Watt, Stephenson, Faraday, Caxton etc) either side of an impressive wooden fire surround with ornate mirror above. There was a line of tall tables along this wall also. Whilst a good venue with decent beer and plenty to look at felt like it was a distance second in the race against the Guildford Arms a minute walk away.
On 8th November 2025
- rating: 7
[User has posted 897 recommendations about 891 pubs]
Will Larter left this review about The Cafe Royal Bar
I've been in the Cafe Royal a couple of times before, and found it busy and crowded. This latest visit, on a Friday shortly before my 2pm train from Waverley, was no exception. On another much busier occasion I can remember being in a bit of a crush by the hand pumps, but this time there was just a couple sitting on stools by the counter, who generously made room for me to photograph the six pump clips. I spotted a duplicate set around the corner, so went around there to choose my beers: Mor Cobble, an 80/- which was a bit strong at 5% abv, having "... layers of rich malts, combining flavours of blackcurrant and caramel with dried fruit and roasted nuts" according to the brewery's Facebook description of their own beer; or a rather tired and lacklustre beer, the victim of its own excess strength when fighting for attention among five other beers in a pub where hardly anyone is drinking cask beers (NBSS 2, £7/pint). My other half pint was from Broughton Brewery in the Borders, but I had to Google it to find out, as the pump clip just said Murray's Pale Ale 3.6%, so probably a recreation of a long lost beer. This was a little better, though green instead of stale (NBSS 2.5, £6.70/pint). The other four beers included another 80/-, this time from Loch Lomond, and three from Stewart Brewing, whose beers need careful handling in my experience and I wouldn't even consider them in a place like this. The Cafe Royal is a beautiful building with some amazing art works on the walls, but I'll not bother coming here again. For pictures, there's the National Gallery of Scotland; for pubs, there are many better than this - one just around the corner, in fact: the Guildford Arms.
On 14th October 2025
- rating: 4
[User has posted 4531 recommendations about 4152 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Cafe Royal Bar
Another fine example of a Historic Pub Interior, definitely worth a visit. When I was perusing the beer board, I noticed they had most of the details in order, apart from the actual price. I asked the barman for the price of a pint for a 4% bitter and after checking his till, he told me it was £6.05 per pint, which was on the pricey side and why add 5p at those prices. The beer board read Stewart Pentland IPA, Murray's Pale Ale, David's Not So Bitter, Kelburn Pacific Porter, Kelburn Pale ale and Broughton Royal Mile.
On 19th July 2023
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3725 recommendations about 3725 pubs]
View more reviews of The Cafe Royal Bar (16)
Pubs Galore is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
- Official site of The Cafe Royal Bar - www.caferoyaledinburgh.com
- Facebook page of The Cafe Royal Bar - www.facebook.com
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Cafe Royal Bar - whatpub.com
- Historic Pub Interiors - pubheritage.camra.org.uk
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Beer Garden : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- CAMRA Discount : Yes - 10%. - last updated 19 November 2024 by Tris C
- Car Park : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Child Friendly : Yes - restaurant only - last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Darts : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Function Room : Yes last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Jukebox : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Karaoke : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Live Music : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Micropub : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Pinball : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Pool Table : No last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
- WiFi : Yes last updated 25 January 2016 by Quinno _
