Cafe Royal in Edinburgh, City of

Very beautiful place, with a magnificent “Oyster Bar” restaurant room (decorated ceilings, stained glass windows, woodwork) and very warm. The food is excellent, fresh and local produce, very well prepared Scottish specialties. The only downside was the service, a little slow and disjointed: placed at a table behind the bar, we were a little forgotten.

Superb. Parisian style in Edinburgh. Great , great bar. Really well appointed, unique and stylish decor celebrating pioneers in scientific and technological advances. Oyster bar is brilliant. Superb food and service. Very highly recommended. Come here.

Amazing fresh oysters and great service!

Food was good, atmosphere was lovely however the service was very poor. I expected so much more of a nice restaurant with a 12.5% service charge….wont be returning any time soon. Got the seafood platter which was lovely minus the crab..not very tasty & the hot oysters of the day.

Fantastic service in a really personal setting. Creative spins on quality dishes. Will 100% be returning!

Love the Cafe Royal - always a wonderful atmosphere…..lots of good foo, nice whisky and Bloody Mary’s …just wish the cask ale was bette kept

It's definitely a must visit, a traditional bar/oyster bar with a lovely atmosphere, period decor. We didn't eat there but famous for its oysters.

As with most things if you get 5 star food and service you get a fiver star bill. My only negative about this place was that I was not allowed to use my discretion for the tip. The included @12.5% on a large bill is just over the top for a couple who had staff visit the table only 4 times. Otherwise if you don't mind what tip you pay or how much the wine price is inflated, this place is fabulous. I was asked if we were celebrating anything when we booked, I informed them it was our wedding anniversary but there was no acknowledgement or reference to it, disappointed, but not surprised.

1st time a bn there a soo loved it amazing

A lovely decorative pub with an oyster bar.

Me and my partner had the sirloin sandwich and shared some muscles, the sandwich was perfect. The muscles broth could of been a little richer. But apart from that everything else was perfect. Can't wait to revist.

Lovely bar, with great decor. Pricey cocktails at £14 but in the city centre I suppose. Only had drinks this time, but will return for food another time, worth a visit.

Stopped in for drinks on the way to the train station 🚉 🙃

No big deal. I wouldn't recommend it either for experience…

🐏This place is an ideal pub that attracts good regulars and attentive staff. A late lunch in here with an upscale take on Scottish food is highly recommend. I stop in here every other year or so for a plate of oysters and a good conversation.

Great food and a beautiful building

It was busy when we went around 17:45. We were lucky to find a table where we could sit. We ate fish and chips and hamburgers, they were quite delicious. We drank the recommended local beer, it was enjoyable. It was a place with a very enjoyable atmosphere, preferred by both locals and tourists. It was much more crowded after 18:30. It may be difficult to find a place to sit at those hours.

Magnificent and sumptuous surroundings. Very much enjoyed the 80 shilling beer.

Always a great experience here. Met aome lovely football fans from Dundee United.

Lively, historic boozer in the centre of Edinburgh.

Definitely one of my favourite pubs in Edinburgh. There's a great selection of Scottish cask and keg beers which are really well kept. The atmosphere is great too.

Very poor atmosphere because of noise including music from the bar - sorry but we won’t be back to eat: We know the Cafe Royal over many years but this was the first time in the Oyster Bar. The food was fantastic and the service excellent. I know fine that the partition between restaurant and bar has never been up to the ceiling. The atmosphere was absolutely ruined by music being played in the bar, at relatively high volume. Of course, this caused punters to talk much louder.

Delicious food, fantastic service, beautiful old building and decor

Over priced trap 1x soft drink & 1x Lager cost 13.10

Always good with wonderful atmosphere, great selection of beers, wines and spirits! & food!!

Beautiful place with good cuisine. The staff is very friendly!

Excellent bar great drinks available and staff very friendly and helpful beautiful bar and interior well worth visiting

First visit to Cafe Royal Really lovely atmosphere. Food was delicious. We had a memorable evening. Thanks.

Stunning surroundings, just go visit.

One of the best pubs ever visited. Great service, top class interior and matching atmosphere. Huge choice of all sorts of drinks. Oysters, scallops and stake of excellent quality. Do not forget Chariots of Fire!!!

Very nice interior. Nice service. Food was ok. Good beer.

What a fantastic place. Came here unexpectedly for dinner as the Guilford Arms next door let us down and I'm very glad they did. Amazing dinner and drinks. Great atmosphere. Can't wait to go back.

Great spot with delicious oysters and an impressive whiskey selection! Perfect for seafood lovers and whiskey enthusiasts alike.

Very good food, great service, fantastic rooms.

Great pub with a huge selection of beers and drinks, building décor is amazing. Very very busy for a drink, not sure for dining but booking would probably be advised

Great bar with good vibes. Great cocktails and something for everyone. Would recommend for drinks with family or friends.

Busy city pub with a reputation for good food. I was just in for drinks with friends. There are plenty of choices of gins, Centre of Edinburgh bar prices, unfortunately! Very busy on a Friday late afternoon with people having after work drinks. Still managed to get seats though.

Great atmosphere and buzzy vibe.

Super friendly service even with it being a busy Saturday night

The evening was very enjoyable, food was wonderful, as were the drinks, and the service was excellent!

Magnificent decor, and very good local ale

Good for tourists and locals alike.

didnt have food but good service 👍

What a pub. If you like food and beer this place is a must when in Edinburgh.

Great pub for an after work drink. The interior is beautiful but be able to stand as it is busy most afternoons. There is also an oyster bar next to it that I've heard good things about.

I first visited 50 years ago and have returned at various times when visiting Edinburgh. It has remained the same vibrant, colourful pub with an eclectic mix of customers as always. Never change.

One of the best pubs in Edinburgh! The food is great, the staff is extremely friendly. Great beer! Exceptional ambience! Rating: worth experiencing!

This is a great bar especially if you showing a friend round Edinburgh. Would be nice to have the music turned down a little and a bit more information on the local and Scottish food and drink that are being sold. Also miss seeing the Saltire that used to hang above one of the front doors.

Amazing place, really enjoyed it !

It was a lively vibe. Food was OK. Sevice was OK.

Normal food yet very expensive. Honestly, not worth the wait and money.

Delicious food, Bruno was so attentive and the building itself is incredible. We went from a table of 3 to 19 over the course of two days and they were so accommodating. Try the scallops!

Beautiful victorian pub with glazed windows and gorgeous ceramic tiled pictures. This pub is close from the centre but in a quiet almost hidden street. We were surprised by the quality of the food too! Beetroot carpatio was fresh and delicious, the risotto was perfect with the aubergine sauce - and the haggis was also very good. The only minus would be the attention, I know it was busy on a Saturday 3pm, but we had to wait for more than an hour for our mains to arrive (we were 4 people), staff was anyway friendly.

Wonderful atmosphere. Such history, but with modern classic styling. Brilliant service. Excellent food. 20/10!

Food was good but the service was lacking. Staff was not friendly in the slightest and made us feel like a bother for even being there throughout the whole meal.

I only had wine at the bar. Wine was not good. Service was okay.

Delicious oysters and fish n chips were yum too! The decor will take you back to another, simpler, yet more elegant time. Must visit!

Hot drink machine was broken on 28 September 2024.

Great decor, but mediocre food and ostentatiously rude manager. I honestly can’t remember ever being treated in such an openly contemptuous way in a bar before.

Cafe Royal is our favorite place in Edinburgh and we have been going for many many years to both eat in the restaurant and drink in the bar. We always go for special occasions. Sadly we had a terrible experience in the restaurant which was a special birthday dinner. The service was absolutely appalling , including serving a vegetarian the meat haggis and being totally unapologetic. We requested just some vegetables as apparently the vegetarian haggis was not available, despite being ordered. The vegetables never appeared. She got nothing to eat . The attitude of the staff was rude and arrogant from the moment we arrived until we paid. There was no apology and we had to request a gesture off the bill. Very very disappointing.

Really nice pub. That's all it needs to be. Didn't eat so can't comment on the food

Came along for some pre-theatre lunch. Received the Macbeth toastie and had a side of scallops. My toastie was delightful and very filling. Unfortunately my friends steak sandwich was stone cold along with the scallops. Service was immaculate from the waiters and bar staff, offered to remake but unfortunately due to time constraints we were unable to. Truly lovely service but unfortunately not consistent with the food.

Lovely old pub and restaurant in the middle of the new town.

Perfect place to celebrate our First night in Scotland. Beautiful setting, great staff and wonderful food (scallops,risotto and chicken). Just need a more dependable wine supplier, out of our 1st 3 choices.

I can call it my second home .. secure and amazing ..

So disappointing! Ordered the Scallops, absolutely tiny. Turbot for main, arrived on a side plate with boiled potatoes that had clearly been cooked days ago. Stunning place. Clearly no pride in the food anymore. £90 bill. Painful to pay for just bad food.

VERY busy at closing time (4 - 7 pm) pretty much every day. Do not expect personalized service, the service people are treading water to keep up. It is VERY hard to get a table, so keep this in mind and please don't take off a star. I recommend to just eat in the bar rather than make a dining room reservation - food is the same - and the bar is more interesting to look at with plenty of people watching! Meet new friends by seeing if 2 at a larger table will let you join them! We had Chicken Balmoral, Neeps and Tatties (with haggis) and also the mussels in the regular (wine/onion/garlic). The food was superb and highly recommended.

Good selection of beers and spirits

We started with half dozen hot oysters cooked in butter, fish stew, turbot and creme brulee for dessert. All were delicious!

Really disappointed, very limited menu not what is on the website, very small restaurant area but the bar section directly next to it very loud and busy. Some of the menu items weren't available making even smaller choice, after bringing our main meals they brought my husband burger without a bun ! Wgje we asked they said oh didn't they tell you we had run out of buns! So brought him two crusty slices of sourdough instead hardly a burger should have told us this before ordering, wouldn't return !

You enter another world when you go through the front door. To 1863 to be exact. Great food, and atmosphere, as well as efficient staff. A must try.

A classic pub interior with superb tiling. Good choice of cask beer.

Typical atmosphere... In the heart of Edinburgh.... Perfect for a few beers with friends, or an afterwork. Great food, especially seafood. On this occasion we only had a few beers with a small portion of mussels, and it was delicious!

It was so busy but we were lucky to get a table, great service

Friendly Staff...centre of town...Good food with plenty of choices..Great ambience. Historic building in City Centre being closeby to Bus Station and Waverley Station too..worth a visit..

A lovely place and atmosphere but experienced an awful case of food poisoning from the oysters here which simply are not fresh. Avoid the oysters.

Great local bar. Fantastic real ale and locally sourced beer.

If only everything in Life was as reliable and pleasant as The Cafe Royal!

Wonderful place for the real Scottish pub and restaurant. Highly recommend

Visited late one evening so unfortunately wasn’t able to sample any of the food, but the unique oyster bar sounds amazing! The interior gives a great sense of history and old-school luxury, with the booth seating being really traditional. It’s clearly a popular place and unfortunately this has an impact on the service, with it taking an age to get drinks at the bar. It’s also difficult to find anywhere to stand without being continually bumped into by passing people. But for a unique venue I’d return.

Had my first haggis here - it was excellent!

Food was delicious, interesting menu, and lovely interiors.

A great place to visit and a great reputation for its sea food, especially the oysters. Excellent choice of local and national beers. Great artistic tiles designs of famous Scots.

I'm not impressed, and for the prices they charge, it should have been a better experience. It is an incredible place to sit and admire the history. We were met with a little bit of attitude from the bartender/server that finally made it to us. There's no one to greet and seat you, so we just walked back into the oyster bar(that's what we were there for), and he asked if we had a reservation. We said no, and he got short with us and said we only had an hour and a half. That was more than we needed since we basically knew what we were ordering already. The haggis bon bons were an experiment(as we'd never had haggis before), and they were a no-go. The flavor of haggis is so strong and just not for us. They were taken off the bill even though we said we would pay for them(this is the reason for 3 stars instead of 2). The scallop appetizer was delightful. The 10-ounce sirloin with chips was spot on. And here's my biggest disappointment: the oysters. Ordered a half dozen(£20) and my very first one, I was met with shards of shell. I almost completely lost my appetite at that point. We had to argue with our server to get him to take it off the bill. I'm not paying for oysters that are inedible because of sloppy work in the kitchen. Also, the water they bring to the table is infused with citrus. It was incredibly strong and honestly off-putting. We had to ask for regular unflavored water. Overall, as I said, it's not worth it. It was $71.30 USD for one appetizer and one entree that were just okay.

Really awesome place. The restaurant is reminiscent of the series Peaky Blinders, but a little fancier/finer. But a bit of the same piece. According to the locals, this is where all the rock stars go. I unfortunately took the hamburger, which was probably a big mistake as you should probably bet on fish and seafood at this restaurant because it looked really tasty. The hamburger was a bit "soggy" and the bread tough, but perfectly ok. But the tip is to choose the fish & shellfish here. The beer was good, the wine was room temperature about 20-22 degrees as it is stored on a shelf behind the bar, and would need to be cooled down.

Very pleasant whiskey tasting, beautiful atmosphere, beautiful setting

a place out of time and so beautiful but so pleasant

A stunningly beautiful piece of history! It was as if we stepped through a time portal. The stained glass windows rendered the slanted sunlight exquisite. Our first meal in Scotland did not disappoint—especially in this hidden find within an otherwise bustling Edinburgh cityscape.

Bar staff were on it. Service was speedy, professional and welcoming.

A place of which few remain. Good food and good service. The place is very well decorated and very comfortable. The atmosphere is incredible without being quiet, but it is definitely a must-see in Edinburgh.

Aperol spritz was awful, there was less than a dribble of prosecco and he man handled a slice off of an orange with his bear hands (with a plaster on one of his fingers) to drop in the drink. Zero stars if I could.

An Edinburgh institution that we always bring visitors to.

Only thing was so very expensive

After our first lackluster dining experience in a Scottish bar, I was hesitant to try this place. I’m so glad we went! Unassuming from the outside, but absolutely gorgeous inside. We started with drinks (the rhubarb and ginger fizz was 😘🤌) and the huge and delicious baked camembert. For mains, we both ordered mussels and fries—honestly the best mussels I’ve had anywhere (including other parts of Scotland). We could have easily split the large portion between us, especially after all that cheese! Finally, we shared the Cranachan dessert. I wish I could remember our server’s name. She was lovely and attentive even while serving several other very large parties. Highly recommend you make a reservation, especially during peak tourist season.

Excellent service. Delicious lamb. Convivial atmosphere.

Absolutely excellent food, service and drinks. Truly cannot recommend it enough!

Wonderful meal. Seafood fantastic. Pub is gorgeous, with a huge range of whisky & cask ales. Can't wait to return & eat more of the menu..

Great atmosphere. Only had a drink

This Pub is a Royal Gem, food was awesome and , fast. The service is exceptional.

Great place for Fringe events-over the years I've seen classical music, magic, hypnotism and hip-hop here!