The Best Pint

Best pubs in Edinburgh › The Royal Oak

#23 Photo to come

#23 of 31 best pubs in Edinburgh · Edinburgh · EH1 1LT

The Royal Oak

★ 4.5 (1,352 Google reviews)

Best for folk music in a tiny traditional pub.

By Tom Hart · Updated 26 Oct 2026

It's on 2 of the 11 Edinburgh pub lists we read. That makes it #23 on our best pubs in Edinburgh.

Small
Pint£ ?not checked yet
Hours—see below
Crowd—no data

What the guides say

“The venue is well known for live music and seems to be quite local.”

The Roaming Numeral ↗

Also named by The Times' 35 best pubs in Edinburgh.

Why it's on the list

  • On 2 of 11 lists (The Roaming Numeral, The Times' 35 best pubs in Edinburgh)
  • Google 4.5★ from 1,352 reviews
  • Score 4 = 2 × 2 lists + 0 Reddit

A pub scores 2 for each list or award that names it and 1 for each Reddit recommendation, up to 4. How we rank.