Cafe Royal Circle Bar

Corner bar with an astonishing interior. Pure opulence with mahogany, lamps, elaborate ceiling, bar, leather and enough paintings to give the feel of a classical arts museum in a good way, lightning. Amazing to see but so is The Guild ford Arms which does have an impressive beer list, meanwhile here it's uninteresting or macro including ridiculous choices like Corona, Heineken 0% etc. Shame, oyster menu, champagne, fish, seafood, big wine list. A taste of extravagance, not too great with the beer, crazily busy when visited but so was everything else as well.

One of the most beautiful grand design Victorian pubs in Britain. If budget is not an issue dine in its Oyster Bar, just to say you have. Could and should be a lot more adventurous with its beers. If anywhere needs to know the benefit of stocking a small elite range of high quality bottled beers it is here. Currently the shelves look like an advert for corporate mediocrity.

The Café Royal Circle Bar is right next door to the Guildford. The interior is stunning and exudes opulence and grandeur. In the main bar there are tiled pictures featuring various inventors and scientists, each with a little caption underneath saying who they were, what they were famous for and when they lived. Further back there’s another interesting room given over to dining and here there are stained glass panels depicting men in various gentlemanly pursuits such as fishing and shooting. I think one may even have shown a cricketer too. There were four hand pumps and there’s table service. Well worth a look. (Visited 6 February 2017).

This place is all ambience - circle bar, bright lighting, gold panelling, stained glass windows ... probably the most ornate pub I’ve ever seen, almost too much. Can be a bit narrow when busy, though we always managed to find some room at the bar. Eight beers on cask including a house beer, nothing too exciting. Managed to find a few ticks nontheless, not that that’s the reason why you’d visit this place.

8 taps but often only 4 different beers. Nice interior but usually quite busy.

Excellent selection of ales. Usually in very good condition.

Just love the design of this place: opulent elegance hits you as you enter, a wonderful central bar and plush decor all around it. The eating room is also a joy to see (did not eat, but had a good look around). Friendly staff, good conditioned cask ales and not enough seating on a Saturday night (25th Oct 2014). We stood next to a painting of Faraday and I pontificated about his electro magnetic fields while downing two excellent pints of Scottish Ale.

Beautiful bar with polite service.In terms of beer, it doesn’t stand up to its impressive neighbour the Guildford Arms. However, I’m not sure if this is because they don’t really have their finger on the pulse of what’s good in beer right now or whether they don’t have quite cellar-mastering experience. It’s good to pick up the odd beer you won’t have had before.

Bar located just off Princes Street in central Edinburgh. Interesting interior with lots of mosaics on the wall and traditional central bar. Some Scottish real ales but a fairly limited selection compared to others.

I was quite surprised how lowly reviewed this pub is. First, the interior of this pub is truly splendid, well worth a visit. Location is very convenient for the new town and train station. On my visit they had 7 cask ales, all Scottish. While I wouldn’t say the selection is awesome from a pure beer nerd point of view (a bit samey, no real standouts), it is more than adequate and unless you’re Scottish you’ll probably get a tick or two if that’s what you need. But come here for a pleasant pint in a lovely old pub.