Café Royal

Pub Details

Address
17 West Register Street
Edinburgh
Scotland
EH2 2AA
Telephone
(0131) 556 1884
Opening Times
Weekdays
11am (midday Sun) - 1am

Location

Good Pub Guide Recommended

Stunning listed interior, bustling atmosphere, and rewarding food You might be better visiting this lovely pub after the lunchtime crush when you can appreciate the dazzling, opulent Victorian interior better – and find a free table. It was built with no expense spared - with state-of-the art plumbing and gas fittings that were probably the pride and joy of its owner, Robert Hume, who was a local plumber. The floors and stairway are laid with marble, chandeliers hang from the magnificent plasterwork ceilings, and the substantial island bar is graced by a carefully re-created gantry. The high-ceilinged Viennese café-style rooms have a particularly impressive series of highly detailed Doulton tilework portraits of historical innovators Watt, Faraday, Stephenson, Caxton, Benjamin Franklin and Robert Peel (forget police - his importance here is as the introducer of calico printing), and the stained glass in the restaurant is well worth a look. Caledonian Deuchars IPA and guests such as Cairngorm Black Gold and Kelburn Dark Moor and Misty Law on handpump, a decent choice of wines by the glass, and 20 malt whiskies. Piped music, and TV (when the rugby is on).

Licensee information

Licensee name
Valerie Graham
Punch

Good Pub Guide Food

As well as popular mussels done several ways (and served by a half or whole kilo) and oysters (by the half-dozen or dozen), the well liked food might include cullen skink, chicken and heather honey pâté, beer-battered fish and chips, mediterranean vegetable bake, rump steak burger, and fish stew.

Bar food times: 11 (12.30 Sun) - 10

Good Pub Information

Rating

  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
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Rating: 3/5 (1730 votes cast)

Reader Comments

Billyfish

Wednesday 14 April 2010 2:26:50 pm

A very beautiful place to sit and have a pint and there were a couple of very fine guest ales on tap when I visited over Easter. The staff were friendly and efficient, the food, fish and chips, was good but not exceptional, perhaps serving food "all day" is a bit ambitious (I was there at an off peak time). It should feel like a tourist trap, sitting as it does just behind Prince's Street, but it certainly does not, a genuine happy experience.