The Rabbie Burns

Definitely a place to avoid. Came in for a late breakfast on a Sunday morning, and encountered some of the worst service I’ve experienced in Edinburgh. Ordered the eggs and salmon, and simply asked them to cook the eggs differently (poached vs scrambled). The waiter flat out REFUSED, saying that if I didn’t want scrambled eggs, I needed to order something else. I even offered to pay extra, but he said they could make zero accommodations to the menu. The restaurant was empty, so it definitely wasn’t a time/​capacity issue either — just rude staff who didn’t want to be bothered.
I could see if it was a complex request, but this was a TINY ask. They even had poached eggs available elsewhere on the menu — they just wouldn’t let me pair them with the salmon.
The street is full of other places where the staff is kind, welcoming, and accommodating — this one is best to skip

Tourist trap. Got charged £13.90 for 50ml of Teacher’s Whisky and a glass of coke. A whole bottle in a shop is 18 pounds. I’ve been in Edinburgh for a year and this is the most outrageous price I’ve paid for this whisky.
The good reviews are probably from people who are tourists and don’t know that they’re being vastly overcharged.

Really nice people. The bar tender let me charge my phone behind the bar. Good live music. The Irish coffee I got was okay. There was something off about it. Still, good place.

Good atmosphere in the place and staff friendly and easy to talk to. Wide range of choice on the menu, good service but food a bit bland, and you get literally what it says — sausages and mash is just that, no veg with it which was a bit of a let down. Not bad prices and cosy atmosphere

Great company, good food, lovely whisky. Truly a comfy place to escape the weather and sample some scotch. Don’t know anything about whisky? No worries! The owner sat down and explained the finer subtleties of the drink to us.

I came here for the weekly couchsurfing meetup, which changes bar each week. The pub was quiet aside from our large group and worryingly positioned in the heart of the historic centre on the Royal Mile. In my mind flashed a red warning alert: tourist trap.
I don’t think I was wrong. £3.50 for a crabbies, £5 for a hot toddy, tartan everywhere and not a local in sight. Sandwiches were provided and they looked a little sad, limp fillings resting on boring white bread.
This wouldn’t be my bar of choice but was the unfortunate venue for this week’s group meeting so I hadn’t really a choice.
Nice enough staff but a tourist trap with expensive prices and no atmosphere.

This place is absolutely disgusting, pints at £4.8, food extremely overpriced when you compare the poor quality, my fish and chips came from frozen (worst quality than asda), nachos we had lacked both sour cream and guacamole and were returned no questions asked, they clearly have plenty of returns. Also the size of portions is hilarious. The place is not cozy as it first looks, but bloody filthy. The worst tourist trap i have ever bumped into:/ I wish we have never entered this place.

This is place is full of character and charm… and whiskey. Like a lot of whiskey. We ducked out of the rain while on a short Edinburgh vacation to warm up and try some single malts. It’s cozy, has free Wifi and everyone was really nice. Upon seeing that we were whiskey enthusiasts, the owner (maybe manager?) pulled up a chair and shared some favorites with us. He even pulled out a bunch of whiskey books and took us to school. Educational and boozational. I think that’s a word. There was a nice fella playing some pub tunes and it put us all in the happy vacation-​y spirit. Good times!

We went to this café because it was the only place we could find on the Royal Mile with free outside seats. Unfortunately we would have been better off continuing our search elsewhere. The service was acceptable but the Caledonian Best was bad and explained away by the landlord as being the last pint in the barrel. The prices were shocking, even for a tourist trap.

Great haggis, great service, great whisky advise, and free wireless to customers!

My wife and I stopped at this place after walking up and down the royal mile and were pleasantly surprised. We had a nice meal of fish and chips but what really sets this place apart was the manager Paul and his passion for and knowledge of whisky. We followed Paul’s guidance and found two new scotches we really enjoyed. We had such a nice time talking with Paul, we came back a day or two later and sampled several more bottles. As expected, Paul’s selections were right on the money factoring in our tastes from the previous visit. He also urged us to try something possibly outside our comfort zone and we ended up with a new favorite! We thoroughly enjoyed all our visits to Rabbie Burns mostly due to Paul’s excellent and friendly service and the vast selection of whisky.

Ugh! We fell into the tourist trap of stopping at a ‘local place’ that was convenient. The décor is a mishmash of junk and styles and junky styles. The food was priced for a tourist trap and while the service was friendly (hence the second star) it was sloooow. Despite the fact it looked like there were at least 3 cooks in the kitchen, it took 30 minutes for fish and chips! What’s really sad is that it was an off hour (2:00pm) and there were open tables and it still took that long.
Don’t make the mistake of stopping here. I’m sure there are many other better choice on or near the Royal Mile to choose from.

This place seems primarily geared up for tourists but then I was one. I was particularly pleased to find a very decent local bottled beer on the menu (mollusced out a fiver for it mind you). I went for the Haggis Nachos, mostly because the thought of both the culinary innovators turning in their graves tickled me. It was quite nice, but the Haggis was not as nice as I had elsewhere.

After a 12 hour flight and a full night of jet lag in a city I have never been in before and a hostel that I knew nothing about before I arrived, this is the first restaurant we ate at for dinner. It was very good. I have no complaints. The food came quickly and was delicious. I ordered good old fish n’ chips and my roommate ordered a baked potato. We also ordered the Edinburgh Cocktail which was just as good. Enjoyed and will hopefully go see it again before we leave. Also, reasonably priced. I can’t remember but I think the fish n’ chips was about 10 pounds plus like a 3 pound cocktail.

I found this café/​pub after wandering past the many kilt and celtic jewelry shops on the Royal Mile relatively early one Saturday morning. I was on a mission to try Scotland’s legendary (and rather intimidating) haggis, and since Rabbie Burns featured a Scottish breakfast complete with haggis AND fried egg, I was immediately sold. Wandering into the quaint, primarily wooden interior, I was greeted with smiles and urged to sit wherever I liked. I chose a seat by the window to maximize people watching.
Ordering was extremely efficient and easy as I already knew I wanted to try the Scottish breakfast (~$ 7). A mug of tea (~$ 1) was presented by the cheerful waitress, and the breakfast platter quickly followed. I had 3 rashers of bacon (extra crispy like I asked), 1 sausage, 1 portion of haggis, 1 fried egg, 1 tomato, a small lake of baked beans and 1 flap jack. Firstly, the haggis did not look anything like I pictured. I was expecting an alarmingly intact stomach full of ground organs. Instead, the pile of haggis looked rather like smashed falafel balls. In fact, it tasted rather like a palatable hybrid of sausage and falafel. I’m not sure if it was the real deal, but I liked it. It was especially good with runny egg yolk and flap jack. Everything was delicious, and I made quick word of the platter.
PARTING THOUGHT: Are there really enough tourists to support all the kilt shops on the Royal Mile?

The Rabbie Burns is a very reputable café on the Royal Mile, serving up a number of snacks ranging from panini’s and breakfasts to burgers.
The décor inside and out should give you a clue that it’s one for the tourists, but that’s not to say the locals wouldn’t enjoy a munch from here. Although it’s on the expensive side of pricey for teas, sandwiches and panini’s (over a fiver), it seems to be commonplace to charge that amount on the Royal Mile, and the food is good.
Where the Rabbie Burns earns its stars from me is through its choice and presentation. It’s a clean café with loads of seats (including a huge space outdoors during the summer). There are loads of options on the menu, and even though some smaller snacks are more expensive there are full breakfasts and lunches you can devour as an alternative. They had some eats I didn’t expect to see such as Greek meatballs, and although I didn’t see all that much in the way of veggie options (no veggie burgers, I’m afraid) there were fillings in other dishes suitable for vegetarians.
I was even more impressed to see they serve up some bottled beers and wines. It’s refreshing to see a café have some alcohol on their menu since many of the pubs on the Royal Mile are traditional and thus quite cosy and enclosed. On a summer’s day the Rabbie Burns can seem like the airy option, and getting to sit outside a café watching the world go by while drinking a few beers is quite continental. I would opt for the beer or an Irish coffee over spending 2.50 on a pot of tea — to be honest, that was the one area that I found a little offputting.
Its quite expensive, the exterior is a bit tacky and it’s clearly geared towards tourists, but the choice on the menu and tasty food make it one of the better placs to grab lunch on the Royal Mile.

Situated on the Royal Mile the Rabbie Burns is specifically designed for tourists, the décor is rather naff and the prices are rather expensive. Having said that, last summer when I was soaking up all the theatre at the Fringe Festival I had an overpowering urge to eat a full English fry up. Luckily for me, I was standing right outside the Rabbie Burns at this point. Perhaps this urge came from the fact that the smell of sizzling bacon, baked beans and cooked sausage was wafting out of this café and there was someone sitting outside devouring a whole breakfast — fried mushrooms and all. I couldn’t help myself I just had to go in.
Service was quite good and I didn’t have to wait too long before I was gorging on my very own fried breakfast complete with a good old fashioned cup of tea. I have absolutely no complaints about the breakfast, the bacon was slightly rubbery but it hit the spot and I left with a full tummy pleased that I had satisfied my breakfast pang.
Not the kind of place I would frequent often and I guess it really was a one off experience and I could have got a full English much cheaper if I’d only been bothered to walk a little bit further afield off tourist trap central but out of convenience this place is a-​okay.

The randy old bard himself had only the most tenuous of links with Edinburgh, spending most of his life guzzling mead and chasing buxom tavern wenches in Ayrshire. It should come as no surprise then that his caff in Auld Reekie is a tourist trap to end them all, a venue happy to bend you over the table and administer a slightly overpriced four-​cheese panini without a second’s thought.
However, the haggis neeps ‘n’ tatties is perfectly tasty and if you want a full cooked breakfast at 7pm it’s available here. Shameless, but serves its worth.

Good Olé Rabbie Burns! or not… as in the case of the tourist Café on the Royal Mile. The name may be appealing, but trust me — thats the extent of its appeal. Yeah ok, it’s a pleasant place, nice and clean and a reasonable layout but the overall experience leaves a lot to be desired, I’m afraid to say…
You can tell it’s aimed at tourists as the menu has a quaint Scottish twist, such as ‘a wee rolly’ and ‘haggis and mare haggis’. Being a local, I avoid these places like the plague. I generally try to avoid the Royal Mile, but I can understand its appeal for visitors.
the menu of Rabbie Burns isn’t exactly extensive, don’t expect fois gras and terrine of duck. More like…4 cheese panini and Macaroni Cheese. Yeah, don’t get me wrong, if you’re looking for a quick, cheap bite to eat while catching all the sights then Rabbie Burns is your place… but if you want something a little bit more exciting there are a plethora of places lined along the same street as the café which would fill the whole a lot better