Tonic

Great location in town. Table service from knowledgeable bar staff. circa £7−9 per cocktail. I believe it can get busy at the weekend but we were here on a Monday night and we had our choice of tables.
Tasty drinks and great music. I would definitely come back here.

I used to frequent this bar a lot a few years back when the cocktails were around a fiver each (now closer to 8) and apparently the reason I never got turfed out for being mangled was that I was a great tipper. At 8 quid a drink there will be no more getting mangled or tipping!
The menu has changed a lot, still varied but the only ice cream cocktail left is the Barney Rubble. Why they’ve dropped a lot of the ice cream ones I don’t know. The menu is still varied but a lot of the cocktails just didn’t tickle me.
On this occasion I ordered my favourite tipple, a caipirinha. This drink can either be really good or really bad depending on the skill of the maker. Although the bar man was lovely, unfortunately his version of a caipirinha was really bad. I had a better one at Las Iguanas the week before.
I also tried a toffee apple but it seems to me that staff would be hard pressed to mess up that drink what with the flavoured vodkas doing the work.
On a side note, the staff have always in the past played what music they like and I suspect that some were «budding dj’s» with the MacBook being out on the bar. The music has always been loud and it probably is still too loud for the size of the place.

Tonic does cocktails and some.
I am impressed with their extensive list and the fact that certain ‘manly’ cocktails contain a single big rock of ice to cool the drink.
They are happy to make a virgin or mocktail for the lover of taste sans alcohol.
The atmosphere is friendly and the chairs /​stools are surprisingly comfortable.
They have an heated outside area, complete with Jack Daniels veranda rocking chairs, fun!
The Wifi is free for use
For cocktails this is your spot, but all in all it was OK — which is not bad.

Tonic is a fantastically located (for me anyways) bar on the coroner of George street. It’s tucked away enough for you to always get a chair and approach the bar, and it’s busy enough to maintain an atmosphere.
The staff are very friendly and the cocktails in inventive! Well worth a try!

Excellent cocktail bar! Great, friendly service and expertly made cocktails with just the right amount of flair! Try the Smokey Mary … it’s not on the menu, but it’s a Bloody Mary made with Smokey whisky instead of vodka … Bloody Brilliant ;-) This is one of Edinburgh’s best kept secrets … go!
UPDATE: appears to have changed owners. Say no more … ;-)

This is an excellent cocktail bar with a rich and varied menu.
I also cannot praise the staff enough, especially considering the circumstances of my visit.
I was with a reasonably sized group of people celebrating a friend’s birthday, one of those important birthdays with a zero at the end.
Tonic was our last watering hole after an evening of eating, drinking & becoming very merry.
One consequence of the choice available is that inevitably, during every order, at least two people in our group changed their minds repeatedly as some other concoction caught their eye.
The staff were friendly and patient throughout and everyone (that could still maintain some coherence) commented on what an enjoyable end to the evening it had been.

THE cocktail of choice — Lemon Drop. Lemon infused Bombay Sapphire and some other lemony things like Lemoncello and topped off with a flying saucer. Yep, remember those paper things filled with sherbet? This cocktail comes with them, two if you are lucky. They have a nice adult touch — the bottom of the flying saucer melts in the alcohol and the sherbet falls out into the drink — yummy!
The bar itself is small and it is one of those places you need to get to early otherwise its a bit of a squeeze. The cocktail menu gets revamped every few months — for awhile the Lemon Drops were off the menu, but they are clearly back by popular demand (me always asking for them?). The décor is modern — I think there has been a bit of redecorating going on over the last few months (maybe I’m wrong and had too many Lemon Drop’s when I was in last time). No food available apart from crisps and sometimes glasses full of sweets are on the tables — yum, more flying saucers.
It’s the Lemon Drops which lure me here (and my mum) so for this cocktail alone, it’s well worth a visit.

So, technically four stars for superb and delicious cocktails and 2 stars for the tapas on offer leads us to a healthy 3 star review.
The good is some fab cocktails — Monkey Got a Gun involved (but not exclusive of) fudge infused whisky and Innis & Gunn — served in a miniature beer mug and quickly disposed of. Monkey Laird was a fine way to end the evening… although my head was definitely unhappy the next day. It seems that Tonic tries to avoid the standard cocktail and deliver a choice variety, for that I welcome.
The bad: it’s super loud. For somewhere that you can sit down for food, the two don’t go together. Plus, with the door open, we enjoyed our dinner with cigarette smoke. We were there with Groupon (4 tapas plates each and one side, plus a dessert cocktail) so thought that we would have plenty of food, but we ended up plenty wanting. The tapas on offer is meagre by any shout — the plates in front of us were pretty bare, including —
* gambas counted to 4 prawns, one each, hurray!
* ratatouille consisted of three pieces of aubergine with canned tomatoes and one lonely slice of red pepper;
* mackeral pâté seemed more like mackerel flavoured mayonnaise — very runny for a pâté!
The dessert cocktail was just disgusting — cookies and cream icecream, Baileys and Crème de Menthe. Not even my mint ice cream loving sister could bear it.
For bang for your buck, there are better tapas options elsewhere. We left, definitely tipsy, poorer of pocket (cocktails are not cheap, but definitely worth it) but not particularly satsified, despite the vast number of plates on our table. For cocktails, it’s a win, but food and ambience, it’s not.

Since discovering Tonic a few years ago it’s the first place I think of when I think ‘cocktails’ (they lose a star as their drinks menu isn’t as large as it used to be). The staff are friendly and attentive, and if you don’t know what to choose they’ll ask a few things that you like and will concuct something amazing. It’s best to go midweek as you can usually get a bit of banter going with the bar staff, at the weekend it gets really busy. The best (or maybe worst?) thing is that they will open a tab for you and come to your table and take your order. I’ve ended up spending small fortunes in here.

With all the gushing that’s taken place in the other reviews, it’s telling that when I arrived at Tonic the other week, I genuinely thought I was in the wrong place. It seems to be considered by some to be Edinburgh’s best cocktail bar. It isn’t.
With banging house music in the background and staff dressed like Urban Outfitters mannequins, the atmosphere wasn’t quite the laid-​back, pianist in the corner type feel I prefer in cocktail bars. A lot of the punters were exceptionally drunk as well, lowering the tone a bit but then again it was around midnight, and we were in a bar so perhaps that’s nit-​picking.
The smoked whisky sour I had was alright, but by no means great, though since Tonic’s cocktails tend to be a bit off the wall in their flavours I can appreciate that there’s a certain hit and miss element to the menu depending on your tastes. Given the praise it gets elsewhere I’d assume there must be better.
We left fairly quickly, as the ear-​splitting music volume and sleazy atmosphere weren’t doing it for us. Despite friendly customer service from the top drawer and a fairly large menu, I doubt I’ll return in a hurry.

I popped in here last weekend after reading the rave reviews on Unilocal,I was expecting great things but left completely under whelmed and a little bit disappointed if I’m honest. Did I go to the same place? It’s the most average cocktail bar on the planet and the prices are ridiculous for somewhere that’s not particularly a nice place to sit. It reminded me of the Monkey Bar in Glasgow which is crap and always empty… for a reason. Tonic on the other hand was hoaching last Sunday and I’m not really sure why.
I ordered a Gimli’s Breakfast Fizz… or something like that, it was okay but it didn’t exactly rock my world. For two cocktails it came to £13 which I guess is quite reasonable but it’s not exactly a fancy place, it’s just so basic so I kind of begrudged the £13 when you can get cocktails in similar styled bars for around £4.
I was also a little bit miffed as a group of girls beside us ordered awesome looking cocktails with ice-​cream and fruit smoothies in them which I couldn’t see anywhere on the menu and they bought 3 of these babies for £9. Was I missing something? Or were they just giving the bar staff extras afterwards? I wouldn’t like to say… Either way, I was pretty under whelmed by the whole experience and left thinking… «is that it?» In fact I drank my cocktail in record breaking time so I could leave.
On my visit there was a huge range of ages, which is good but rather tragic when a suited up late 30 something plonked himself down beside a very young looking group of girls who look both terrified and confused by the wannabe Lothario’s advances.
To be fair the bar staff were really nice and the guy making our cocktails chatted to us for a while which was a nice level of customer service. I’m giving this place 3 purely because of the friendly bar staff, but I won’t be going back, nothing to see here really. Next!

Tonic is a coctail bar — and as such adheres to a certain set of rules. Some are good and some are bad — lets start with the good.
1) The cocktails this place does are tasty — really tasty.
2) The cocktails are made right in front of you with a certain amount of showmanship and outright showing off.
3) Tonic is small but classy and styling. Certainly cool.
4) The drinks menu has more choice than I can think to describe in a singe metaphore.
5) Theres a great atmosphere — its a cool, trendy vibe, but also relaxed and fun.
But now for the bad.
1) Expensive. £10 for what is effectivly fruit juice and vodka, no thanks.
2) Because Tonic is small, it gets busy and uncomfortable quickly.
3) Waiting 7 hours for a drink while the barman shakes and stirs and filters and mixes and flips it all about while singing mama mia is not cool.
So there you have it, a great little cockatil bar, but with some pretty major flaws. I’ll just have a G&T.

Yes, Tonic has the best cocktails in Edinburgh!
It is a really modest place, it’s really not flash yet always has a brilliant atmosphere. To get here you have to go down some stairs, and the bar itself is really quite small. It can therefore get really uncomfortable when it’s busy, you can’t get to the bar and the wait is made twice as long as the waiters are meticulous with their cocktails. I once had a cocktail in an actual jam jar!
My brothers girlfriend and I spent about 30minutes looking over the extensive menu to decide what we were going to have. When we decided, we both wanted what the other was having so ended up doing a swap.
This is definitely one of the gems in the city!

Tonic concocts some fantastic cocktails, this fact cannot be argued. The speciality, focus of knowledge and reliable quality of this bar is the array of cocktails that can be requested here, so whether you’re a traditional Cosmopolitan or Mojito sipper, or you want something with a bit of an out of the ordinary twist to it, Tonic will comply with your beverage supping needs.
When I’m in here, depending on what mood my palate is in, I usually go for the French Martini, which is always pretty awesome, or a classic Cosmo, apologies if that sounds very unadventurous, but it always goes down a treat. The inside of the bar is sleek, stylish, and very well finished, so you’d be well recommended to visit here if you like to drink your cocktails while looking trendy in a pristine environment. It is pricey though, as is most of George Street, so a few cocktails down and your purse will definitely be less of a weight on your bag. It’s also pretty miniature, which can be nice on weekdays when town is quieter, but slightly hard to handle at the weekends, when this place is packed with cocktail requesters.

I had heard the cocktails in this wee hidden bar were fantastic, and as a reviewer for Unilocal,I felt it was my professional duty to find out just how good. The things I do for you guys!
At first, I really didn’t get what the fuss was all about, but as soon as I ordered from the drinks list (about three days later because it is actually soooo big!) and my very elaborately garnished and yummy looking cocktail came, I realised what all the fuss was about. I had a Silver Mercedes, and if I would have had two, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you any of this!
My boyfriend stumped for a pint (bore) and the bill was just under £15! Expensive but so totally worth it! I may have found a place to rival Glasgow’s Metropolitan!

If this bar weren’t quite so pricey, there quite simply wouldn’t be enough stars on the scale to rate it adequately!
Paying up to £9 for a single drink does take something away from the gorgeousness of the beautifully made works of cocktail art, although there is no denying that these bar staff know what they’re doing.
Call me boring, but I went for my staple dirty vodka martini. On the basis that I drink them almost everywhere I go, I figure that’s the fairest way to judge them all… it definitely got a thumbs-​up from me. And let’s face it, it’s not as if there aren’t more than enough cocktail emporia on or around George Street. Which is why this place deserves it’s amazing reputation, as it stands out from all the others with the sheer quality of the place.
I have to say, I did feel like a bit of a Sex & The City wannabe sitting there with three of my friends, analysing our love-​lives and wearing high heels. But you sort of end up doing it unintentionally in here, with the plush booths, good-​looking waiters and tasty tipples. And it’s not just the surroundings that look beautful — i’ve never seen so many different glasses, crazy fruit garnishes! and flamboyant colours and wonderful tastes this side of Rio Carnival!
Jus make sure you’re credit card’s still got plenty of wiggle-​room left on it before you go in…

Does Tonic serve the best cocktails in Edinburgh?
I think so!
Beware! It will also break your bank balance.
A friend kept raving about this place and how he went here after work all the time so I told him to take me in the hope of shutting him up. Well all he did was get me fabulously drunk on fantastic cocktails while emptying my bank account. The cocktail menu is so varied and long that you spend the whole night reading the menu thinking ‘ooh that sounds nice, I think I’ll try it!’ And this continues for some time before you realise that its closing time and you can barely walk.

Contrary to the other reviewers, I was a bit disappointed when I visited this bar for a mid-​week drink. The place was dead and so completely lacked in atmosphere and yet they continued to play painfully loud dance tunes so that my friend and I couldn’t hear ourselves speak. Suffice to say, we left after one drink.
I would go back, but I’d wait for a weekend.

Located just off of Edinburgh’s fashionable George Street, this bar is slightly more relaxed than many other bars in this area (though just as expensive). It presents a somewhat more appealing atmosphere than its pretentious neighbours, and its cocktails are on a par with Tigerlily’s.
The Zombie is guaranteed to destroy a considerable portion of your prefrontal cortex. Fantastic.

I’ve only been to this bar a couple of times but it’s probably my favourite in Edinburgh.
Serving a huge selection of cocktails, it can be hard to choose just one. I went on a very sunny day before going to see Muse at Meadowbank a couple of years ago, and had what can only be described as an alcoholic ice cream float. It was absolutely delicious.
The bar is very small inside, but there is seating outside, which is great for smokers or non-​smokers trying to catch the sun on a rare balmy day.