The Magnum Restaurant and Bar

One of my all-​time favorite restaurants. Enjoyed haggis there. Discovered St. Mungo’s beer there (my favorite beer, but only available in Scotland).

The Magnum was the very first culinary experience my wife & I had in Scotland. It was also the first time we tried Haggis.
First, the pics don’t do their food justice – and the pics do look very good. EVERYTHING we had was DELICIOUS. We started with an appetizer of Haggis, nips & tatties – YAY! I am forever sold on that dish and so was my wife.
We then moved to a steak – I forget which one it was but it was delicious.
We moved on to some form of cheesecake. I think it was the only cheesecake they had so not too much trouble to figure out if you’re there. DELICIOUS. In fact, it’s been over a year and my wife was just commenting on how good it was a couple of days ago.
By the way, the pricing was very reasonable.
There are a lot of great places to eat in Edinburgh and a lot of great things to see but if I went back there tomorrow, my first stop would be to The Magnum for some Haggis, nips & tatties. Then off to High Street!

having been to three christmas dinners in december already, i had my fingers crossed that my fourth and final christmas dinner would be good. i’d had fairly good luck in terms of restaurants with only one being a bit of a let down and i’d heard good things about the Magnum so went in with moderate expectations.
it was a fairly warmish day for december and on entering the restaurant me and my dinner date immediately and desperately wanted to take our coats off. thankfully i was still in my work dress so could also take off my blazer and sit in short sleeves while my date was stuck in her xmas jumper. i do like a place to be well heated as i suffer from being cold so the warm day and warm restaurant were just a bit unfortunate to happen at the same time. but the place is cosy, with a proper bar area in the front and a small but well set up dining area in the back.
we were shown to our table and offered both the christmas set menu and the bar menu to choose from. we knew we wanted the christmas menu and after much deliberation over starters (sending the waitress away twice with drink orders) we ordered. i went with the goats cheesecake for my starter followed by the turkey with all the trimmings for my main.
unlike other restaurants i’d been to (namely the one for my work xmas dinner) service was well time, with starters and mains arrived spaced out enough that we didn’t feel like we were being rushed. my goats cheesecake was simply delicious (maybe not for the non cheese lovers though) and i really enjoyed the compote (or chutney) that was dotted round the plate. i tried a bit of the pigeon breast too which was well cooked and tasty. we both had turkey for our mains which i have to say was one of the best turkey dinners i have had in a long time. the turkey was tender and filled with well seasoned stuffing. with the turkey we had a good portion of roasted brussel sprouts, chorizo, and chesnuts with a few roast tatties as well. the portion was just the right size and i had no shame in finishing off my whole place. the whole plate was well seasoned and delicious, the sort of food you want to eat at the festive time with providing the all necessary home comforts. for dessert we both had the chocolate truffle cake which was nice but very rich and i left a fair bit of mine over. the accompanying cinnamon ice cream was really nice though.
for the three course meal and a large glass of house red we each paid £35 which is incredibly reasonable for this time of year. all of my other dinners have cost £40 upwards so i was very happy with the price for such a delicious meal :) i will definitely be back to the Magnum for more dinners in the future!

Visited The Magnum while in town for business and then holiday. The suggestion came from friends who live in the neighborhood and frequent The Magnum. We could not have been happier.
The salmon cake starter was perfectly cooked and came with a tangy chili sauce. My husband had the venison and was delighted. You know a chef knows what he’s doing when he cooks venison so that it is tender and juicy — bad venison is really BAD. The red cabbage and blood pudding were perfect accompaniments.
I had a good ol ribeye and was not disappointed. The meat was tender, cooked perfectly medium rare and the sides included lovely roasted potatoes and tomatoes. The meat and veg were both incredibly fresh and full of flavor.
Reservations recommended — the restaurant is not large and the bar can definitely get packed on the weekend. But the staff is unbelievably helpful and gracious and friendly. Wish we lived closer!

**Kitchen not open till 5pm.**
This is one of the several placed we tried to get food from between 3pm and 5pm ON A SATURDAY.
We went down the list of several places on Unilocal,walking all over the area, and found that businesses close their kitchens in the middle of the day on a Saturday. That’s crazy talk where we come from. Crazy talk I tell ya. *shakes fist like an old grandpa*
We sat for a bit and enjoyed a tiny whisky, a tiny coke, and a small bag of crisps for waaaaay toooooo much money for the size — while looking for other places that had food RIGHT NOW. We were hungry dangit!
The plus side? The bartender was the most friendly service person we’ve run into outside of Starbucks in the tourist area.

Great! Lovely food, lovely atmosphere, very friendly staff. The Magnum has now become one of our favourite restaurants in our around Edinburgh. Very central but in a lovely location. Altogether, a very well run, welcoming place to go highly recommended.

I so wish I’d come here when I still live in the neighborhood. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have quickly become a regular.
After a fantastic meal down the road at Locanda de Gusti, The Man and I stopped in here for a drink. It is a warm and inviting pub, but is not what I would call an «Old Man» pub. They had some unusual beers on tap, but I was mostly drawn in by the friendliness of the staff and not-​crowded conditions which are hard to find on a Saturday night.
The only down side is the atmosphere. By the end of our second drink not only was the bar not-​crowded, it was nearly empty. Maybe it does most of its trade earlier in the evening but I would have loved to have stayed here longer if I hadn’t been looking for a bit more of an upbeat vibe.

I went here for lunch recently and really liked it. It has loads of atmosphere being in a part of old Edinburgh and really retains the Georgian feel of the surrounding area. Service was excellent as was the food and resonably priced for what you get. Reccommend this!

I didn’t expect too much on first sight of The Magnum bar, but this place is quickly becoming one of my favourite places in Edinburgh.
The atmosphere in here is hard to top. It’s relaxed and friendly, never once have I felt like a stranger to the place and I always feel as though the staff go the extra mile to keep you happy. The dining area and the bar are both lovely, playing mainly swing music when I was there both times, and that made such a difference to the feel of the place.
The seabass dish with black olives and chorizo was absolutely amazing, so good I had it the next time I visited too! It isn’t overly expensive, and I could easily spend an afternoon in there with a nice bottle of wine.
One of the best places for food and drink in the New Town, by far.

The Magnum isn’t on the main strip of bars and restaurants, so you have to know about it, and a lot of faithful and local regulars do. It’s been here since 1981, so it’s a bar of the 80s, which automatically makes it cool of course. It was the fairy lights around the big arched windows that lured me in, as twinkling fairy lights always do, and there’s definitely a bit of something romantic going on here, so if you staring into each other’s eyes and being lovestruck is your thing, then this is a good place to do it.
Aside from loved up dining and drinking, The Magnum is also really nice for a just a drink and a banter with friends. The bar has a really friendly feel to it, classy but laidback, and you do feel a bit like you’re part of a cool, New Town gang of some kind (they accept me for who I am, etc, sob). They have a really tasty, pretty classic Scottish food menu, and a separate restaurant area for food eating activities. Very decent.

This is a half restaurant and half bar in New Town about 5mins walk from Harvey Nicolls. The restaurant has top quality Scottish ingredients in intimate surroundings. I’ve eaten their twice and never been disappointed. The bar area is more relaxed and serves all the usual beers on tap and other drinks. It also does a bar food menu which my friends and i use often. The staff are friendly and the young owner is often working there and always comes over to see how we are getting on. It’s not the cheapest drinks/​food but definitely one of the better bars in the New Town of Edinburgh. The Scottish theme helps make it stand out — particularly if you are just visiting Scotland.