The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

This is a wonderful place in Leith to wind down and taste a few whiskies.
I just recently had New Year’s eve ²⁰¹⁵⁄₁₆ celebrated at the SMWS and it was a blast.
we had some nice whiskies to start the evening and the NYE drink of choice was obviously a whisky too.
The place is like an Victorian gentlemen’s club. 2 fire places and plenty of room to relax.
They serve other drinks than whisky too, but why would you?

This place is the better discovery after a a weekend in Edinburgh. A friend of mine that is living in Scotland since many years told me that I had to visit this place, otherwise I would regret it and it was true: it was a great experience. The Scotch Malt Whisky society has been opened for non regular memberships and now is possible to visit them and have the opportunity to taste great whiskies, for a very reasonable price (between 5 and 9 pounds depending of the choose). Our waitress was very enthusiastic about her job and she really enjoyed guiding the people through the whisky world, serving new tastes and explaining all about the history of whisky, the best places where it is produced and the different approach to taste it. She, Spanish girl, told us that is not always easy to be foreign and speak about whiskey to Scotts, but anyway she was very pleased to have this opportunity and she really liked it.
I am not a whisky drinker but I really enjoyed the time there, tasting amazing flavors and learning about a the site without marketing of this spirit. All the bottles in the bar have the same label, an funny and quite interesting description of the taste and a number. You don’t know which distillery you are drinking and you have to trust the waiter. That makes the experience more unique. I would recommend to everyone to visit this place, the society is doing a big effort to open its doors to everyone and can be interesting.
About the food (it is possible to have dinner there as well) no experience, I was concentrated in the drinks.

One of the first things I did moving to Edinburgh was join the Whisky Society. My friend who has been living here for 2 years had been telling me about it and something about being a card-​carrying member of a drinking club sounded perfect for me. I have been to both locations and really enjoy them both for different reasons. We headed here last week after a visit to the Royal College of Physicians library for drams and dinner. We got a nice big seating area for our big group since we got there early which was lovely and comfortable.
Now I don’t know much about whisky (yet!) but the bartenders there are so helpful. I describe what I like and what I’m in the mood for and a bunch of samples magically appear. Each dram I’ve gotten from here has been just wonderful. This past time I tried one described as «tropical» and of course I didn’t write down the number but it was just so lovely I would like to try it again. The food here is also very good! We didn’t eat in the fancier dining room downstairs but the «pub» type food you can order in the member’s tasting room is great, I had a venison pie with cabbage/​bacon mash that was so, so tasty.
We did notice a note on the table that the Queen Street location is no longer going to be «member’s only» which is a bit disappointing and takes away a little bit of the fun, but it seems like the Leith one still will be. But overall this is an amazing place and I will definitely be back here with my friends and other people I want to impress with my cool membership card!

What a special place! From the outside, unassuming and you would walk right past it, as it blends on and looks like every other row home. But inside you are treated to a beautiful formal dining room. Upstairs is the «members only» bar. Great wine selection but the real treat is the Scotch whiskey. I ordered from the vegetarian options of a fixed menu. The waiter asked if I am a true vegetarian, and I’m not and so we were presented an amuse bouche, a quail terrine, with a complimentary tasting of a 20 yr old Scotch. I had a pasta and soybean starter followed by an aubergine main. Both were delicious! We finished the evening with an amazing cheese plate. Service, atmosphere and food and drink exceed expectations. A very special place that is perfect for a special occasion!

I really like the Whisky Society — As a member it really hits the spot when you want somewhere cool to chill and be almost guarenteed a seat. It’s warm and the staff are ace. The main reason I’m not hitting 5 starts *(yet) is that I am still to eat in the dining room downstairs.
It looks ace but I’ve heard mixed reviews. So I shall test it!
However the bar food, whisky, beer selection etc are all cracking!
The bottles make a cracking present for that whisky lover in your life.

Luckily I was invited by 2 other Unilocalers who are members of the SMWS to come and visit the Scottish Whiskey Society premises on Queens Street.
Walking through a posh entrance I passed the reception in order to gain entry to the chic establishment. Normally you need to sign in and be a member, but because I was a guest I was able to sneak by the mahogany reception desk. I saw spiral steps going up and following the path I entered a classy gentlemen’s room, showcasing some very comfy seats.
Behind the bar I could see many labeled green bottles filled with so many different whiskey varieties, unimaginable to somebody who is not a whiskey expert nor a lover.
The views out of the windows go so far than Leith and Newhaven.
There are many rooms you can explore and find somewhere to sit down, relax and taste a few glasses of whiskey, We were really lucky as it was the first day of the month when new whiskey samples were released. I tasted something smoky, something sweet and something fruity — 3 different samples.
I would definitely go back for a few more samples :-)
I have now been back for a few more samples and can really recommend the 4.157 (Highland Park) and 76.90, which is an excellent 26 year old Speyside Whisky.

i’m a big fan of the whole secrety society thing. i was in a sorority when i was in uni so i get the whole being part of an exclusive club thing. so needless to say when my boyfriend decided to join the scotch malt whisky society, i was pretty excited to get to finally check this place out!
now this isn’t skull & bones like at yale or anything, but it is an exclusive members club. you need to flash your card and sign in your guests when you arrive. and then you have the option of heading into the dining room for dinner or upstairs to the bar for some drinks. i did find that for a members only society, the decour was a bit basic and lacking. nothing fancy at all which was a bit of a disappointment for me, but maybe they were trying to go for understated elegance.
however, the bar! if you can grab a window seat overlooking queen street gardens it’s a real treat, especially on a sunny evening. however the whole front room of the bar is full of light and spacious. the back room seemed a bit darker but also had a good amount of seating. the whisky is listed in a bound menu that changes each season (i think…) as all the whisky is bought specially by the society there are no distillery names associated to them. what you get instead of a very descriptive tasting note and some fun names. the whisky is broken into different price brackets by a colour code, so best to be careful which you are choosing! some drams are over £30 each!!!
the bar also has a food menu which is pretty good. a wee bit more pricey than your standard bar menu, but the venison burger i had was excellent so well worth the extra few quid! they also suggest a whisky for each dish which is a nice touch and my boyfriend confirmed that the suggested whisky for the venison burger went together very well.
overall this is a cool place and i look forward to more visits now that the boyfriend wants to make sure to use his membership. it’s a relaxed environment for a night out where catching up with friends is the priority (no loud blaring music obstructing conversations!). it is a bit pricy, as three drams and a burger cost me £30, but for a really enjoyable evening i can’t really complain.

Join the smws for a fantastic Whisky experience!
I have an SMWS membership through work and have been a number of times for meetings and dinners and have always had fabulous food and service. To buy the whisky you need to be a member and this also entitles you to drink in the bar but if you want to go for dinner then that is fine. Membership is about £100 and allows you to bring a guest along and is definitely worth it, if you like your whisky. There are two parts to the SMWS venue in central Edinburgh, a restaurant downstairs and the upstairs whisky drinking area. There is also the vaults in Leith which has a bar and shop outlet. This is relating to the Queen Street Venue as I have yet to visit the vaults.
Upstairs there is a bar with a LARGE selection of whiskies as well as a great selection of beers, wines etc. Assuming you can find a seat, grab the seat and pull out the whisky and food menu, lets start with food. The selection is very nice and comes out of the same kitchen as the restaurant down stairs. The mains are around £9 — £13 so very reasonably priced. The dining room down stairs has a set menu which is about £30 for 3 courses and the a la carte. EVERYTHING I have ordered has been fantastic I can assure you.
Now to the reason you go, the whisky. It’s a very confusing menu if you don’t know the system. The menu it split into the different regions, highland /​speyside /​lowland /​island etc. Then the confusing part, they don’t tell you the name of the distillery, only a number. The first part is the distillery and the second is the barrel number from that distillery that the SMWS has selected. There is no list anywhere obvious of which distillery is which number but many of the members have a «secret list» they can pull up to tell you.
The whiskies themselves are very good. The SMWS selects a number of barrels from different distilleries, bottles them and sells them but once they sell out, you will never get it again, it’s the benefit and curse of the single barrel bottling. They have recently started tell you how much each dram costs which is nice, they range from £4.95 up to £33.50. You can also purchase a bottle of any of the whiskies you taste and enjoy at home.
The atmosphere is relaxed and cosy, the staff are friendly and super knowledgeable, the food is really very nice, but most importantly the whisky, while not cheap, is always great and allows you to experience whiskies you can’t get anywhere else…

Members are friendly
An oasis of whisky
Food is a plus too.

I do not even drink scotch and I loved this place! I was, however, with two hardcore scotch drinkers and they love the place as much as I do so I am comfortable singing its praises. A friend invited my BF and I for drinks at the upstairs bar while we were in Edinburgh and it was so much fun.
The upstairs bar is cozy and the servers friendly. We found some comfy chairs in the back room, ordered some food and then the boys got down to the business of scotch drinking. While I honestly cannot understand the appeal, they seemed very happy.
As far as the food, my leg of lamb was AMAZING. I also had an elderberry cider I am hoping to find back in the states and a super-​high proof rum (160?) that was probably one of the best drinks I have ever tried.

Home sweet home!
Whisky, whisky and more whisky. If only they had a cigar terrace to finish it all off: o)

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society on Queen Street is, quite simply, a haven for whisky lovers away from the tourist traps that are everywhere else specialising in whisky.
The only issue with the Queen Street rooms, over the Leith venue is that it is prone to pinstripes.
SMWS Queen Street has a huge selection of single cask whiskies, among the purest form of whisky. The whiskies they stock can only be purchased by members and there is generally not more than around 500 bottles available.
The most interesting drink I ever had in my life was here, an 81.3% alcohol rum. Even the smallest of sips of this would desiccate your mouth, the back of your lips felt like the outside of a raisin and as for the taste, it was a grumbling behemoth of flavour that got more and more intense as it unfolded. Mental, but great.

Pretty cool place for Scotch lovers. You need to be a member or a guest of a member to get in, but membership is only 50 pounds a year. The scotchs they offer are one-​offs making it a unique drinking experience.
The food was also very good. Much better than I expected. And the prices were very good too; at least in the member section. I think the membership is well worth it.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society on Queen Street has two parts to it, the downstairs restaurant is open to the public and offers a fine dining experience accompanied, unsurprisingly, with a dram or two. Upstairs, however, is the members bar which offers the great selection of single cask malts as well as some really great designer beers, wines and a gastro-​pub menu which is superb for a quick bite at lunch-​time or a relaxed dinner.
The food selection is far better than you could normally expect at a bar with offerings of pigeon breasts, venison burgers and oysters on the menu of about ten items. On this occasion I went for the venison burger served with fantastically thick chips (which I only had half, not due to the taste but my diet), a few rocket leaves. The actual burger itself is a really thick pattie of good quality venison, cooked to perfection. At about £12 for a burger it is a little more expensive than you would normally pay, but it is definitely worth the extra.
The staff in the society are knowledgable of the whisky on offer, which is remarkable given the number that are available and around ten new whiskers being added each month. They’ll happily explain the difference between a single malt and a single cask whisky and offer their opinions on a dram that you would enjoy, even if you haven’t been tempted by the water of life before.
Membership for the first year is around £100 which comes with a presentation box of four different 10ml sized society whiskies and then each year after it reduces to around £60. For a quiet members club just streets away from the main shopping streets of Edinburgh it offers great value as somewhere to slip in and have a quick coffee or something stronger to get over the shopping trip. Membership also allows you to visit the equally good Leith venue as well as a society venue in London.

Everything about the Whisky Society is done well: the facilities, staff, atmosphere and of course the whisky.
The Queen Street venue is a great place to spend some time, whether on your own, taking friends out for a special drink or on business. The Society membership fee lends an air of exclusivity to the experience, but it’s not too pricey. The whisky, on the other hand, doesn’t start cheap and rises pretty high, so don’t rush your dram. (Other drinks are available.)
I enjoy every trip to either of the Society’s premises in Edinburgh and wish I paid them more visits than I currently do.

In the past 5 months I have gone from whisky virgin to a hardened drinker of the smokiest, peatiest Islay malts. It has been a wonderful journey and one that continues to reveal entirely new surprises.
Such as the dinner and whisky tasting at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. It was a Groupon voucher of a two-​course meal (upstairs in the bar, rather than in the Dining Room itself) and then a whisky tasting with three whiskies.
I need to split this review in two: the food and dining experience; and the whisky tasting and what the Scotch Malt Whisky Society do with whisky.
The menu was a limited selection for the upstairs area, and had quite a few off their bar menu. As far as prices go (having had a wee look) they’re quite pricey. £11 for a venison burger, £15 for coq au vin. Now, this is actually quite good for good food. But I imagine the dining room downstairs is more expensive, and we haven’t gotten to portion sizes yet…
I ordered the squid with mussels starter, and braised lamb with butter beans for main. I was really spoiled for choice, as the other mains all sounded amazing: smoked haddock with poached egg, steamed sea bass. Lots of very meat-​focused, but healthy and not over-​indulgent choices. Basically, good food to compliment very fine whisky.
The food really was delicious. The squid was quite dainty, but the lamb. Oh. Mah. Gah. Melt in the mouth perfection, and the butter beans made a lovely addition. There was no other carby part to the meal, which suited my tastes perfectly but others might want to order a side of potato. The boy had chorizo and duck starter, and the coq au vin for main. The dark wine gravy was really delicious, and the chicken also really tender and creamy.
Why the four stars? The portion sizes, as I previously alluded to. I am a small lass. I generally can’t always finish what’s on my plate in a restaurant and tend not to have starter AND main. One steak, with a side of veg, suits me fine. But having eaten a starter AND main here, I still left hungry. So hungry, in fact, that after the whisky we went and got a kebab (a very HEALTHY freshly grilled chicken kebab that is!)
The starters were really miniscule. The tiniest baby squid I’ve ever seen, and three mussels. The main was three smaller pieces of lamb, with a few butter beans scattered around. Minimalism but also.hunger. The boy’s coq au vin was three chicken legs and mash. Three chicken legs isn’t really substantial as a chicken main in my eyes. And like I said, I’m a petite girl who doesn’t eat a lot.
It did mean the whisky hit the spot quite nicely, although I was hungry whilst drinking it and was also disappointed they didn’t have olives or other bar snacks apart from crisps or nuts.
The food really was delicious, but small portions for the price you’d pay and if a 5’4 slight girl left hungry, I don’t know what a grown man would feel… My advice is eat a big lunch beforehand! (Or head to Pasha for a kebab after!!!)
To the whisky itself. Now this really deserves 5 stars. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society only supply their own whiskies, from their own distilleries. So there are no branded whiskies here, only their own whisky that is bottled in the same bottles with different numbers and names. They name each new whisky based on a panel of tasters who are members of the Society, which I like. So one was called «First of the Day’ and another «Singapore Marketplace». The descriptions are also cheeky and fun.
The three whiskies we had were really exceptional. I know I prefer lowland and Islay whiskies, and luck would have it we had one Lowland and two Islays but these were like nothing I’ve ever tried before. The Lowland was actually quite rich, but still floral and honeyish. The Islay’s were both completely different and very subtle in flavour. One actually had three different flavours that hit you at different times. The first time Ive ever expericed that with whisky.
Based on those three whiskies alone, I can highly highly recommend the Scotch Malt Whisky Society for anyone who loves whisky. Their whiskies really are in a different league to the branded ones I’ve tried. I still like Lagavulin and Talisker and will drink them. But I suppose it’s the same as having a Dairy Milk bar, or a Kit Kat — and then having artisan fresh made chocolate. Night and day.
It’s £100 for the initial membership fee, which gets you access to the dining room and upstairs bar, and only members can buy the Scotch Malt Whisky Society whiskies. It was sorely tempting to be able to purchase those bottles of sunshine elixirs. But I really didn’t think I’d be back often enough to justify it. They have member events, but these are also paid. It’s a high end Society club for people with a real passion for whisky. Maybe after I’ve got a few more whiskies under my belt you might see me on the members list…
Also I need to highly compliment the staff member who took us through the tasting. He really ‘made’ the night.

I don’t even drink and I still had a fantastic evening! Learned more than I ever wanted to know about the virtues of single malt whisky. Dinner provided — roast beef, potatoes, leeks, salad, fresh fruit cobbler w/​fresh cream — was the best meal I’ve had yet in Scotland.

If you are a whiskey lover and find yourself in Edinburgh this place is an absolute must!
I did a whiskey tasting and had dinner here with a group and it was a fantastic experience. The tasting lasted approximately an hour and consisted of an explanation of the scotch malt whiskey society, a lecture on the history of whiskey and how to properly taste/​drink it and obviously a whole lot of whiskey! There were four whiskeys in total, and I’d say a total of 10 oz of liquor at least.
What I found to be the most interesting part is that the SMWS buys entire casks of whiskey from distilleries. The distillery itself will make hundreds of casks and then their tasters will determine which casks should be combined, diluted and bottled so the resulting branded whiskey will always taste the same. SMWS on the other hand, will sample and buy individual casks so the whiskey you get here is not available anywhere else and much stronger (since it hasn’t been diluted — one of the whiskeys I tasted was in excess of 60% alcohol content, definitely needed to add water to that one!) The individual holding the tasting was very knowledgeable and professional.
Unfortunately, nothing is served with the whiskey. My group had been golfing all day and had not had anything to eat since lunch so it was a bit rough on the stomach. However, when we asked for something to snack on they didn’t hesitate in bringing out bread.
Dinner was also fantastic. We had a smoked salmon appetizer and braised lamb as the main, which they paired with another whiskey.
The entire tasting and dinner was in a private dining room, which I thought was a very nice touch as it led to a very intimate experience. I felt the price for both the tasting and dinner was very reasonable.

Another branch of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh, this one also has a restaurant open to the ordinary folk who aren’t members of the society.
The building is beautiful and the members room hide away on the first floor. They are lightly decorated, with a small bar at one end, and furnished with sofas and comfy chairs to sit back and enjoy a drink in. They serve, in addition to the excellent selection of whisky, a good range of wine, beer, soft and warm drinks, as well as bar food and sandwiches.
Downstairs is the Dining Room, open to all since sometime in early 2008. It is quite a refined dining experience, with excellent food from an ever changing menu, with waiters full of whisky knowledge should you wish a dram to your dish. It’s not cheap, but isn’t too scary considering what a good meal you’ll get.