The World’s Best 50 Bars have been announced for 2025, and one is in Scotland.
Edinburgh’s Panda & Sons has once again been named one of the best bars in the world by making it into the World’s Best 50 Bars list.
Opened in 2013 by Iain McPherson, the speakeasy style bar whose frontage is that of a Victorian barbers, has made it into spot 34 this year. It’s the only Scottish bar in the top 500 and overall 100.
The World’s Best 50 Bars team had this to say about Panda & Sons: “This cocktail bar fronted by a family of tweed-wearing hairdresser Pandas is no new concept, having opened some 12 years ago, but the world continues to fall in love with it, step-by-step down its Queen Street entrance.
“And as word of the bar has travelled – not least in the slip stream of owner-adventurer Iain McPherson – the clientele has become more international. Once you’ve visited Edinburgh Castle, climbed up Arthur’s Seat and seen the café where Harry Potter was written, it’s time for a drink at Panda & Sons.
“With vintage vibe and stylings and the wide-armed welcome of the likes of Nicky Craig, Sean Moggach or Chloe Yeung – bedecked in panda aprons – this is the kind of place where you’re as at home with a pint as you are a show-stopping cocktail.
“Though if you’re of a geeky disposition, the latest cocktail menu Transcend 2.0 is a seminal piece of work. A discovery of sub-zero cocktail making, it features freeze distillation and freeze-drying methods, alongside McPherson’s own techniques, switching and sous-pression, which have made him one of the industry’s most influential drinksmiths.”
Panda & Sons made the World’s Best 50 Bars last year and Mr McPherson said at the time: “It feels amazing to raise that flag for Scotland – a tiny wee country and an even smaller city. We’re going to be 11 years old in two weeks and to get here took patience with a goal to be the best we could be.
“We were probably aiming to be the best bar in Scotland, if not one of the best in the UK, and just take it from there.
“I guess we’ve got good tourism here, so there are international eyes on Edinburgh, which is great for us, and also changes our drinks philosophy. Probably 11 years ago we were going down the route of theatrical, big, loud serves, and seven years ago, we started tinkering with freezing techniques, so that’s really what we champion now, and we’re the pioneers and innovators of those methods.
“That’s something that makes us stand out, and that the bartending community appreciates. It’s helped us get here, but of course you need to have great drinks, and lovely service as well.”
First published in 2009, the World’s 50 Best Bars is an annual list that celebrates the best of the international drinks industry.
The list provides an annual ranking of bars as voted for by more than 800 drinks experts from across the world including the votes of The World’s 50 Best Bars Academy, which is made up of renowned bartenders and consultants, drinks writers and cocktail specialists.