Pub quiz nights in Edinburgh: where to play

Edinburgh's quiz scene is quieter than Glasgow's, at least once you start trying to pin down which nights are actually still running rather than just listed somewhere. There are plenty of pubs that used to do a quiz, or did one once for a charity event, or have a Facebook post from three years ago that still shows up in search results. Once you filter those out, what's left is a handful of solid, genuinely weekly fixtures spread across the city, from a Leith bar with a rolling prize wheel to a West End local that's been doing the same Wednesday night quiz for years. Here's what we could actually verify, area by area.

A quick note before you head out: quiz nights are not a fixed institution. Hosts move between venues, pubs change hands, and a night that's run every week for a decade can quietly stop without the website ever being updated to say so. We checked each of the following directly against the venue's own site (and, where a pub's own page didn't give the full picture, against a listings page we could cross-reference), but none of that is a guarantee for the week you're reading this. Ring ahead or check the pub's own page before you commit an evening to it, particularly if you're travelling to get there.

Old Town

The Black Bull, Grassmarket

The Black Bull sits right on the Grassmarket, which makes it an easy stop if you're already out around the Old Town. Its own site confirms a weekly quiz every Thursday night and recommends booking ahead, though it doesn't list a start time. PubQuizzy's listing, which we cross-checked against the pub's own booking page, has it starting at 8pm, free to enter, with a £30 bar tab for first place, £15 for second and a bag of sweets for third. It's the same Goose's Quizzes outfit that runs the Fountain Bar's quiz below, if you fancy comparing notes between the two.

Source: The Black Bull, pub quiz page

West End

The Mad Hatter, Torphichen Place

Tucked just off Haymarket, the Mad Hatter is a small, unpretentious local rather than a big sports bar, and its Wednesday quiz reflects that: it kicks off downstairs at around 7.30pm, free to enter, teams capped at five (occasionally six, space allowing). First prize is a £30 bar tab, second is a bottle of wine to take away, and third is two bags of crisps. The pub's own quiz page notes it's popular enough that booking a table in advance is worth doing rather than turning up and hoping.

Source: The Mad Hatter, quiz page

If nowhere near you runs a quiz at all, it's worth mentioning it to whoever's behind the bar. It costs a venue almost nothing to try, and a good quiz host can turn a dead Wednesday into a full room. Or skip the pub altogether and build your own quiz for a night in with friends. No booking a table, no waiting for the mic.

Fountainbridge

The Fountain, Dundee Street

The Fountain runs its quiz every Sunday at 8pm, also hosted by Goose's Quizzes, which makes it a natural pairing with the Black Bull if you want to compare the same host's style across two different rooms. The pub's own page is light on specifics beyond "great prizes to be won," so treat the prize details as a pleasant surprise on the night rather than something to plan around. Sunday quizzes are rarer in Edinburgh than the midweek ones, so this is a decent option if your week doesn't have a free Monday or Tuesday.

Source: The Fountain Bar, pub quiz page

Southside

The Pear Tree, West Nicolson Street

The Pear Tree is best known for its beer garden and its enormous outdoor screen, but it's also one of the longer-standing quiz nights in the city, and its own site confirms "our pub quiz every Monday" among its regular fixtures. For the specifics, we cross-checked against PubQuizzy's listing: a 9pm start, £1 entry, eight drinks for the winning team and four for the runners-up, plus a rolling cash pot and a bag of sweets for whoever finishes first and whoever finishes last. Food's available until 10pm if you want to eat before the questions start.

Source: The Pear Tree Edinburgh

Leith

Malones Leith, Constitution Street

Malones on Constitution Street runs a Monday night quiz at 7pm under the name Goose's Quizzes, with a prize structure that doesn't take itself too seriously: £50 bar tab for first, a bottle of fizz for second, and a bag of crisps for third, plus a spin of a prize wheel for the best team name. The pub's own page is refreshingly specific about scheduling exceptions too, noting the weeks it won't run around clashing events, which is a good sign the listing is actually kept up to date rather than left to go stale.

Source: Malones Leith, pub quiz page

Five venues is a shorter list than you'd get from a search engine that counts every quiz ever mentioned on a listings site, but it's what we could actually stand behind after checking each pub's own page. Edinburgh has other nights out there, and some of them are probably genuine, but we'd rather leave a gap than send you to a pub whose "weekly quiz" turned out to be a one-off from two years ago. If none of these fit your evening, there's no reason to wait around for one that does: grab a set of questions from our quiz creator and run your own night wherever suits, or read our guide on how to run a great pub quiz for tips on pacing a room and keeping a difficult round from killing the mood.