The Oxford Bar on Young Street is Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus's pub, and the one he himself uses. It looks exactly right for the part: a small, unadorned New Town bar with no music, no food, no theme and no fuss — just a counter, some bar stools, a few tables, and a selection of real ales and whiskies. The kind of pub that disappears a little more every year in cities with rents like Edinburgh's.
The literary connection draws visitors who then tend to stay because it is simply a good pub. The regulars are friendly and the bar staff know what they are doing. A single malt in here is a proper Edinburgh experience.