Ron Mackenna: The plates are small (unlike the prices) but hip food den is worth it
What is it about Edinburgh posh restaurants and fried chicken just now? They’re all at it. Like rarebits.
What is it about Edinburgh posh restaurants and fried chicken just now? They’re all at it. Like rarebits.
DunDun Xiang is popular, judging by it being full on this Tuesday night, and the young team obviously like it and there's tables of ladies on maybe a work night out, too.
Indian Street Food then: Vada Pav, Bedami Puri, Chole Kulche, Aloo Paratha and Aloo Kachori. Hang on. These prices? Wow. From £3.25 to the not-lofty heights of £6.50 a dish. Refreshing considering Indian street food elsewhere has recently become just another excuse for full fat charging.
WELCOME back, the bubbly waitress says to my old mate Joe who responds with a look of surprised delight while I merely hoist a curious eyebrow.
Perthshire Pork Loin was the main. The faintest of pink blushes just visible in the slices, black pudding encased in something crisp and moreish on the side, the whole dish draped with wilted greens, a dollop of a good mustard sauce, a puddle of a crisp apple goo, and a jus that would on its own be too salty but with the tender pork? Seasons perfectly.
Let’s rewind for a moment. I stumbled in here amidst the Ramadan rush at about 6.30pm. That moment when the sun goes down and people can break the fast they have been on during daylight hours.
Schiacciata? Potato bread. Cheese on top, grilled to a crisp, potato-flour-dough combo in the middle; firm, thick, kinda more-ish. Is it stodgy? Ooh, it teeters, skates, maybe even wobbles at moments, but somehow stays upright long enough to get eaten
The Malletsheugh is genuinely completely full tonight. A Tuesday night too. A dark, cold, bitter, Tuesday night in early March when there’s Champions League football on people’s tellies, in their homes, in the vast posh commuterland out there known as Newton Mearns.
We would definitely come back for this delicious braised Highland Wagyu shin. Even at £28.50. Maybe order up another portion of that potato dauphinoise, two cubes of fabulous layered potato.
Noto is also one of Edinburgh’s current food darlings. The accents around us tonight include Morningside, of course, but a lot of Americans too. Anyway, the food in here never really stops coming. No perceptible delay between dishes. Little sitting waiting time, a very slick kitchen.
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