Please note that this review comes from a Canadian, globe trotting, food lover!…read more What a quaint, casual little family run restaurant. We walked-in for dinner just after opening around 5:30. Three tables were already taken and reservations are encouraged but we were accommodated with the condition of leaving by a certain time. We had hummus, lentil soup and chicken shish! The hummus had the perfect texture with a garlicky, tangy finish. The soup and chicken were good with very slight Turkish seasoning and fresh. We were presented the red "hot" sauce that was equivalent to a mild blended picco de gallo. (Minus the cilantro and onion) Overall an average meal at a very reasonable price.

My friend genuinely picked this place because he finds it funny to call me Hannadan- thankfully, it…read morewasn't a wine by pretty stickers job, and it wasn't a load of vinegar-y rubbish. Now, I absolutely love borek, after having it for breakfast in Albania- so I had some of that- it was lovely. Also baklava is one of my favourite things, so that happened too- also great. Top marks for the hummus too. I kind of wished we'd got loads of small plates and picked and shared, but my companion here isn't a sharer (I know, why are we still friends? I don't know either), so I had moussaka- which always risks being sloppy, but it wasn't at all. Lovely staff to boot too.

We had the loveliest meal at Meze Meze on Rose Street. There were four of us and we ordered the…read morefeast, and every single dish was delicious and fresh. The veggies were the show stopper. The sweetest man, who I assume was the owner, brought our kiddos two Turkish delights on the house. I only regret not ordering dessert. Alcohol selection was great, and the table was comfy.

We stumbled on this find for lunch. The food was great, especially their take on a tzatziki sauce.read more

The good: the food was excellent - this is the best and only highlight of our dining experience…read more The bad: the young waitress had a TERRIBLE attitude. We were not very hungry and wanted to order one less main dish. She literally turned her nose up to us and rolled her eyes backwards, then told us that isn't allowed. She asked us if we wanted drinks and we didn't. Again she responded with disgust. Later we asked a doggie bag to take some food away - she responded with disgust. When was it wrong to drink water and ask for a carry away box? What did we do wrong to deserve such a crappy attitude? Out of the kindness of my heart, I even gave the lady a 5 pound tip. I have never been treated with such disrespect at a dining establishment. We will not be going here ever again, and recommend that if you want to be treated with respect to not come here. If you respect yourself, don't come here. You can find good Turkish food elsewhere, where they will not treat you like a cash machine. This is a terrible establishment.

Sadly, this place is not vegetarian friendly. They grill everything on one grill - vegetables,…read morebread and meat. The bread we were served tonight had pieces of meat in it. When I told the waitress she said "yes, we soak it in meat. You didn't tell me you were vegetarian." Ordering only vegetarian dishes is not a clue to tell diners that the bread has chunks of meat in it? What kind of restaurant serves meat bread and doesn't label it ?! Don't go here.

We had an amazing meal here. We thought we'd see lamb on menus a lot more in Scotland. Fortunately…read morea Middle Eastern restaurant is always a likely spot to find it. The man in the kitchen is working the grill like a master. My lamb shish were great but the kofte was so well seasoned it was even better. We started with mezze and ended with tea at our hostess' insistence. This place has a real family run atmosphere and the clientele are mostly Middle Eastern.

The food was delicious. The service was nice. The cook was not here when we got here but the…read morehostess is charming & she made up for it. It has a small, clean footprint with Turkish lamps & music. I would recommend this place while in Edinburgh

I love this place! When grey Edinburgh gets wet and very grey this is a place that brings you to…read moreland of thousand nights and the Ottoman' palace by Istanbul's seaside. The place is small but so cosy one wish to never leave and continue the journey along the streets lit by the moon light and sounds of a multicultural mecca. Ceiling is covered with colourful lamps from the gran basar, oriental carpets and pillows. On week ends musicians plays and the atmosphere is rising to the corners of the neighbour hood on St Mary's Street. The food is delicious and healthy! Simply! Great place for parties as well as 1 to 1 dinner.

I've been wanting to visit Empires for ages so when I was going to a Festival event in the area, it…read moreseemed like the perfect time. First oddity came from a miscommunication with my friend in that we both called to book- I was able to while my friend was told they don't take dinner bookings during the Festival. At least we got our booking? Second oddity was when I looked at the menu online but was presented with a different one when we arrived. What I'm assuming is a Festival menu, breaks the food into four different platters with no substitutions. I'm assuming that the platters must have been pre-made, with the hot options zapped in some way just prior to serving. This menu, while much easier for the kitchen, left us with food we weren't interested in eating and also seemed unnecessary as the restaurant never got completely full while we were there. I love mezze and Turkish food but found none of the items particularly stand out delicious, though equally nothing was bad. The restaurant itself is charming and cozy and staff are nice. I may return after the Festival but only because I don't know of another Turkish mezze option in Edinburgh.

While exploring the Royal Mile, we stumbled upon a Kurdish eatery whose terrace overlooked Victoria…read moreStreet. What used to be called Hanam's is now Daika; same menu, same offerings, I don't know if they've changed ownership. We ordered: -- Mixed Grill (£24.95): three meat skewers that he said were middling. -- Halloumi Fries (£9.85): usually my favorite thing on a Mediterranean menu, but theirs was a bit tough, took chewy to the next level, & the pomegranate molasses did nothing to improve the flavor. -- Babaghanoush (£9.80): nice texture with the eggplant bits, properly smoky, & went well with the pita that stayed warm in its parchment bag. -- we also had lemonade in a bottle that was tart & refreshing. Rather than having lunch at Daika, we instead should have ordered a hookah; smoking shisha on their beautiful terrace with a view of Old Town around us would've been more enjoyable.

To be honest everything was fine, however I just thought it would be a little bit better. The…read morefattoush salad was not very flavorful. The best thing we had was the fried halloumi. It was actually excellent and I would give that dish five stars. The Falafel was a bit dry. The grilled prawns were served with the shell on so they had to be peeled which was a bit messy. I usually don't expect to peel my prawns at the dinner table. The meats on the mixed grill were average. The minced meat kabob was the most flavorful. The others were a bit overcooked. Also, they may have been a bit understaffed but they generally did not clear any dishes when we were finished with them unless we asked them to.

I know I have friends all over, but I didn't realise that I had a friend in Pasha until I stepped…read morethrough the door. The prompt greeting from the fellow behind the counter was welcoming, verging on friendly. Seemingly to ensure absolutely -no- confusion on the point of whether or not we were buddies, he referred to me no fewer than half a dozen times as 'my friend' during the ten minutes I spent in the shop. Not bad for never having exchanged names, right? After a brief perusal of the menu board, I opted for a basic donner kebab. Reportedly, they also serve up everything from burgers and chips to pizza to curries. Quite versatile, considering the wee footprint of this takeaway. With my meaty bounty (which barely fit in the styrofoam container!) in tow, I returned to my hotel room to stuff my face before passing out, as one does after four drams of whisky in one night. Though I can't rave much about the meat (it ran a bit on the dry side), Pasha certainly isn't stingy with portions. Even though my last meal was nearly twelve hours prior, I was still only able to get down about half my kebab before raising my white flag in surrender. The combination of freshly toasted pita topped with shaved lamb (presumably) and topped off with salad, a lone wedge of tomato, and a heavy dousing of white sauce left me feeling satisfied and sleepy. And as if you had to ask what I did with the other half of my kebab... it vanished once the sun came up and tasted even better than the night before. Waste not, want not!

The proprietor is a very friendly Turkish guy. We had an extended conversation while my chicken…read morekabobs were over-cooking on the grill. That was probably MY fault. Nice flavors off the grill, but the chicken was really over-done. I ate it anyway. If he had not over cooked the chicken, I would have easily awarded a 4th star. Only £6. Really great place if you are in need of filling your stomach on a budget.

This place was such a delight today!! My friends had been there before thrice so it came with high…read moreexpectations, and it did live up to those!! The waiter was excellent: friendly, attentive, courteous, helpful! The nan breads could be cooked a bit more, and their kitchen extractor fan was loud (we shouldn't have sit so close to the kitchen entrance) . The baklava was nothing special - just like the ones bought from shops. Apart from the above minor points, the food was Really Really good!! I was so jealous I couldn't try the lamb chops (trying a meat-free month for a while) but my friend assured me they were delicious and cooked perfectly, soft and proper charcoal cooked! The lamb dish with the vegetables and the tomato sauce was massive and well cooked too! I tried the spinach with chickpeas, herbs and rice as a side. Delicious! As a drink I chose the yoghurt drink: they add a bit of salt, helps digestion too :-) I even tried their mint tea: they do have fresh mint leaves which they add apart from the standard peppermint bag. You should definitely try it if you're into Kurdish / Middle Easter cuisine!

Set the wayback machine to November of 2013. I am on a two-week journey in Edinburgh for reasons…read moreunrelated to food. However, being a food blogger, I made a point to have at least one restaurant experience each day for the purposes of my reviews. I figured that considering the amount of walking I'd been doing, I shouldn't have had any problem keeping my weight down. By the end of the two weeks, I had gained ten pounds. I blame restaurants like Nawroz for that. Is this a critical review? Not in the slightest. I'm only saying that with nearly every restaurant I've been in, I've never seen more generosity in service and portions than businesses specializing in Middle Eastern cuisine. Okay, perhaps I would put them on a tie with the Greeks, but I would much prefer large portions of Middle Eastern cuisine than of Greek. Yeah, I know, I'm going to get murdered for that one. I'm not saying that Middle Eastern cuisine is better than Greek cuisine. I'm saying that Middle Eastern cuisine is...clearly better, how can anyone argue with that? I've said that certain cuisines become gateways to other cuisines; they stimulate your culinary curiosity while others are gastronomic thunderdomes. Which would I put in the latter category? Obviously American and westernized Chinese. Even sushi is starting to fall into that category. But gateway cuisines? Indian definitely, French and maybe Dutch to lesser degrees, they all open our minds to new ideas, leading to other possibilities. From Indian, you may try Nepalese, Persian, or Moroccan. Of course, if one is talking technicalities, these countries are only lines on a map, and when addressing nutritional anthropology, what you get are hundreds of tribes migrating through history across Africa and Asia, sharing their ideas and techniques. Comprehending that, suddenly calling a certain cuisine Indian makes no sense, as what classifies as Indian food is actually several different culinary methods which happen to occupy that region. What classifies as Indian changes depending on where in India you are? In fact, naming a cuisine not after a country but a people should be more appropriate. Kurdish cuisine encompasses Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. With that, there are quite a few foods which the average curioso will recognize. You'll find falafels, humus, flatbreads, baklava, and shawarma. So what should you do when given such variety? You order it all. Wait, what? Nawroz offers various dishes but one is a mixed collection of various starters. So the five of us ended up getting large mixed plates of starters with only two mains, allowing us to share in the traditional Middle Eastern fashion. You don't order a main and lift from it selfishly. You order a mountainous bowl of food and open the plates of the table to share. This is what you do. Nawroz should be experienced each time as a gathering of friends and family. Invent a celebration if you have to. Someone's birthday? A wedding? Christmas (which they celebrate at Nawroz ironically), or how about the traditional Iranian new year...which is actually called Nawroz. So the restaurant is named after one of the most boisterous events in all the Middle East; why wouldn't you take that opportunity? It's like a restaurant that celebrates Christmas all year round. The décor is perfect with what it attempts to convey: culture and tradition with mild compromises to operate as a functional restaurant. Red and black chairs over a tiled floor, raw brick on the walls with hanging rugs, tapestries, and paintings. Various regional iconographies rest upon the bar. I can feel the pride of the owners in their culture by the décor of the restaurant and the quality of their food. Even the hummus is molded into a fan, topped with olives. The flatbread is fried, a new first and favorite. The mixed starters ranged from contemporary to intimidating and I devoured each and every one. Even though we had ordered mixed starters for five with only two mains, we couldn't squeeze another plate of food onto our table. Everything was good and we still had dessert waiting for us--three types of baklava with Turkish delight. I'll reiterate my previous point. The various cultures of the Middle East know how to make people welcome and this is reflected in their restaurants. Their food is munificent, huge portions at reasonable prices. With Shezan and Nawroz being so close to each other (walking distance) I know that any future domiciles in Edinburgh would have to be in close proximity to this region so when I entertain visitors, I always have a place to go. I am happy that my small home town has a Persian restaurant--so at least my absence from this cuisine would be short. DECOR: 9 PLATING: 8 SERVICE: 8 FOOD: 9 VALUE: 10 OVERALL: 8.8 out of 10

Whenever I move to a different country, I forget that what I consider a kanab does not necessarily…read moretranslate to the next country. Happened to be the case here. In Australia, what I call a kebab is called schwarma here. That's really more what I was looking for, but at midnight on a Friday I ended up here. Not impressed. It was quite busy and I found the staff to be very rude. They took my partners order then went away before coming back to take my order after I stared them down and stated this was the same order- why wasn't I being served? I'm also pretty sure the meat was served in a tortilla- never in my life have I had a kebab wrapped in a tortilla or wrap bread, its usually wrapped in Turkish bread. The chips were also taken out of the cooked tray, re- cooked and served to me. I'm I'm paying money I would at least expect not getting recycled food. Overall unimpressed. The staff looked bored and uninterested and it was reflected in the quality of the food.

Topkapi - Top Kebab!…read more On my brother's recommendation, I ate here earlier this evening. He had the Donner & I the Lamb Shish Kebab. Both were presented in a tray with salad separate and the kebab in a wholemeal pitta. We sat down to tuck into our meal. My Shish Kebab was gorgeous. The lamb was lovely and tender & the sweet chilli and mint marinade very tasty indeed. My brother allowed me to try some of the donner meat, which was very good too. Personally, I'd have preferred the kebabs to be a little larger, but this is an extremely minor point. Staff were also friendly.

This was a very good and filling meal. The chicken calzone was much bigger than I expected, and it…read morecame with chips and a salad. If you're someone who eats small portions, I'd stay away from that dish. Otherwise, it was a great harmony of flavors (various peppers, chicken, and cheese), and it was definitely fresh and made on the spot. This is a cash-only establishment, so make sure you have that on you.

If you are a lover of anything greasy, I would recommend Marmaris, which is one of those comfort…read moretake out restaurants on Clerk Street. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and hope not all their dishes are accompanied with a lot of oil, as I've only had a pizzas from there. It's important to add it's usually after a night out, when a lot of things will taste good, and I haven't had much to complain about. The menu is quite cheap, but apart from a friendly chat with the nice staff, this place is just alright.