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.

Clearly, they don't get many vegan visitors. I was so excited to see numerous dishes marked as…read morehaving vegan options upon request, but I have to say that the shakshuka is not the move. To "veganize" it, they simply remove the eggs, cheese, and yogurt, leaving behind a bowl of tomato sauce with toast, for exactly the same price. The side of mushrooms I got saved the day, which were genuinely delicious; lightly charred and topped with chives, there was a variety of portobello, shiitake, oyster, and more. The cafe is cute, definitely dressed for Instagram, and there are colorful and/or glittery drinks to complete the picture. Just not exactly as vegan-friendly as advertised.

Cute brunch spot! Very kind staff. The pancakes were quite small but tasty. Definitely worth…read morestopping by for a bite.

Highly recommend getting the Rojava King Mixed Grill platter for 2 people. The sauces are delicious…read morewith a balance of a light spicy kick and a creamy, cooling sauce that works well with all the meats. Especially impressed by the crispy chicken wings, well seasoned lamb Schwarma and lamb kebabs. Great service but be patient as food is freshly prepared to order.

Great food and accommodated our late arrival. Appetizers and bread were perfect starters and mixed…read moregrill meats were perfectly cooked.

The food was good and the prices more than fair. Portions mostly were normal size and a fair value…read more Service was competent. The baklava was meh. The baba ghanoush was different and seems to be a deconstructed salad rather than what I've had elsewhere. The hummus was good. The grilled lamb and chicken kebab was quite small portions but very tasty. The bread was good. Overall not epic but a place I would not hesitate to return to.

With out a doubt the best food I've had all week not that everything else was bad but this was…read moresoooooo good. I can't believe this place doesn't have a constant que to get in I placed my order for a mixed grill. I'm always a sucker for mixed sat down with images of kebabs and shawarma dancing in my head. I was settled in and ready to wait. The owner asked if I had been before and how I found the place. We chatted for a bit then he went to the kitchen and popped out with what he called a snack. To me it looked the size of a starter. Hummus, baba ghanouj, and something called a rabbi salad I think. They were all very good the entire time I was there everyone was very friendly and chatty much different that I usually get when I order take away On to the mixed grill I almost forgot I was waiting for food. The portion was insane easily enough for 2-3 people. There was lamb and chicken in various forms some ribs and kebabs and wings. All amazing the rice and bread were cooked perfect. Sadly I have to admit due to the large portion I didn't try the salad I had to prioritise what I shoved in my face. Perhaps I'll give that a go later after a burn off some calories I didn't look at much else on the menu but I did hear someone order a falafel wrap and it was only 3 pounds

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

My family loved Baba's food so much that we ate here twice during our Edinburgh trip. Everything we…read morehad was delicious, so I feel like you can't go wrong here. The pita bread and hummus was something we ordered both times. The lamb shoulder is a must-order. And of course, the whole fish was a treat. Easily a five-star restaurant, and kid- friendly to boot. (There's even a separate kids menu!)

I was staying at the kimpton and this restaurant is part of the hotels dining options. Ambience is…read moreelegant and beautiful. Staff are all very friendly and helpful. Food is Mediterranean and offers a variety of mezze, snacks, and options from the grill. Prices are very reasonable and quality of food is amazing. That's why every night this place seems to be packed, even on weeknights. They also have a separate bar that adjoins the restaurant. I tried the mumaharra and smoked salmon roe dips which come with accompanying pita. I also tried the lamb sausages and a slow cooked lamb, both were delicious. The dessert was just ok and I think I will skip dessert next time.

We are on our first day in Scotland and I wanted to find something with fresh veggies and spice…read more We'll be having enough traditional food in the Highlands. We loved this restaurant and enjoyed all our dishes. The good thing about small plates, at modest prices, is if a member of your party doesn't care for a dish it's no big deal. The salads, the kebabs, the dips, the seafood... everything was first rate as was the service. Only dish that faltered (and we had 10 among four of us) was the moussaka. Terrific meal! They need to pay more attention to their Yelp listing - there's a full bar, excellent cocktails, and they take credit cards - despite the Yelp listing.

There is very little I could fault about this place. It's spacious. The food comes pretty quickly…read moreand the service is fantastic. As I get further into my twenties, I've found that restaurants have an increasing tendency to play their music very loud. I'm sorry, and call me old fashioned, but one of the main things about going out for dinner is that you are there to have a conversation with the person you are with. I'm not there to get my groove on. Anyway, I digress. I really enjoy Greek/Turkish and Middle Eastern Food which is what this place specialises in. We chose some mezze plates including the chicken souvlaki, soutzoukakia (meatballs), the Moroccan Chicken Tagine and the Loukaniko. It was mouth watering. It was great value too, the portion sizes were manageable and we left very happy customers.

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.

My husband and I stopped in here for a coffee enroute to another appointment. The exterior looked…read morenice and inviting but it was a bit different inside. When we stepped through the door the place was totally empty apart from two members of staff having food and working on a lap top, they looked a bit surprised to see us but stopped eating and showed us to a table. There was no music on which left the place silent and a bit unwelcoming. They did put music on after taking our coffee order which helped certainly, as it did with a couple of other folk arriving. The late and mocha both looked the part in nice tall glasses but didn't taste the best. It was super sweet with no real chocolate flavour, I wonder if it was cheap hot chocolate powder? I never finished my mocha, which is unheard of! Looking around, you get the impression that this little bistro has once been loved but it feels like the relationship is over, there were light bulbs out in every light fitting and a general tired feeling for the place.

Apart from a welcome that was bordering on brusque and the fried eggs being slightly underdone…read morebreakfast here on Sunday past was a pleasant experience. Good large helpings as well as enough toast for a very reasonable £5.20. Pleasant waitress and not a long wait between ordering and getting served so all in all a pleasant experience.

Yum Yum probably makes my favorite shawarma. But it's also the priciest of the late night kebab…read moreplaces I venture to and also kind of out of the way (for me at least) so I rarely ever go here. The staff are friendly and the ingredients taste fresh. Can't go wrong with Yum Yum, especially after a night of drinking.

SOLID Doner kebab with a lot of vegetables and yummy sauce. This place is hidden around a corner…read morebut was such a nice find. We got the chicken and lamb kebab as well as a classic Doner kebab. Both were nice but the mixed meat was better. The sauces were really good too and I wish they had feta, but.... I think it's what I'm used to. Really great and fast snack and so happy we stopped here.