Restaurant/cafe #17 Yo! Sushi, Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh

I love sushi. If I could afford to, I’d have sushi every day. One unfortunate downside of my trip to Japan in the summer is that now I’m back home, sushi seems damn expensive (Oh how I miss you ¥150 tuna nigiri). My friends Cat, Tom and Laura also love sushi, and have long been on at me to go to Yo! Sushi with them.

Given their month-long January Blues promotion, where most of the menu is available for £2.50 a plate, this week found me meeting up with them to check it out. I have to say, I left bitterly disappointed.

Key to the “kaiten-zushi” concept is ensuring a varied selection of dishes. I don’t know if it was just down to the promotion or not, but the conveyor belt was sparse at best during my visit. To make things worse, several of the items our group ordered never turned up, despite chasing them up twice. They were kind enough to give us a 20% reduction on the bill, but when Edinburgh is so generously equipped with Japanese restaurants it’ll take more than that to entice me back.

Thickest cut sashimi ever, drawing with soy sauce on napkin, 7″ present from Tom

Restaurant #16 Pinto – Mexican Kitchen, 138 Queen Street, Glasgow

Having long been a lover of Mexican food, I’ve had my eye on Pinto for a while, sadly having to miss out each time I was back in my hometown.

This time however I had some time to kill before I ventured back east, so I made a beeline to get my hands on a damn tasty burrito. Keeping the number of options to a minimum allows them to focus on quality, and at £6.65 for my burrito and a Coke it’s delivered with value too. I reckon it might well become my first stopping point whenever I’m in Glasgow from now on.

Restaurant #15 Shebeen, 8 Morrison Street, Edinburgh

Having passed this on a nearly daily basis, I’d long been intrigued by the supposed delights of this South African restaurant/bar. Safe to say, I wasn’t disappointed. As you’d expect, the menu is heavily meat-based and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have some steak. They come in two sizes, cheetah and a larger lion size. As my dining companion was skipping a starter, I decided to follow and upgrade to the lion size sirloin. It was wonderfully cooked and ably accompanied by delightful chips. One to return to.

Restaurant #14 The CopperBowl, Milton Bridge

As a member of the Social committee in my workplace, I was woefully remiss in my duties of organising a venue for either a Christmas night out or lunch on the last day of term. Luckily, some of my colleagues are more on it than me and managed to get a few of us together to eat at The CopperBowl, an Indian restaurant on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

A two course lunch comes in under a tenner and includes traditional Indian selections along with milder alternatives. I thoroughly enjoyed my tandoori chicken and lamb curry, with the only downside being the lack of heating apparent when we visited. Perhaps it was because the restaurant was so quiet, but we were freezing when we visited.

Not one to go out your way for, but if you’re in the area then The CopperBowl can be relied upon to provide you with a decent curry.

Restaurant/cafe #13 Under The Stairs, Edinburgh

Being very cheaty with this one, but sneaking in on a technicality (I’d never eaten here before) is Under The Stairs. Having spent most of my time there doing their sadly now defunct pub quiz, I was interested to find out how the food was. I was pleasantly surprised by my spicy mushroom and lentil burger, but the real stand out was the sweet potato fries. At £8.75 I thought it was reasonably priced and just worth putting up with the slow service.

I’d already had a couple of drinks by the time this photo was taken

Restaurant/cafe #1 Oishii, 176 Rose Street, Edinburgh

Keen to get a start on my list, I took advantage of a kind offer to be taken out for lunch for my birthday to visit a restaurant I’d often passed by but had never ventured in.
It soon became apparent that I had made a hideous mistake in not sampling the delights of Oishii sooner.
A tastefully designed, bijou Japanese restaurant in the heart of the city, Oishii is ideally suited to popping in for a quick lunch.
Sadly I was so hungry that I dived right in when our food arrived instead of taking photos of everything, however I did restrain myself long enough to capture the delightfully light tempura prawns and wonderfully marinaded chicken skewers.

Thanks to Lyanne for taking me for lunch!