Treasure Cottage Chinese Takeaway

It's been over a year since my last Chinese Takeaway review, where does time go? Anyway, we came back from holiday and had a couple of fliers through the door, one from Treasure Cottage which we hadn't heard of before. The pictures looked pretty good, so we decided to make an order that night.

In a break from our usual Kung Po Prawn and Crisy Shredded Beef order, we branched out and went for a couple of dishes from the Chef's Special menu, Su Zhou Duck and Beef in Garlic Black Pepper Sauce as well as boiled rice and duck spring rolls. The whole thing came to around £15.

Delivery wasn't amazingly fast, but it was a Saturday night, so they were probably quite busy. The food was nice and hot when it did arrive though and we got free prawn crackers and because it's December, a free calendar.

The spring rolls were 3 medium thickness ones, I was a bit dubious at first because I'm not massively fond of the fatter spring rolls, but these ones were crispy and tasty.

The Su Zhou Duck came in a big round foil dish and in addition to a duck breast, there was also char su pork and prawns. The sauce was savoury and contained a fair amount of vegetables, mainly brocolli and mushrooms. There was a hint of ginger in there as well. Overall, pretty tasty.

The Beef in Garlic Black Pepper Sauce was super peppery and also very savoury, the sauce contained lots of vegetables, including more mushrooms.

All in all, Treasure Cottage was a hit, both the dishes were nice and a little bit different, however if we order from them again, I would be tempted to go for one sweet dish and one of these two as they were both very savoury.

Score: 4/5

Treasure Cottage, 54 Saughton Mains Gardens, Edinburgh : 0131 455 7638

Hot Hot, Home Street, Edinburgh

Last Thursday we were out in town and looking for somewhere to grab some tea, we had initially headed for the Lee-On Chinese restaurant in Bruntsfield to stuff ourselves on their ridiculously good value set meal. But while walking up Home Street, we noticed a place we must have walked past hundreds of times but never thought of going in.

Hot Hot serve a kind of Chinese hotpot, each table has a heater on it on which is placed a large bowl of broth (we got a special bowl split into half normal, half spicy). You are then brought a lot of raw food and you cook it at your table in the broth. It costs a flat fee (around £15 per person) for as much food as you can eat. The food provided ranges from reasonably normal to the exotic. Thinly sliced beef, lamb, pork, raw prawns, scallops, razor clams, kelp, tripe, mushrooms, potato and all sorts of other stuff I can't remember. Once cooked in the broth, you take it out and dip it in a range of special sauces.

The whole experience is great fun and the broth and sauces made the ingredients taste amazing, even if there was a fair amount of stuff I would probably never think of ordering.

Overall, something a bit different, but still tasty and you get a lot of food, Hot Hot is worth a try if you want something a bit more fun than other restaurants.

Score: 5/5/

Bonsai, West Richmond Street, Edinburgh

After the show yesterday we thought we'd head out for something to eat and as we were over at the South side, we decided upon Japanese from Bonsai. Bonsai was one of the first places I'd had Japanese food in Edinburgh and I think it's also one of the oldest Japanese places in the city. I hadn't been for a while mainly because I'm not over that side of town very often and so Sushi-Ya on Dalry road and Tang's on Candlemaker row are both a bit more convenient and are both pretty good anyway.

So, between the four of us we ordered up a feast consisting of Dragon Roll, Sashimi Platter, Teriyaki Beef, Yakisoba, Prawn and Salmon Nigiri, Wasabi Peas, Char-Sui bun, Mixed Tempura, Rice, Kim-Chi and Okonomiyaki. Everything was excellent and although the sashimi pieces seemed a little small, we were still pretty full once we'd eaten everything. I can especially recommend the Char-Sui bun and the Okonomiyaki. We followed this up with desserts (I had a chocolate torte).

Overall, Bonsai is pretty good and definitely one of the best Japanese restaurants in Edinburgh, it's just a shame it's over the other side of town from where I live.

Edinburgh Fringe - Inside

Last night we went to see Inside (Zoo Roxy - 18:25), described as physical dance theatre revolving around themes of violence and incarceration within the prison system, the production sees 5 male dancers tell their story on stage.

You might think that this doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd be interested in ... you'd be right, if not for the fact that the whole thing has a live musical accompaniment by none other than 65daysofstatic.

I have to admit, the dancing didn't really interest me and I didn't have a clue what was going on for the most part, but 65dos sounded amazing and it was worth going to see just for that.

Overall 3/5

S.W.S. Chinese Takeaway

We received a flyer for S.W.S. through the door and since we didn't have time to go shopping at the weekend and it's almost Christmas, we thought we might as well have a mid-week Chinese takeaway.

We ordered Kung-Po King Prawn, Crispy Shredded Beef and Boiled Rice. The order came to £12.30 and it's that time of year where free calendars are given away.

First impressions of the dishes were that the sauces were quite dark. The Kung-Po was good, but not the best so far. The sauce was sweet, spicy and there was quite a lot of garlic in there. Vegetables definitely included some carrot and the usual suspects.

The crispy shredded beef was also pretty good, again sweet and full of garlic, with the beef being slightly crispy.

Overall, a good solid takeaway, but not quite as good as the better ones I've visited so far. 3.5/5

S.W.S.: 8 Stenhouse Cross, Edinburgh, EH11 : 0131 455 7804

Magic Kitchen Chinese Takeaway

Before I started my survey of Chinese Takeaways in my area, the Magic Kitchen was the "Chicken of Choice". The food is pretty good and it shares its name with an Andy Lau movie which is always a plus. Anyway, we made an order last night and since I've not yet reviewed it, here's a review.

Pretty hungry after a 20 mile cycle during the day, so we went for Duck Spring Rolls, Mixed Kung Po and Duck in Plum Sauce along with a portion of boiled rice. Came to £15.50 including free prawn crackers (win!). Delivery was prompt and without problems.

The spring rolls were quite fat and there were too of them. Not a huge amount of duck, but pretty tasty.

Mixed Kung Po is an awesome find, no other takeaway seems to have it on their menu, but it's basically Kung Po with all the meats (Prawn, Beef, Char Sui, Chicken). The sauce was sweet and spicy as it's meant to be, loads of meat, cashews, water chestnuts and some green chilli bits, very yummy.

The Duck in Plum sauce was also pretty good, Roast Duck with Pineapple in a sweet plum sauce. Makes a good alternative to Sweet and Sour.

Overall, Magic Kitchen is still one of my favourites, 4.5/5

Magic Kitchen: 60 Manse Road, Edinburgh, EH12 : 0131 3348 288

King Wa Chinese Takeaway

Another Chinese takeaway on Gorgie Road, we've been to King Wa before but I couldn't remember much about it. The don't do Kung-Po King Prawn, so we went for plan B, Shredded Chilli Beef, Boiled Rice, Chicken and Sweetcorn soup and Spring Rolls.

Delivery arrived reasonably quickyl considering it was a Saturday night and cost £13.00. No freebies, but we were probably just under the cutoff for prawn crackers.

The Spring Rolls were mid thickness, not the big fat ones, but not the little skinny ones. One each for Rosie and I and they were pretty tasty, if they'd come with a dipping sauce like Taste Good I'd go as far as to say they would be in that league.

The Chicken and Sweetcorn soup was very hot, but loads of chicken, a fair amount of sweetcorn and not as gloopy as it could have been. Again, very good, things were looking impressive.

Finally on to the main course, the Shredded Beef in Chilli sauce looked a little daunting, the sauce was very very dark. Upon opening the lid we were hit with a pleasant aroma of garlic. Vegetable wise, the usual suspects, lots of carrot and possibly some green leafy stuff, later on I disovered dried chilli at the bottom.

Despite the overly dark sauce putting me off, the initial impression was that it smelled really good. Luckily, it tasted as good as it smelled, sweet, garlicky, a hint of chilli at first (which developed into pleasantly spicy as you ate more) and the beef was actually crispy unlike most Shredded Beef dishes which tend to be a bit chewy.

Overall, King Wa was a pretty good choice. In fact I'm going to say it's the best we've had since I started this regular feature.

Score: 4.5/5

King Wa: 388 Gorgie Rd, Edinburgh, EH11 : 0131 337 5864‎

Website - New pages

I've just updated my site with a couple of new pages, the pages have been there for a while, but only just added them to the menu :) EIFF shows a list of all the films I've seen at the Edinburgh Internation Film Festival since 2004 including links to my reviews. IMDb Top 250 shows the top 250 movies from IMDb with those I've seen/reviewed highlighted. I'm up at 128 out of 250 at the moment (99 reviewed) hopefully, there's a bit of overlap with the 1001 movies you must see before you die list.

BM - Chinese Takeaway

The closest Chinese Takeaway to our flat and we haven't ever ordered from there, so last night we put and end to this and gave them a phone. We ordered: Crispy shredded beef, Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup, Spring Rolls, Boiled Rice and two cans of Irn Bru. Total cost £11.40, but no free prawn crackers (maybe a good thing though since me eating an entire bag of prawn crackers is never going to be a good thing).

The spring roll was the first thing that caught our eye, wrapped in a grease soaked paper bag, we unpeeled it from its oily wrapper to be met with something that looked a bit burnt and possibly refried. Taste wasn't much better, a lot of bamboo shoots and a bit of meat (according to Rosie). Also marks off for there only being one and it being one of the big fat ones.

Next up was the Chicken and Sweetcorn soup, it looked a bit funny, but seemed to have a lot of chicken in it. That's about all that was going for it though, it tasted of very little, even the chicken didn't taste of much, we hardly ate any of it between the two of us.

Finally, we opened up the Crispy Shredded Beef. At this point, I wanted to hate it, but to be fair to BM it was actually pretty good. Big chunks of beef with onion and peppers in a fairly spicy sauce (only minor niggle, there could have been more sauce). The beef was crispy rather than chewy and the sauce was very tasty. The main dish saved the meal.

Overall, a bit of a dip after our strong run, avoid the starters, but the mains seem to be ok.

Score: 2.5/5

BM : 193 Balgreen Rd, Edinburgh : 0131 346 1834

Delicious China - Chinese Takeaway

In my bid to sample every Chinese takeaway in Edinburgh, I picked another random one to order from on Sunday night. I used to cycle along Dalry road everyday and there are a fair few takeaways on the mile and a half or so between Haymarket and my flat. Delicious China is one of these, but not one we'd ever ordered from before.

We ordered a fairly standard order (for us), Spring Rolls, Chicken and Sweetcorn soup, Kung Po King Prawn and Boiled Rice. Total cost just over £10 and for that we got a free bag of Prawn Crackers (which is always a bonus because Rosie doesn't like them so I get to eat them all :)

The Spring Rolls were the two big fat kind rather than the skinny kind. I'm not a big fan of these massive Spring Rolls, but the ones from Delicious China were pretty tasty, stuffed with Bean Sprouts and other vegetables. Rosie really liked them.

The Chicken and Sweetcorn soup was sweet and full of chicken, we thought it smelled like Roast Chicken, a winner there.

Finally, the Kung Po King Prawn. No battered Prawns, but a fairly sweet and relatively spicy Kung Po sauce with an assortment of vegetables and some cashew nuts.

The menu is available here and you can even order online.

All in all, another success in the world of Chinese Takeaway. Possibly a little better than Hui which I reviewed last time, but not by much, more vegetables in the Kung Po was definitely a winner.

Overall 4.2/5

Delicious China : 261 Dalry Road, Edinburgh : 0131 346 8383

Airbus A380 at Edinburgh Airport

Airbus A380 as it flew over Edinburgh Airport, originally uploaded by chored.

Caught site of the new Airbus A380, the largest passenger jet in the world as it performed an approach and go maoeuvre at Edinburgh Airport. My in-laws live pretty much at the end of the runway and we were over there for lunch anyway, so hopped into the field behind their house to get some photos. (Taken with my new A700).

Despite the size of this thing, it is massive, the most impressive factor is how quiet it is. It is way less noisy than a lot of the other aircraft which regularly come into Edinburgh.

Onion Rings

Onion Rings, originally uploaded by chored.

On the way back from a charity ceilidh on Friday night we stopped off at a chip shop and I got a portion of onion rings and a bag of chips. This is the most ridiculously over the top portion of onion rings ever, it was a whole onion battered and deep fried (and we got them out the cabinet, so deep fried again). I'm not sure if this is amazing, or absolutely disgusting.

Hui - Chinese Takeaway

There have to be at least a hundred Chinese takeaways in Edinburgh, if not more and there seems to be a menu for a new one through my door every month. Trying to remember which ones are good and which ones aren't so good can be a bit of a challenge, so I thought I might as well document it here.

I had never heard of Hui (123A Corstorphine Road) before until they delivered their menu and since we were going to get a Chinese anyway, we decided to go for something new. So we ordered pretty much our standard Chinese takeaway order to put them to the test.

So, Kung Po King Prawn with Boiled rice and Spring Rolls and Chicken and Sweetcorn soup to start. The food arrived pretty fast (we weren't timing, but it seemed fast). At just over £10 it seemed reasonably priced too. No freebies, but since we had only made a small order, that is to be expected.

The spring rolls were the 4 thin kind rather than the two fat kind which is always a plus in my book, they were cripsy and very tasty. The chicken and sweetcorn soup was very hot and also pretty tasty without being too gloopy. There was quite a lot of chicken to be found in it.

On to the main course, the prawns were battered which is also a favourite of mine and while there was very little vegetables in the sauce, it was very tasty and there were cashew nuts aplenty. I did spot a couple of pieces of water chestnut, but aside from that and some chillies there were no other vegetables. The sauce was a good consistency, more of the spicy sweet and sour style, but nice and sweet and reasonably hot.

The rest of the menu looked pretty standard, although there did seem to be some exotic seafood options (squid, scallop and more).

Overall, Hui was a pretty decent meal, not quite as good as our regular, the Magic Kitchen (which also has the benefit of sharing its name with an Andy Lau movie!) but nice for a change and definitely one I'd order from again.

Overall: 4/5

Hui : 123A Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh : 0131 346 2888

Dan Antopolski

What with it being the Edinburgh Festival and all, we decided to take up a recommendation from a friend and go to see stand up comedian Dan Antopolski at the "Pleasance Dome" aka Potterrow.

His brand of geeky-humour, mixed with some more offensive stuff made for an act which was pretty funny although falling short of hilarious. His comedy rap segments are reminiscent of a one man GLC and you can't beat a bit of humour related to some kind of obscure chart.

Overall, if I had to give his show a rating it would be 7/10, pretty funny but not unmissable.

Ju-Ichi, William Street, Edinburgh

Ju-Ichi, William Street Edinburgh, is one of the newest Japanese restaurants in a town which has now got a good few. Not having been yet, Rosie and I met some friends to sample their menu.

Hidden downstairs in a basement off William Street, Ju-Ichi is well decorated and looks clean and modern. Tuesday evenings obviously aren't where it's at in Edinburgh's West End as our group of 4 were the only customers we saw the whole night.

The menu has a reasonable range of sushi and other japanese items, helpfully arranged into hot and cold. We started off with Tuna and Tamago Nigiri, Mixed Sashimi, Mixed Tempura, Gyoza, Futomaki roll and Katsu roll.

The rolls were quite good as were the fried things, you can never go wrong with Gyoza and Tempura. The mixed Sashimi was only Tuna and Salmon (I found out later that they were out of Mullet and Mackerel), both were reasonable. I felt that the Nigiri had a little too much rice. After finishing off these dishes, we got a few more items, more Tempura, Chicken Katsu and Mixed Seafood Yakitori.

The Katsu was nice, but the sauce served with it had a strange taste, it was peanut based and possibly contained some sort of alcohol. The Mixed Seafood Yakitori consisted of grilled Salmon, Tuna and Prawn and was nice, coming with a sweet Yakitori sauce.

Overall, Ju-Ichi was alright, but not amazing, there are definitely better Japanese restaurants in Edinburgh. I found the menu to be a little on the boring side, most of the fish choices being Salmon or Tuna. The restaurant also lacks authenticity, which wouldn't be a problem if the food was outstanding, but when combined with the middle of the road food it doesn't feel like a "real" Japanese restaurant.

All in all, passable and nice for a change of scenery, but there are better Japanese restaurants in Edinburgh which feel more authentic.