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

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.

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

I-Ching Chinese Takeaway

Nearly two weeks since our last Chinese takeaway and being a Friday night, who can be bothered cooking? We went with the I-Ching on Slateford road, literally a couple of hundred meters at the most from Taste Good. It's somewhere we have ordered from in the past, so thought we'd try it again in our quest to taste them all.

Our order consisted off duck spring rolls, spare ribs (we've not been feeling the love for the chicken and sweetcorn soup recently), crispy shredded beef and boiled rice. Total cost just over £16. No freebies.

The food arrived very quickly and we tucked into the duck spring rolls. They were pretty good, although not as good as Taste Good. A pot of sweet and sour sauce was provided for dippage, again the Hoi-sin from Taste Good is better, but the spring rolls and sauce were still tasty.

The spare ribs came coated in BBQ sauce and there were a lot of them, possibly meant as a main rather than a starter. The were tasty as well, although very messy to eat.

The crispy shredded beef was ok, not amazing, it wasn't really to my taste (could have done with being a bit sweeter). Also, there wasn't quite enough sauce and the rice seemed a little soggy.

Overall, good starters, ok main, nice enough but not the best we've had.

Score: 3/5

I-Ching: 83 Slateford Rd, Edinburgh, EH11‎ : 0131 337 9898‎

Taste Good - Chinese Takeaway

After coming back down from Ardtoe, we couldn't be bothered going to the shops and had no food in the house, so we decided to get takeaway. We didn't have any cash on us, so went for the one takeaway we know where you can pay by card when you order.

Taste Good on Slateford Road is one of the more up market Chineses in Edinburgh and has a sit in restaurant as well as the takeaway section. We ordered duck spring rolls, chicken and sweetcorn soup, Kung-Po King Prawn and Boiled rice. The whole thing came to around £13 and there were no freebies.

The spring rolls were probably the best spring rolls we've had from a Chinese Takeaway so far. 3 of the smaller thin kind, filled with duck, they came with a portion of Plum Sauce for dipping, definitely on to a winner there. The Chicken and Sweetcorn soup was a little tasteless, a fair amount of chicken though.

Finally, the main course, the Kung-Po King Prawn; while they have to be commended for the wide variety of vegetables and a huge portion of peanuts, the sauce itself is not as thick and sweet as we like and could have been a bit spicier. The odd pieces of celery in the dish also makes it a bit of a minefield if you (like me) aren't too keen on it.

Overall, awesome spring rolls but disappointing main course, nothing wrong with it per se, but not entirely aligned with my tastes.

Score: 3/5

Taste Good : 67-71 Slateford Road, Edinburgh : 0131 313 5588

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.

Chilli Poppers v0.1

While shopping in Sainsbury's we noticed that they had some rather large Green Chillis in their chilli section, these seemed a good size to attempt to make Chilli Poppers.

Not actually knowing what was in them, we decided to go for a stuffing of Mozzarella and plum tomatoes and grill them in the oven rather than coating them and frying them. So the chillis had their tops chopped off, we scooped out the seeds and insides and stuffed them with strips of Mozzarella and the plum tomatoes. We then pinned the tops back on with skewers and grilled them in the oven until both sides looked cooked.

The results were edible, but a little disappointing. The Mozzarella didn't have a strong enough flavour to compete with the chilli and the chillis had a slightly bitter taste to them. Next time, we're going to use a stronger cheese, perhaps cream cheese. We might even try to coat them and fry them rather than grilling them.

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.