Description: Living in small town Scotland there's not a massive choice of places to eat out and the choice of exotic foods is limited to Chinese and Indian. I love sushi but had never eaten in a Japanese restaurant before so when I drove past Koi in Edinburgh one day I was desperate to try it. We always combine our trips through to the Sick Kids with a fun activity afterwards and this month our treat was lunch at Koi's.
The restaurant was almost deserted when we arrived about 12.30 with only one other table occupied. We were quickly shown to a window table and our drinks orders were taken while we looked at the menus. The restaurant is modern with lots of pictures of Koi fish over the walls and windows, huge mirrors and nice leather chairs giving it a sophisticated feel but it would not jump out at me as being Japanese.
We chose to eat from the special lunchtime menus which give you three courses for between £6.50 and £9.50 between 12 and 2pm Monday to Saturday. My daughter chose set meal A which was the sushi meal and I chose set meal B and had beef with rice for my main course.
Our starters were brought over after around ten minutes, the starters for all the lunch options are miso soup and salad. I looked down at the table and saw only chopsticks which my daughter picked up and used like a pro. She did attempt to teach her old mum how to hold them properly and I made an attempt to pick up some lettuce and shove it into my mouth before the waitress came over laughing offering me a fork which I readily accepted. The salad came in a small glass bowl and was a nice mix of different lettuce leaves, tomato, cucumber and carrot smothered in a tasty dressing. It didn't strike me as authentically Japanese but was a tasty and healthy start to our meal.
The Miso soup came in a small bowl with a lid on it; I wasn't really sure how to eat it as no utensils were provided. We tried to spy on the other diners to see how they were doing it but alas they had moved on to their main courses. I asked for a spoon which was promptly brought over but noticed that the diners who arrived later just drank it straight from the bowl and a quick search on Google revealed that this was the authentic way to consume it. The soup looked really fresh, the broth of dashi and miso paste had the characteristic cloudy look with tiny slivers of spring onions floating on the top with pieces of tofu and seaweed hidden beneath the surface. Miso has a very distinctive taste which is very hard to describe and it's a flavour my Western palate finds very strange. I'm afraid the miso soup was not a hit with either of us, I managed to eat half of the bowl before the taste became overwhelming and my girl managed a mere spoonful; mind you it was hilarious watching my daughter take her first taste of tofu to see how quickly her face screwed up!
We had just enough time between our starters and main courses to let our stomachs settle. My daughters sushi- six salmon maki rolls and two tamogo sushi- came beautifully presented on a glass platter with a generous dollop of fiery green wasabi and slices of pickled ginger. She loved pouring some soy sauce from the little jug into a bowl and dipping her sushi into it and I have never seen a plate of sushi disappear so quickly meaning I never had the chance to steal a piece which she declared as delicious. I'm not entirely sure what style my beef and rice was cooked in but it was also fantastic; I was presented with an enormous bowl with a generous layer of rice topped with a thin layer of vegetables upon which sat a lovely barely set omelette with pieces of battered and sliced beef nestled on top. The beef was nice and tender and full of flavour but the portion so huge that I ended up leaving lots on my plate. Again I had problems with utensils, the waiter brought over a spoon which didn't seem to be the correct thing to eat with; I did manage to pick some pieces of beef up with the chopsticks this time before the rice had me beaten and once again I had to ask for a good old fork.
It was time for a visit to the ladies room between courses which is situated down two flights of stairs in the basement. The toilets were sparkling clean and looked very cool with lots of mirrors, flowers and chrome panelling. Someone with mobility problems would really struggle getting up and down those stairs though.
We were given the choice between green tea or ice cream for dessert and knowing that the green tea I have had before tasted like smelly socks I went for the ice cream. The waitress told us that it was pancake ice cream but when the single scoop came out with a wafer in a little bowl it didn't taste unlike standard vanilla to me but my daughter was extremely excited about this new and novel flavour.
The bill came to £18.60 for lunch including two cokes which was very reasonable. There's a far bigger choice of dishes to choose from in the evening with a much higher price tag; a plate of mixed sushi will cost £11.50 for instance with prices reaching £37.50 per head for the Koi deluxe platter. The restaurant is licensed with a wide range of wines, beers, saki and Japanese whisky on offer. The restaurant also boasts a Teppanyaki counter where you can watch the chef prepare dishes and I would like to go back in the evening to experience this.
We enjoyed our first experience visiting a Japanese restaurant, the food was good, the service attentive and trying to eat with chopsticks provided some entertainment too! I would have liked to see other options for starters than miso soup and perhaps the option of coffee instead of green tea for dessert. I would have also have liked some more guidance on Japanese etiquette as I felt a bit of a ninny about using a spoon to eat my miso soup instead of drinking it down. I really hope that Koi lasts longer than Yo Sushi! which only survived in Edinburgh for a few months before shutting down as it's a place that I would love to visit again.
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