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Bite Magazine
Zest, Edinburgh
15 North St Andrew Street, Edinburgh, tel: 0131-556 5028
The first thing you notice about Zest is that it doesn't look like an Indian restaurant. The big windows and blonde wood give a cool, contemporary look and feel to the place, an impression that continues when you scan the menu and wine list. The menu offers plenty of choice but is not overwhelmingly extensive, making it navigable and ensuring freshness in the finished product.
The wine list has been chosen with care to complement the food, but my choice with Indian food is always cold beer. My daughter and I both enjoyed a large Cobra (£4.75). We shared a starter to ensure room for a selection of main courses, and the assorted kebab (£4.95) with its tender chicken and lamb and zingy yoghurt sauce got the juices flowing.
We chose a range of main course dishes from very mild and creamy lamb passanda (£7.50) to hot murghi shahjani (£7.50), a mix of chicken and spinach and green chilli. Methi gosht (£7.50), lamb with fenugreek, was wonderfully aromatic with a pleasant sweetness to it; and Jaipuri chicken (£7.50) was full of crunchy peppers and onions and tasty mushrooms.
The meat in all our dishes was meltingly tender; and the vegetables all fresh and distinctive, not overwhelmed by spice and perfectly cooked to retain a bit of bite. You could really taste all the ingredients in each dish. Our basmati pilau rice with saffron (£2.25) and garlic naan (£2.25) were perfect accompaniments, and we saved room for a bit of cooling ice cream for dessert. I can't resist coconut, so opted for coconut ice cream, served in a half coconut shell (£2.95), while my daughter chose the vachirin (£2.95), chocolate and vanilla ice cream with hazelnuts top and bottom, which she pronounced as "awesome".Zest is a fresh look at Indian cuisine and well worth a visit. Just don't choose a window seat when the rugby is in town!
Gillian Glover , Scotsman
A VISIT to Zest was recommended by an urbane London friend - "it's cool and stylish", he said. Not at all in the vanishing tradition of flock wallpaper and five pints of lager, but light and modern and showing similar restraint in the kitchen.
A glance at the menu shows that Zest features far more seafood dishes than is the norm, from Tandoori trout and Bangladeshi fried fish to nine different fish and seafood curries. And prices are modest for the centre of town. We ordered the old favourite king prawn puri to start, along with the marginally more adventurous Mach Baza - the fried fish. Both were zappily spiced and fragrant, with a clean, green note provided by judicious addition of herbs.
Main courses continued our rather-better-than-average impression, with a fine chicken Murghi Shajani, which introduced spinach, fennel and coriander to tandoor-cooked chicken spiked with a more serious amount of spice. A portion of stir-fried bindi was lightly-cooked and fresh-tasting; my sole criticism would be that the North Indian Garlic Chilli chicken - labelled as hot on the menu - came in a very thick tomato and onion sauce and was mild as a minister's handshake. Even so, Zest has made a good start and as it's still on the sepulchral side of quiet, nip along before all that changes.
The List
As one of a phalanx of new Indian restaurants aiming to take a fresh approach to the traditional curry, Zest's central location on the fringe of St Andrew Square attracts a wide-ranging clientele, from students out for dinner on Dad to the odd city type and passing tourist. Indeed, the two window tables are great for watching Edinburgh life bustle by. Inside, bright spotlights, a neon sign and lashings of chrome and birch are all present, offset by the cute rows of gingham-topped spice jars jauntily displayed in the window. The menu reflects this modern/traditional mix with the old favourites of korma and massala alongside more innovative dishes regularly conjured up by owner Ashdaar Ali. The starter of salmon tikka is a delight, with tender fish and delicately-spicy tandoori sauce calmed by a cooling salad, while the starfish-shaped chana purée (puffed bread with chickpeas) has a real coriander zing. For mains, the chicken amer murgh (chicken cooked with mango pulp) is fruity, light and yoghurty, but, for a more feisty finish, try the saag gosht, a combination of garlic and fresh spinach with tender lamb.