Date Night - Anniversary Special - Saiko Kitchen

The Rules of Date Night

Martyn and I started ‘Date Night’ well over a year ago when we were still living in Tollcross, Edinburgh. There are so many lovely independent restaurants in Edinburgh we are completely spoilt! In a quest to work our way around some of these places we declared ‘Date Night’.

The Rules of Date Night;
Once a month after pay day.
Must be local (walking distance from the flat).
We take turns on who pays.
When he is paying I choose the location.
When I’m paying he chooses the location.
We never go to the same place twice for date night.

This months Date Night was a special one as it landed on the 2 year anniversary of our first date. Martyn and I are a successful product of the Tinder dating app, we started chatting over the weekend of my 30th and his 27th birthday. His is the day after mine so we are birthday buddies and makes the end of June kind of like Christmas in The Clubhouse with all the cards, presents and parties. Since that warm Wednesday night at the start of July it's been a whirlwind of new jobs, him moving in to my flat and then us renting our own little place together, date nights, trips around the UK and other adventures.

Anyway I digress! So as this was a special Date Night we decided to declare it an 'Away Game' and left the usual limits of walking distance from the flat and jumped on a bus to Marchmont and Saiko Kitchen. I when quite rockabilly for the evening and wore my Dorothy Perkins 'Lyla' high waisted jeans, new H&M Bardot style stripy top, old faithful Mary-Janes and accessorised with my new Ladybird Likes butterfly necklace and H&M lipstick scarf.

About Saiko Kitchen
Saiko Kitchen is a pan Asian restaurant, specialising in a street food style. It is a small but varied menu with something for everyone. Their slogan is 'Fresh, Food, Fast' and I think they have hit the nail on the head. The restaurant is light and airy with subtle but bright splashed of colour scattered around. The menu consists of soups, salads, rice and noodle dishes, small plates, banh mi sandwiches, sides and sweet treats. A lot of the options are either vegetarian or vegan and they have quite a few gluten free choices too. They don't have a drinks licence and it's not byob so it's soft drinks all the way. We arrived just before 7pm to a very quiet restaurant but it started filling up as the evening passed.

The Food and Drinks
When it comes to this style of food Martyn and I are very predictable, I'll opt for the Pad Thai and Martyn will either pick Katsu curry or a chicken noodle soup, he just couldn't make up his mind this time but a very accommodating waitress let him order the Hanoi chicken noodle soup with a side of the Panko chiken strips served with Katsu sauce instead of the standard sraracha mayo they come with.

I went with the tofu Pad Thai and it was delicious, crispy coated tofu, fresh and crunchy veggies, soft noodles all coated in classic sweet and savory, spicy flavours. We also ordered a surprisingly large portion of 7 spice fries that even we didn't get through! 

Martyn loved his aromatic soup and dipping the crispy chicken strips in the Katsu sauce and although we both fancied trying the Sweet Treats - Banana and peanut butter ice cream cake or Raspberry and Mango sorbet - we couldn't even finish the food in front of us and had to admit defeat. 

 

Round up and Atmosphere
I'm already planning on heading back for lunch soon, it's not too far from my office, and trying one of the Vietnamese style Banh Mi sandwiches. Crispy tofu, pickled veg, salad, coriander and chilies with ginger and peanut sauce sounds like lunchtime heaven to me! 

Our waitress was friendly and the kitchen were very fast. They also do take away and there were a few customers in and out for their collections while we sat too. 

So go and check it out for lunch or dinner, the food is a delight, so fresh and tasty. 

Saiko Kitchen - 15 Roseneath Street, EH9 1JH - 0131 281 5613