Date Night - Al Dente

It feels like an age since our last date night at Saiko Kitchen back in July! August as a crazy with trips to London and and Bristol and some crazy flat hunting. The good news is that we found a flat, its not far from our current rented flat so the move should be easy and it has a second bedroom so we'll have a bit more space to breath (and craft). So brace yourselves for more DIY tutorials for the new place. I've already starting new Pinterest boards you can check them by clicking the badge on the side bar.

The Rules of Date Night

Martyn and I started ‘Date Night’ 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.

It feels like an age since our last date night at Saiko Kitchen back in July! August was a crazy with trips to London and and Bristol and some crazy flat hunting, thank goodness its over now. It was September before we managed the next date night, we went back to local and headed towards Easter Road again for some Italian.

About Al Dente 

Al Dente is a tiny wee restaurant right on Easter Road it's after the first up on shops just before you go over the rail tracks going down the road. It's been there for a while but if you blinked you'd miss it. They pride themselves on 'Pure Italian food' and that means fresh made pasta and traditional Italian flavours. They have a wide ranging menu of the usual suspects; pasta, risotto salads etc but also a large specials board too. 

The Food and Drinks

So I've recently joined a slimming group so I was trying to make 'wise choices' on date night, by the main course that was out the window and a glass of the house red was en route to our table. FYI the house red was delicious and next time I'll be ordering the bottle. 

To start I had the Bruschetta Classica and Martyn ordered the Sformatino di patate e salumi. The bruschetta was beautifully, fresh bread topped with tasty tomato, basil and garlic. Martyn's starter was an oven baked potato tart with cured meat and topped with mozzarella. Our starteds disappeared into our faces so fast I didn't even get a chance to photograph them...

For our mains we went very traditional, Spaghetti alla Carbonara for Martyn and Pumkin stuffed Ravioli with Sage and Parmesan for me. 

The carbonara was served in a good sized portion of spaghetti with cheese, pancetta, and plenty of black  pepper, it was gone in no time! My ravioli was stuffed with smooth and sweet pumpkin, very seasonal and smothered in, not very slimming, sage butter and parmesan. 

By this point the wise choices were out of the window and the vino was in hand as well as the Desserts menu. As you'll know from the Origano review I'm a sucker for tiramisu so it was ordered along with a Gelati misti, Chocolate ice cream with hazelnut and chocolate sauce, for Martyn. 

Unfortunately the cream in my tiramisu had turned, I mentioned it to the waiter (the only waiter) as soon as I realised and he was very apologetic and took it straight away returning to apologise again and ask if there was anything I'd prefer. He also pointed out he'd forgotten to mention the dessert special which was an amaretti semifreddo. Boom! Done! I love anything amaretti and ordered it without seeing the menu again.

It was delicious, creamy, sweet and all I could have asked for. I finished it off with my glass of wine feeling satisfied and full.

Round up and Atmosphere

Well as I'm sure you can tell I was quite impressed by Al Dente, apart from one hiccup, they were amazing. They were short staffed but everyone was getting the attention they needed and the food was fresh and seasonal. 

We both thought it would be a great choice for a big family meal or a big bunch of friends catching up over great food and wine. 

They also do pre theatre and great deals. If you pop down and check it out let me know what you think of it

xxx

Al Dente -139 Easter Road Edinburgh EH7 5QA - Tel: 0131 - 6521 932

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 

Date Night - Rivage

The Rules of Date Night

Martyn and I started ‘Date Night’ 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 month we headed along to Easter Road to check out Rivage. We had been recommended it by our friends The Knoxigans a couple weeks ago when we met up with them and their new pup Marvin, he's the cutest. 

I wore my Forever21 stripy skirt, Dorothy Perkins bardot top, red cardie, mary janes and it's hard to see but my tights have tiny wee hearts all over them! I'd been to Lipstick, Lashes and Locks after work to get my hair cut and the lovely Tina had curled it for me too. I did a quick roll at the front to keep my hair out of my face, some big flicks and red lips. I grabbed my bright red Cambridge Satchel push lock bag and we legged it along the road to dinner. 

About Rivage 

Rivage it at the top end of Easter Road and I must have walked past it 100 times, I used to spend a lot of time in The Mash Tun pub quizzing a couple years back, they do a great quiz and some pretty decent food too. Anyway I've walked past plenty of times and it's always smelt pretty tasty but it doesn't look like much from the outside but always seemed pretty busy. 

The contrast between the inside and outside is vast! All the table and chairs are quality chunky dark teak, well accessorised with carved partitions and features, you can see the tandoor oven in the corner from nearly every seat in the restaurant, it's great to see them preparing your naan bread and receiving it pipping hot. 

The Food and Drinks

Rivage is BYOB but they also have a small bar serving a selection of drinks. We weren't in the mood for a bottle of wine so just ordered drinks there, I had a bottle of Kingfisher and Martyn had a pint of diet coke, we also had water brought to the table as soon as we sat down which I really liked. 

We ordered popadoms to start us off and then I had the Aloo Tiki, two patties of pea and mashed potato flavoured with ginger and lightly fried, it came with a salad and riata dressing. Martyn opted for Murgh Tikka Trianga, chicken tikka with done with tree different sauces, mint and coriander, red spices and cashew and cheese. We both loved our starters, they were a very generous size and well presented. 

Once the starters were finished and cleared our mains were soon on their way. We had ordered Gucchi Muttar, Chicken Jalfrezie, Jeera Pilao rice and a Peshwari Naan. My Gucchi Mutar was rich and creamy with large bit of mushroom and plenty of peas and was seriously tasty, Martyn's Jalfrezie had great chunks of chicken in a sauce of crushed spices and stir-fried peppers. He loved his and eat the whole dish with the beautifully cooked rice. 

The Peshwari was a revelation to me, I never order it because I'm concerned it'll have meat or worse raisins (I hate raisins with a passion, especially when they are hidden in things like apple muffins and carrot cake). This naan was delicious, after Martyn convinced me to order it, stuffed with almond and cashew paste it was delicately sweet and really balanced the meal out. 

We didn't even look at the sweets menu as we were fit to burst after all of that food, we paid our very reasonable bill and rolled back along the road full and happy.

Round up and Atmosphere

Above is the moment we realised that I hadn't stopped to capture the meal when it arrived and we'd just dived into it! I would highly recommend Rivage for a night when only a good curry will do, the food was tasty and fresh, the service was unbelievably attentive but did not boarder on intrusive and it's BYOB.

It was noted in 6 of the best Indian Restaurants in Edinburgh but the Scotsman Food and Drink, of which we have been to 5 of now. We are considering an 'away game' date night to go the the last on the list Kalpna soon so keep your eyes peeled. 

If you head to Rivage then let me know what you think! 

xxx

Rivage - 126–130 Easter Road, Edinburgh, EH7 5RJ - 0131 661 6888