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.
Last week Martyn and I stopped by Bodega for this months date night. Bodega is a tiny Mexican taqueria on Leith Walk that you'd miss if you blinked walking pass, there are only a handful of tables so it's worth booking. Tacos are their game and damn they are good at it. The menu has a Mexican theme but don't be fooled into thinking that's all they do. Bodega will put all kinds of food in their gluten free soft tacos, we are talking Jamaican, Thai, super foods, what ever they like. There a standard menu but also a specials board in the restaurant with 3 to 4 extra tacos on it. Oh and did I mention its BYOB? I wore my big floral New Look midi skirt, pointed t-bar flats and black t-shirt, I didn't want to be too fancy for a Thursday in Leith. I added some big hair and my really old tv handbag that I bought with I was a teenager but still love, you can change the photo in the front so I popped the picture of my friend Kyle and I on an adventure in the Tardis.
I booked a table for 7:30 and we headed up the road via Oddbins of a bottle of vino. On arrival there were 3 other tables in and spotted our's quickly as it was the only 2 seater left. We were greeted by the owner/manager/waiter/glass cleaner who welcomed us and showed us to the table. We were handed our menus, shown the specials board and asked if we needed wine glassed. We eyed up the menu and specials, at this point it became obvious that Martyn has spent time perusing the menu earlier that day as he knew exactly what he wanted.
We ordered the guacamole and the cheese and black bean dips to share as starters, they came with a mountain of tortilla chips on the side. The guacamole was smooth and creamy with a bit of a kick and the black bean dip came warm and topped with fresh chillies, red onion ad micro coriander, it was delicious and comforting at the same time. For mains they recommend you order 2 plates of tacos each. Martyn ordered the smokey maple and pineapple pulled pork tacos and carne asada steak which was slow cooked steak with a chipotle glaze, he said they were very tasty and there was hardly a crumb left on his plate. I had the avocado tempura with wasabi mayo and slaw as well as the charred broccoli, kohlrabi puree, pickled neeps, sunflower seeds and crispy kale tacos. My tacos were amazing! The avocado tempura were soft in the middle and crispy on the outside the slaw was fresh and crunchy but the charred broccoli one was my favourite. The broccoli was beautifully charred, the pickled neeps were bursting with lime flavour and the crispy kale was so tasty that I even managed to get Martyn to try some.
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| Avocado Tempura tacos |
The atmosphere of the place was really nice and we were well looked after, checked on but not bothered, Martyn didn't want everything that came in one of his tacos and they were very accommodating. After we had been there a wee while the other tables disappeared and it end up just the two of us in the restaurant which actually quite nice. The music was really laid back and chilled and we were made to feel very welcome.
We were offered desert after our plates were cleared and we knew we would be having the churros, I said we'll have one to share, Martyn said we'd have one each, once again I repeated my order and Martyn his in a joking way and we were appeased and offered 4 churros in the one cup which I agreed to and did not regret! They were the best churros we've had in Edinburgh, warm fluffy in the inside with a bit of crunch on the outside with a delicious warm chocolate sauce.
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| Mmmm Churros |
It was such a refreshing change to have Mexican food that was fresh and bright with an interesting twist, the atmosphere was chilled and friendly. Great for a date night or even an evening with friends. Also thanks to Bodega for letting me use there photos, the nice lighting in the place didn't make for nice photos.
Bodega - 62 Elm Row, Edinburgh, EH7 4AQ - 0131 556 7930 - www.ilovebodega.com
