Restaurant review: Cafe Andamiro, Edinburgh

Cafe Andamiro on Edinburgh's South Side. Picture: Jon Savage

You must try the yuzu tea, as it’s a bit like being happy slapped by a citrus fruit

I may be able to find a table for you,” said the woman on the phone when I booked this place on the day of my visit. “Let’s see. Yes, 1pm, hmmmm, OK.”

Ha ha, I thought, don’t pretend that you’re So Popular, while scanning those bare white-lined reservation sheets.

It’s Wednesday. Who goes out for Japanese and Korean food on hump day?

Everybody. Next door’s eatery, Brazilian Sensation, was empty but this place was totally rammed.

My on-the-turn group of three were slotted neatly into the back room, so that we wouldn’t soil the gaze of the youthful hipsters in the front of house.

The sign outside reads Japanese and Korean, but not in any particular order of importance, as there seemed to be a lot more of the latter.

The quartet of dumplings (£3.99) could have been of either origin, making them mandu or gyoza. They were crispy and lacy-edged, with a golden silhouette on their bottoms from the heat of the pot. Nice filling too – a pale savoury paste of chicken and spring onion.

It took a while for the next dish to land – 20 minutes or so – but the Japanese okonomiyaki (£5.99) was worth the wait, with a topping of fine aonori flakes under a snowdrift of flesh-coloured bonito shavings.

Sometimes this soul food option can taste a bit stodgy and bland, but this was the opposite, with shrimps, cabbage, potato, onion and, painted on the top, a tartan pattern of sweet tonkatsu sauce and mayo.

We also loved the Korean classic of bulgogi (£7.99), as the shreds of beef were soft and salty, with a side of excellent kimchi, puffy and steamy rice, dried wakame, pickles and miso soup (all mains came with miso, so we ended up with four bowls of the stuff).

The tofu donburi (£7.99) was a comfortingly gooey bowl of soft and creamy scrambled egg, rice, seaweed and sugar lump-sized cubes of toasty skinned tofu. Lovely.