Is Newington Scotland’s New Chinatown? We take a look at the influx of Chinese eateries in this Edinburgh neighbourhood

Nick Kwek, host of Discovering the World’s Table, writes about Edinburgh’s burgeoning Chinese eateries

I was born in a Chinese-Malaysian takeaway in Fife. Our family home was literally attached to the business’s kitchen.

You turned left at the bottom of our stairs and in a split second stepped into another realm. I can still hear the ferociously loud clatter of steel woks, the scorch of chilli, ginger and garlic sizzling in smoking oil, the assault of aromas, the roaring red-hot flames blistering the ceiling, prawn crackers exploding in the deep fryer, the relentless ringing of the telephone, the chop-chop-chopping, and my Dad barking food orders.

In a funny way, our house’s set-up was like me – half Scottish, half Chinese-Malaysian. Hospitality has forever been part of my life.

The Edinburgh Chinese Arts Association organise the annual Chinese New Year celebrations on The Mound.

But why am I telling you this? Well, studying at the University of Edinburgh, and living in Newington for most of my degree, the Chinese food and drink scene was nothing like it is today. Long gone is the solitary Cantonese joint dishing out bland chicken fried rice. Dotted down South Clerk Street is a plethora of new regional Chinese restaurants, takeaways, noodle houses, bubble tea cafes and bao steamers.

From hot pots, to barbecue grills, boutiques, grocers, tailors and even beauty salons, Newington is rapidly becoming Scotland's new Chinatown. These diverse little eateries have sprung up like delicious exotic mushrooms in recent months, serving unique, authentic flavours from the East, to the Capital's hungry students, residents and visitors.

“I’m so happy they’ve opened – it’s wonderful,” says Jessica Yang, chairperson of the Edinburgh Chinese Arts Association, organisers of the annual Chinese New Year celebrations on The Mound. “It’s good for local Chinese people’s lives and international students. We can have more authentic food than ever before.”

This new wave of refreshingly unpretentious eating houses feels, in a word, real. Big, bright, bold high-definition images of their wondrous dumplings and mysterious soupy chilli bowls are plastered across their windows. Traditional, almost indecipherable Chinese characters don their doorways.

Sister Bao is located on 32 South Clerk St, Newington

At first glance you’d be forgiven for not knowing what is going on – is this a cafe, a diner, a shop? How did they come to be here? And why now?

Well for starters, they’re serving a captive audience. For the some 5,000-plus Chinese foreign exchange students attending the university each semester, they provide a welcome taste of home. The abundance of eateries is “a very happy thing”, says third-year film student Sylvia Yuan, 21.

Yuan, who is also an officer of the Edinburgh University Chinese Student Association, adds: “People from different regions can meet through different cuisines on one table, so the Chinese restaurant is also a very important place for making new friends. Just as the old saying goes – there is nothing that cannot be solved in one meal.”

Eating out two to three times a week is all part of the Chinese student bonding experience, says Yuan. One of her favourite restaurants is aptly named Taste Of Home on South Clerk Street, which opened last summer.

The bao buns at Sister Bao

Owner Jenny Jiang is one busy lady. “We have customers from everywhere, not just Chinese, but locals and regulars who come on a weekly basis," says Jiang, originally from Shanghai. “It’s quite a new business and is going quite well at the moment.”

This is the 42-year-old’s first foray into the restaurant game. But as a mother-of-three, she’s a natural when it comes to looking after young diners.

“I don’t feel like a mother figure, more like a friend,” she says. “I like to talk to students, as I was a student back in 2005. So hosting these new friends, it brings back memories of my youth. These kids make me feel like I’m still young. I love them.”

Aside from the personal service, the success of this eatery is very much down to its exotic menu, featuring speciality dishes from Hunan province, like the Tujiua Three Pot Dish, which can comprise ribs, chicken, pork intestine, beef tripe or pigs’ trotter depending on your choosing.

The most popular are the minced pork belly with Chinese leaf at £1.80 a pop.

Specialising in regional cuisine traditionally served usually to minority communities within China, customers can try delicacies like frog, fish heads, chicken gizzards or black fungus in vinegar.

Remember – fortune favours the brave. Jiang is quick to point out they still serve old favourites, saying: “We also have Cantonese stir fried Beef Ho Fun and West Lake Beef Soup.”

Most plates cost around £10-£15, but for folks on a tighter budget, Sister Bao a few doors down makes breakfast bites from midday till late.

“You won’t be able to find anywhere cheaper than here,” laughs its colourful owner Kate Liu, 40, originally from Beijing.

She and her husband opened their eatery on New Year’s Day in 2021 and her buns are selling like hot cakes. “We get through about three of these per day,” she says, pointing at the countertop glass hot box, which is teeming with row upon row of plump, freshly steamed bao.

The most popular are the minced pork belly with Chinese leaf. “I’m a breakfast person, and I really love our Chinese breakfasts, so I just thought why not sell bao?" Liu says.

The menu at Taste of Home.

"They’re really tasty and fast for people and, for me, they taste like my hometown’s [ones]. We have workmen that come by and instead of bacon rolls, they ask for chicken curry bao.”

For student Yuan, the more the merrier. “Usually in China, I would only choose Sichuan restaurants or some dishes that I started to eat when I was young,” she says.

"But after coming to the UK, I got to know students from different parts of China, who introduced me to different cuisines. It allowed me to experience Chinese food that I had never eaten before in China, which was surprising.

“People should understand more about the menu and order more authentic dishes. There’s more choice than just chicken fried rice.”