Kebab Mahal
The tandoor on Nicolson Square has been turning out halal Punjabi food since 1979, from a room that sits beside the Central Mosque and about two minutes' walk from Bristo Square.
Why go
This is the corner of the Southside where the university campus and the Central Mosque sit on the same block, and Kebab Mahal has fed both for nearly fifty years. The kitchen started on traditional Indian tandoori cooking and grew a kebab and pizza counter alongside it, which is the split you still walk into: tables on one side, a takeaway queue on the other.4 Everything is halal and the house describes what it does as Punjabi cooking, tandoori grills and naan made to order.5 Go for a cheap plate, and know the other half before you do: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme has this premises at Improvement Required from an inspection on 18 June 2024, and no re-inspection has been published in the two years since, so that reading is both a failure and out of date.6
Order this / avoid
- Order: the chicken shish off the tandoor, and take the naan with it. If you are eating curry, Phil Gailey's picks in The Skinny were
the madras, fish bakora and saag guost,
and he rated the kitchen on its spicing:the spices in the curries are expertly balanced.
1 - Avoid: building an evening around the dining room. Gailey's line on the room was that it
probably hasn't changed all that much,
and his advice was toignore the elbow in your back from the next table.
1 Take the food and go.
What locals & experts say
- Phil Gailey, The Skinny / Fest Magazine (2009):
They come for the mammoth servings of good basic Indian food at 1980s prices,
with naansthe size of a small child.
1 It is the one real critical read of this kitchen anyone has published, and it is seventeen years old, so read it as a description of what the place has always been. - Keith Davidson, Time Out Edinburgh (2015):
An Edinburgh legend since 1979,
whereits reputation is largely based around late-night takeaway kebabs: chicken, doner, shish, shashlik, vegetarian and others. This is good food at bargain prices.
2 - Scottish Takeaway Awards 2023, Kebab Takeaway of the Year (South East): reported by Gary Flockhart in the Edinburgh Evening News on 26 October 2023, which named
Nicolson Square's Kebab Mahal
as the winner of that category.3 The programme runs on public nomination and voting with a finalist round, so it reads as a popularity result out of a regional heat, and it is reported here on that footing.
Good to know
- Timing: open seven days from lunchtime, with the late nights on Friday and Saturday. Sources disagree on exactly how late, from midnight to 2am, so check the venue before you count on the last hour.5
- Booking: walk in. The counter takes collection and delivery orders online.
- Getting there: Bristo Square is about two minutes on foot, Teviot Row House and the Pleasance a few minutes more, and Nicolson Street buses stop at the door.
- Dietary: the whole kitchen is halal, stated by the venue.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme, Improvement Required, inspected 18 June 2024, FHRSID 122370. That is the failing grade of the Scottish scheme, and at over two years old with no published re-inspection it is stale evidence. The rating is stated here and the place stays on the list.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Kebab takeaway of the year 2023 ed".
- One correction to his shorthand, since it changes what the award means: the category was Kebab Takeaway of the Year for the South East region of Scotland, a regional heat of a national programme, and the body was the Scottish Takeaway Awards.
Verdict
could-visit — A halal Punjabi kitchen that has run a tandoor on the same square since 1979 and sits about two minutes from Bristo Square, which is as central as cheap eating gets in this city. The craft case is real but old: the last critic to judge the cooking in a source this registry accepts praised the spice balance in 2009, and nothing since then evaluates the kitchen at all. Weigh that against a 2024 inspection that came back Improvement Required with no re-inspection published, and the honest ruling is a place to eat at when you are already on that corner. The 2023 award is a regional public vote and moves the rung not at all.