St Johns Curry Club
The Asian Catering Federation named this Corstorphine delivery counter among Scotland's best Asian takeaways in 2022 and again in 2023.2
Why go
Both titles were shared, and the sharing is the part worth knowing. The 2022 award, at the sixth Scotland edition of the Asian Restaurant Awards, went jointly to this shop and to the Curry Pot Indian Takeaway in Dunfermline.1 The 2023 one, announced at the Sheraton Grand in Edinburgh on 18 September, was split three ways with Dil Se in Portlethen and Memories of India in Gorebridge.2 The federation's word for the category is Takeaway and Delivery. The Best Indian award the same night went to Ignite, a different Edinburgh kitchen.
The menu is built tandoor-first. Most of the main courses start in the clay oven and get their sauce afterward: chicken tikka finished in ground almond, pistachio and cream; tandoori lamb into a yogurt, cream and lemon sauce; grilled chicken and chopped aubergine with garlic, ginger and tomato.3 The biryanis follow the same route, with grilled kebab meat stir-fried into basmati with nutmeg, mace, saffron and rose water. Operational manager Sadiq Rahman put the shop's own case for the 2022 award plainly: the point is cooking and delivering great food to them at home.
1
Order this / avoid
- Order: something off the tandoor, since that is where nearly every main starts.
- Order: a chicken tikka biryani if you want the version with the aromatics in it, nutmeg and mace and saffron and rose water, stir-fried through the rice with clarified butter.3
- Order: garlic naan. It is the first thing the shop names on its own About page.
- Avoid: planning lunch around it. Nothing opens before four in the afternoon.
What locals & experts say
- Asian Restaurant Awards (Scotland) 2023, Just Eat Takeaway/Delivery Award, shared with Dil Se and Memories of India. CLH News reports it in one line:
Just Eat Takeaway/Delivery Awards went to Dil Se (Porthlehen), Memories of India (Gorebridge) and St John's Curry Club (Edinburgh).
2 - Asian Restaurant Awards (Scotland) 2022, where The Edinburgh Reporter recorded the shop taking
the award for Scotland's best Asian Takeaway/delivery establishment,
jointly with a Dunfermline takeaway.1 - Sadiq Rahman, operational manager, on the 2022 win:
This is a great award to win and shows that we are doing the right thing for our customers - cooking and delivering great food to them at home.
1 - Yawar Khan, chairman of the Asian Catering Federation, on what the winners represent: they
are acknowledged as being among the very best dining establishments across Scotland.
1 Winners go into the federation's One Hundred Top Curry Restaurants guide. - No critic has written about this shop. The award reporting is the whole published record, which is why this page stops where it does.
Good to know
- Hours: 16:15 to 22:20 Monday through Thursday, 16:00 to 22:45 Friday and Saturday, 16:00 to 22:20 Sunday. The site prints a second table underneath the first, closing 22:30 on Friday and Saturday and 22:00 on Sunday, above a line saying delivery times may vary, so treat the later weekend times as collection and call if you are ordering near closing.3
- Format: collection and delivery. No source describes a dining room.
- Getting there: 100 St John's Road, the Corstorphine main street, in the west of the city.
- Which award: the body is the Asian Catering Federation, whose Scotland edition runs as the Asian Restaurant Awards. Neither reporting source says how a category is decided, so nobody should call this a public vote.
- The team, as of the 2022 award: Sadiq Rahman managing, Jewel Ahmed and Jahir Islan in the kitchen, Habibha and Abida front of house.1
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 13 October 2022, which is three years and ten months ago. No later inspection has been published for these premises. A neighbouring food business at 104 St John's Road currently sits at Improvement Required; this one does not.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Voted best Indian takeaway Asian awards 2023." The year and the body check out. Two details do not: the category is Asian Takeaway and Delivery rather than Indian, and Best Indian that night went to Ignite. The award was also shared three ways, and he missed the 2022 one entirely.
Verdict
could-visit — A Corstorphine delivery counter that the Asian Catering Federation named among Scotland's best takeaways two years running, and that is the entire case, which is enough for a solid rung and no more. In November 2022 the sixth Asian Restaurant Awards (Scotland) gave it the Scottish takeaway title jointly with the Curry Pot in Dunfermline, and in September 2023 the same body gave it the Just Eat Takeaway/Delivery award at the Sheraton Grand, shared three ways with Dil Se in Portlethen and Memories of India in Gorebridge. Two consecutive years from a trade federation, reported independently by the Edinburgh Reporter and by CLH News, is real evidence that the delivery operation is good at what it does. What it is not is evidence about the plate. No critic has written about this shop, no source names a dish worth ordering, and the awards are shared placings in a category about getting food to a house rather than about cooking it. Reading the menu, the kitchen grills in the tandoor and then builds the sauce on most mains, which is the right order and is the only craft signal available. The counter opens at four and closes by half past ten. Order from it if you are in the west of the city and want a good curry delivered, which is exactly what it is for, and expect nothing beyond that.