Empires

Sorry, it’s another 1 star…
Having a Festivally day to yourself involving a lot of The Pleasance is great apart from the food side of things. Unless you want a burger (with a loooong wait), a hot dog, or such, you’re fluffed. You could go back to George Sq for the far wider array of options but time is an issue. Maybe, like us, you just want to sit down in an actual eating establishment with an indoor toilet, napkins, metal cutlery, glass glasses etc… but for the last 2 weeks I have tried and tried to be organised and get a booking in a relatively populated radius and been told by tired, uninterested voices on the phone that ‘we can’t take bookings in August’…
‘Can’t’… WON’T, surely? I do know many fine places still taking bookings (Apiary, Aizle, Blond, Hanedans…) but they were not close enough to make viable options in rushed shedules. SOOOO why STOP taking bookings? I don’t understand how it is better to tell people who have chosen to call your place to reserve a place for a slot that you will not oblige their business. Bookings can be taken and walk-​ins taken and everyone will be ok, surely!!! Makes me anxious and I hate that i have to pound the pavements of my own town randomly… The visitors must fucking hate it!
We had just under 3 hours to spare and wandered in the area till Empire Café, who had spaces! Miracle! With David Bann’s next door having a queue etc, we felt lucky to get a table. Years in the past this place had proved a solid option for Turkish or Greek food and my DiningOptionsAnxiety left me!
But within moments we went through the shitty kind of experience that makes visitors here this month Eventually Grumpy and also brought our anxiety straight out again.
Led upstairs, we were immediately SO hot that our glasses started sliding off our noses. SOOO hot. The cool breeze of outside with kiosk food seemed dreamy right away… service ranged from dreadful to shit. The menu consisted of only 4 options. 4 mezze plates with different titles, but ostensibly not such different offerings. All £13-£15 in price per person, yet when we ordered one we were told we had to order 2! I still don’t get it… The wines were all crap and overpriced crap you can get in Tesco. The servers were not close friends with effiency, or friendliness. The food. It was sloppy rubbish. On the Hot Mezze the moussaka was straight out of the microwave but the rest was barely warm. The hummus was bad. No seasoning had been purchased for August. Probably bad for the greedy-​as-​fuck profit line they run there.
This was clearly a case of a place that has a normal menu year-​round then for some reason in August says — ‘let’s get the chefs in early to make BUCKETS FULL of 10 things that we can then slop out all day to the festival fools who have no choice but to eat where there is space and totally take the piss out of them all. Please Note we do not give a shit about their return business. No subsitutes.“
It’s just disgusting. Gives this town a baaaaad name. An Amercian couple there the same time hated it. An English couple left 99% of their plates, paid and left fucked off. No staff member cared why. How shit is that? SHOW THEM A GOOD TIME AND MAKE YOUR PLACE THEIR FAVOURITE PLACE!!! No. Just get them in & out quick as…‘SAID NO SENSIBLE CATERER EVER IN EDINBURGH”! EVER!!!
Don’t go there. It is a rip-​off business. Not an experience place and not a reflection of a real Edinburgh welcome from a real Edinburgh business.
I thought this sort of crap didn’t exist in our Festival town any more. They don’t deserve to.

Gave 2 stars for service was good, but only 1 star for food. Packaged bread, tasteless humous, soggy beans, super soggy spinach and cheese pastry. Cute small, well decorated place. Friendly staff. Mixed up our order and thought it was definitely our mistake. However, with loud hen party and live south african band playing, sh misheard us. Resolved finally, after we insisted we had ordered differently. As the food is the main draw here, sadly will not go back as could have bought better at M&S.

Great service and wonderful food! I stopped in later on a Tuesday evening for dinner and ordered the Three Meze dish and found that the serving size was perfect for one person where afterwards I was happily full but not stuffed. My lamb musakka could have been a tad hotter (in terms of temperature), but the taste was definitely there. I also ordered a small teapot of their apple tea, which was so delicious! Finally, the baklava — which was a lot larger of a dish than I expected — was sweet and crunchy and the perfect ending to the meal. The prices are reasonable, but remember to bring cash as they do not accept cards!

I went with a few friends on a Saturday night, and there was live Turkish music! Already, this was going to be good. The beautiful stained glass lights that hang everywhere capture your fancy, and it really portals you to a different place.
There was a deal, for $ 10 you get to choose 5 options, so we got two of these deals, and shared 10 options between 4 people. This was the perfect amount of food. The very sweet and calm waiter gave us some recommendations, and with a mix of spicy, non-​spicy, vegetarian and meat, we got to taste so many new things.
There was some grape leaf wrapped vegetarian item, and it was such a different flavor, really unlike anything I had before, and I loved it! The spicy food WAS spicy, and there was a chicken item with a creamy kind of sauce, that I gorged on. So, so good.
It’s BYOB, so we had two bottles. And they let us stay there for about 3 hours, I think. There was no rush, no worry, just a long meal, and long conversations, filled in by amazing Turkish music.

First off, as others have mentioned: cash only! It’s a bit of a walk to the nearest cash machine, so fill your wallet before sitting down to order.
We were caught in a typically grey and rainy evening in the middle of Festival season, searching for somewhere that was both open and not fully booked. From the outside, Empires looks every bit as hipster as it truly is. Slightly run down and tacky, but emanating a warmth and friendliness.
We were seated upstairs in the somewhat claustrophobic loft with low ceilings and not much air to breath, but it was comfy and casual. The service was quick, attentive, and friendly — one of those restaurants with a student kitchen kind of vibe to it.
The food is good if not great. We went for the vegan platter and the hot platter, which was more than enough food for two people. This need to order one platter each means that the price climbs pretty quickly, and I’d say it’s somewhat more expensive than it’s worth. The variety is nice though, with several types of Mediterranean meats, cheese, salads, dips, and so on. I do wish the pita bread was more fresh though!
If you’re looking for something that’s not a pub, or somewhere where you can just sit back and relax, then you could do worse than Empires. Four stars for the service, 2.5 for the food.

First things first. Before you take a seat you must realise that this place is cash only. The nearest cash machines are RBS on North Bridge or the Tesco on Holyrood Road. Both a good 5 min walk away.
So after a detour to get cash (am I the only one that is over reliant on the plastic in my wallet?) we returned to a cozy table in the corner. Except the staff kept opening the front door to get rid of the incense smoke & each time I was hit with an icy artic blast…
It’s byob which is cool. Neither I nor the new Mrs G were drinking. She had the mint tea & I tried the pomegranate juice. Both were fine. Water was presented in a lovely silver jug.
Food wise we each opted for a 3 dish meze. I had the chicken, the meatballs & the olives. Mrs G had the halloumi, stuffed peppers & something else I can’t quite remember. What we had was nice & tasty. We weren’t told that they were out of pitta so it was a bit of a surprise when our plates arrived with some brown bread. Not what I was expecting & no comment/​acknowledgement from the waitress either.
Unfortunately the bread had seeds in it which Mrs G can’t eat (allergies) so I asked if we could have an alternative. The waitress was polite but adamant they had no pitta & even when I asked if they had anything else. Eventually I spoke to another member of staff & eventually we were offered some rice. Fair enough. Too much palaver though. It should’ve been much easier to sort out.
That’s why it only gets 3 stars.

This wee place is really great! Particularly for people like myself who get ridiculous food envy/can’t decide what to have for breakfast in the morning, so the mezze ‘element’ (meh) of the menu is ideal — pick a bit of this, dip a bit of that, done, you feel like you’ve had a bit of everything.
It was BYOB last time I checked, so remember your bottles if you want to have a bit of the hard stuff with your mezze. Also, it is wee as highlighted at the start, so book ahead if there’s a bunch of you. There’s a cool, almost loft-​like space at the top of the restaurant for chilled dining, and there are often bands playing too.

I love this place! When grey Edinburgh gets wet and very grey this is a place that brings you to land of thousand nights and the Ottoman’ palace by Istanbul’s seaside. The place is small but so cosy one wish to never leave and continue the journey along the streets lit by the moon light and sounds of a multicultural mecca.
Ceiling is covered with colourful lamps from the gran basar, oriental carpets and pillows. On week ends musicians plays and the atmosphere is rising to the corners of the neighbour hood on St Mary’s Street.
The food is delicious and healthy! Simply!
Great place for parties as well as 1 to 1 dinner.

What a gorgeous treasure trove of yum Empires is.
I had been wanting to go here for a long time. I love Turkish and Greek food, and the mezze style of eating (it just means more flavours and dishes to enjoy). So I was delighted to finally get to have dinner at Empires.
The first thing that struck me is «wow this place is gorgeous!» This is how I would decorate my living room if I could. All dark wood carvings, an ornate balcony carving, different coloured lamps hanging at different lengths, the colour of deep jewels. Opulent, rich, lush, cosy.
Except that it wasn’t very cosy. It’s now November, and getting pretty baltic. It was cold outside, and rather than that rush of warm air that normally greets you when you step into a restaurant, it was cold. We moved upstairs to the balcony area to get a bit more warmth. I’m told, though, that on a busy night it gets far too hot. But still…
The menu is quite straight forward. There’s a range of different mezze dishes, and you can get 3 for £12.95 or 5 for £15.95 In hindsight, 5 was maybe a bit many but 3 just wasn’t quite enough.
The aubergine dish was so yum and fresh and flavourful. The meatballs, oh yes please. The haloumi was a very strong, rich, salty haloumi. But who doesn’t love squeaky cheese.
I also liked the way in which the 5 mezze were presented. Rather than 5 small dishes, they were all laid out nicely around a salad in the middle of a large plate. You can still share if you want, but it was just a nice quirk.
It’d be a great place to come in a big group, order EVERYTHING, feast and enjoy. But it was also perfect, intimate and cosy for meal-​for-​two.
I’ll definitely come back, and soon. The food was beautifully seasoned, and whilst it may not break any barriers, it’s reliable, traditional and delicious Turkish food in a beautiful (is slightly chilly) restaurant.

I’ve had my eye on Empires for some time. A little narrow door, sometimes perennially feeling like the place is never open. But open it was on a dark and cold Sunday night and what a warm, welcoming space it is for a Scottish winter. It’s a café serving Turkish mezze — your standards — hummus, baba ghanoush, falafel, moussaka (Veggie and not so much) as well as more interesting choices such as crushed hazelnuts in a tomato sauce (delicious, thank you for asking). Served with warm plates of pitta studded with caraway seeds, mezze it might be but we came out stuffed. We also did take advantage of the size of our table and ordered the entire menu to try the lot. Overall, I didn’t find any particular bum notes — although I was disappointed with the baba ghanoush personally, but everyone had their own opinion on what was best. I loved the char grilled aubergine, the boy thought the air dried Turkish sausage was delicious. The parents tucked into crushed walnuts and meatballs with gusto.
If I went through everything we ate, it literally would be everything. We washed it down with pomegranate juice and mint tea. Water is served to the table in beautiful metal jugs (the décor of this place is just fab). Your meal is accompanied by an eclectic collection of music including local artists who also perform there live from time to time. I absolutely fell in love with this place. The boy (also known as the silent reviewer) argued that the price we paid was a little steep… I would argue for five mezze per person (16 quid), it was more than enough for one person. three mezze may be just right. But for a throw caution to the wind and try everything meal, it was fab.
Oh and before I forget — it’s BYOB with a corkage fee and cash only payments — be warned!

No other Turkish restaurant in Edinburgh beats Empires. Its rustic, atmospheric, friendly and truely captures a sense of Turkish dining. I have been here several times and with the mezi being around £3.95, my friends and i get around 4 each and with the small corkage fee and tip this amounts to around £18 each.
The only thing i will mark them down on is the fact that the menu hasnt changed over the 3 years or so that i have been going. I always enjoy what they serve but perhaps a bit of innovation is needed with the menu?

A true gem in Edinburgh! Food was made with love, with delicious flavours and attention to detail. Service top — friendly (but non-​obtrusive) chat, wine (BYOB) poured, allergies were discussed. And the atmosphere to match — live music on weekend nights adds ambiance but doesn’t drain out conversation. Perhaps best for couples or smaller groups of people, but upstairs may accommodate a larger group.

Had a very special birthday there. Staff were lovely, live music was superb but most of all the food was divine. So many flavours, all of which complemented one another, and they made sure our BYOB bottles of champagne were chilled and brought to us when we needed a top up.
Cannot fault it.

Sometimes, curiosity gets the better of us, and we just have to break that final barrier by taking a proper, sit-​down meal in a restaurant, entirely alone. Despite having a newspaper on hand, I still felt obliged to explain my singularity to the guy working here via a half-​hearted «I’m just on my lunch break.» I got a sympathetic nod in return.
It was worth breaking the social boundaries however, and was the best lunch I’ve had in a while. There’s only a very limited menu of 3 mixed meza plates on at lunch, and I went for the only meat-​laden option. Grilled garlic sausages, chicken, i basket of flatbreads and a fantastic yoghurt sauce were all good, but the rubbery, meaty cheese was the star of the show. Utterly fantastic, especially when dipped in the sauce.
Great service too. I’ll be back soon, hopefully minus the stigma.

Turkish food is something that I have never tried, but I was keen to have some lunch in Empires, a Turkish restaurant and tea shop which is hidden away on St Mary’s Street.
We were seated in a lovely area, the tiled walls had Turkish mosaics and murals on them which really set the scene for a great meal. There isn’t a great deal of space but the atmosphere is great and the staff are all very friendly and happy to explain any dishes that you’re unsure of to you, which for me was every one!
I decided on the falafel with humous to start which was lovely, I could eat it all day and not get bored, then moved onto a dish called Beyti, a chicken dish marinated and rolled into a flatbread served with a tomato and pepper sauce and garlic yoghurt. It was delicious, tasted fresh and healthy and I was left really satisfied and curious to try some of the other dishes, everything looked awesome!
We left after having a Turkish apple tea which was sooooo tasty! I will definitely be purchasing some to have at home, it really was delicious.
If you haven’t tried traditional Turkish then this is a fantastic place to start!

It is a tiny café with lots of sweets and pastries, and amazing coffee for the price of 1 pound! It provides homely atmosphere and very welcoming staff. No wonder that half of the clientele there was under the age of twelve.

Fanastic little restaurant, delicious fresh food, great service, the staff in here can’t do enough to help, price is very reasonable for what you get. Bring your own bottle makes it a cheap night. The live music the night we visited was an added bonus. Remember to book!

You could easily miss this little café /​restaurant sitting between David Bann’s and Stac Polly on St Mary’s Street.
You would be missing a excellent Turkish restaurant. I always avoid mains and stick to a selection of meze all of which are good. Eaten with some bread and salad it is definitely enough.
If you have a sweet tooth the baklava is yummy as is the turkish coffee.
It is BYOB so arrive prepared.

My wife and I were in Edinburgh for the fringe recently and ended up eating there three times in the course of a week. Really lovely place, friendly, great food. Apart from being really good value for money, there is an easy charm about the place which is hard to define, but which makes all the difference.

Reeeeally nice Turkish Restaurant where you can try the best Houmous I’ve ever had in my whole life
Service was excellent and really friendly staff, incredibly pacient!!! (Specially because it took me ages to decide what I wanted)
Decoration was really Turkish, i presume because I have never been to Turkey myself, but really nice and pleasant place to have lunch or dinner.
Affordable prizes. You can have starters for £ 3,5so you can eat a bit of everything in case you don’t want to have just a main course.
Only trouble is that the place is rather small for big parties and they don’t take credit cards.
But it is a trully amazing place to go to for an amazing meal!