Restaurant

Gaby Soutar visits Nomadic Street Food, Edinburgh

The noise of bats’ echolocation sounds a bit like change chinking in a pocket. I have a similar sonar sense – a foodar. When a restaurant opens, within a 30 mile radius, I hear a sound like a knob of butter dropping into a pan.

There was no plop and fizzle when this place opened. It had already been open for three weeks when I spotted the compass motif on its window from the 27 bus up Dundas Street.

After a quick Google, I knew an iota more. No phone number, just an Instagram account and a Facebook page. My sister contacted them via social media to book.

Maybe you’ll have to do the same, or go for pigeon post, though the last time I did that, Mr Beaky ended up as the signature dish.

This place was empty on our visit, and they slotted us at the back, past their gallery of photographs.

The casual menu consists of Street Food, Flat Bread and Loaded Fries. We tried a couple from the first category as starters.

Halloumi fries (£6.50) are hard not to like, but we weren’t sold on the hoisin sauce skooshed across the top. It was rather overpowering and hard to scrape off. Just the yogurt and coriander (we’re not sure where the billed cucumber came in) would have been enough.

Our breaded brie bites (£4.50), the beige hue of Wade Ceramics Whimsies, were suitably gooey, with a jammy cranberry sauce on top.

I don’t think I had expectations when it came to our loaded fries. We’d gone for the version with cheese steak (£7.50), which turned out to be sliced medium rare steak on a eyrie of skinny fries, with melted Monterey Jack on top and a flurry of feathery fried onions. Oh, hello.

My pulled duck flatbread (£7.50) was an odd one. The meat was mainly cold, but patchily tepid. I told the very friendly waitress, and she took it away to be heated up. This took a while, but me and the cheese steak fries were getting acquainted, so it didn’t matter. When it returned, it was the same temperature, as if they’d just stuck it beside a radiator for 15 minutes.

“Is it actually supposed to be cold?” I asked.

“I’ve just started here and I’m not sure about the whole physics thing,” was the unusual reply.

I left most of it, though had a light exploration of the pickled red onion, rickrack trim of nut-coloured sauce (billed as hoisin but, thankfully not, and which tasted garlicky) and cabbage (Asian slaw on the menu).

Its vehicle of charred flatbread was good, so it’s a shame everything else was shonky. Same goes for our tepid ox cheek (£7.50), with sledgehammer sweet hoisin instead of the billed black garlic, as well as more pickled red onion and white cabbage.

The haggis pakora (£6.50) version blew the others out of the water, thanks to clods of a decent peppery haggis in a turmeric orange batter, with cabbage and a wholegrain mustard mayo. The “physics thing” had worked with this, and the chemistry wasn’t bad either.

We’ve heard they do homemade doughnuts here, but instead we thought we’d try the new steamy windowed branch of Edinburgh’s Fortitude Coffee, just along the road at 66 Hamilton Place.

In the former premises of bike shop Ronde, they’ve split the property and the other half will be vegan cake emporium Grams. It’s dog-friendly, so we went goo goo over a tiny cavapoo in a jumper, while drinking flat whites (£2.80 each) and trying their cakes – chocolate peanut butter (£2.80), a crumbly and gummily fruity-bottomed cranachan (£2.80) and a chocolate and cinnamon knot (£2.70) pastry.

I had known about this cafe, because I heard a canine whiffle and the clink of a teaspoon.

As an addendum, the owner of Nomadic Street Food emailed after the picture desk got in touch. They were worried my review wouldn‘t be reflective of their identity, since there are currently issues with chefs and they’ll be offering a restaurant plates menu soon.

Still, anyone who charges full price isn’t on a soft opening, though maybe that’s why I didn’t hear my customary fizzle. ■