Desi Pakwan in Edinburgh

Don’t waste your money or you might break a tooth!We ordered a take away from Desi Pakwan on 19/02/22. It took 2 hours to arrive (despite clunky website stating 65 min delivery time). I called just before it arrived to check its status and was advised that it was sitting ready and just had to be collected. I was assured it would arrive hot. It didn’t. That’s fine, we are used to that with takeaways. Unfortunately, this disappointment was a sign of things to come. The pilau rice was found to have 2 large, solid stone seeds in it, which was a choking hazard and almost left me with a broken a tooth. I’ve had pilau rice many times and encountered (and accidentally chewed) a cardamom pod or 2 in my time. I’ve never found a solid stone seed served in it and neither has anyone I know (see pic). Frankly, concerning and surprising they would let this get served. Sadly, this isn’t where it ended. We ordered 2 mains, one Lamb Tikka Garlic Masaledar which was tasty and fresh (earning one star) and the popadoms and spiced onions were ok (then again, how can you mess them up). Unfortunately, we also ordered a chicken korma which had a thin, tasteless sauce. I ended up eating the popadoms and rice with the sauce from the masaledar and binned the korma. When I called to complain and to highlight the dangerous seeds in the rice, I was told “that’s what pilau rice is madam” and that they were very busy.Unfortunately, we paid cash so will never see our money again. Suffice to say, neither will Desi Pakwan.

Visited from Bradford to Edinburgh and ate there and honestly the best desi food I have ever had. The chef is a genius. Everything was delicious and reasonably priced. Customer service was great too. The best Pakistani/Indian restaurant in Edinburgh!

Food is cooked live and smells of spice and charcoal really tantalise the senses. The food is consistently excellent and worth the wait. It's no frills inside but pleasant enough.

As close to home style as you’ll get in the capital city.

Brilliant honest and totally authentic food.if your looking for generic Indian food that you can buy in a jar this is definitely not the place for you. If your looking for the real flavours of Indian cuisine this place is a must x

Very poor service. Food took at least 1.5 hours to arrive. We were given a starter with sauce after waiting for an hour but without any cutlery. When we asked for cutlery, they arrived after 15 minutes. When we ordered a coke, we were not even given glasses to drink from. If you want to get annoyed before you eat, wait for ages and practice your patience skills it is definitely worth a visit.

Food is never consistent. Sometimes its.ok sometimes it bad portions sizes are never consistent. One time I got salad that was in a bag but it was vile because it was off.Such a shame as the food used to be ok but went downhill.Another order placed on:Tuesday 14 September 2021 time was 8:17pm we phoned and placed an order to be picked up from DESI PAKWAN.We ordered from the menu online:BBQ AND GRILL SPECIALITIES stated that all bbq and grill dishes are served with fresh salad and punjabi chutney so we ordered the 6pcs Sizzling Lamb Chops Special £13.95 and with this we ordered a Plain Naan £2.25.Tikka Kebab Rolls stated all kebabs are served with fresh salad and choice of sauce from chilli sauce, garlic sauce and mint yoghurt sauce. Served in naan bread so ordered Lamb Tikka Kebab NEW £10.95. Ordered a side of chips at £2.25. We had to pay cash and paid the bill total £29.40We were told to wait 45 minutes for order and drove down to pick our order up.The waitress who took our order gave us our food.When we came home and unpacked the order that we had picked up from Desi Pakwan. Soon we realised the plain nan was missing from the order. How could we eat the lamb with no naan?We attempted so many calls to call Desi Pakwan but the phone was of the hook. We had no option and here we are again having to drive back to desi pakwan.We placed a complaint to the waitress and told her we had a missing nan and cannot eat our food without it.We asked for our missing nan and told the waitress who took our order that our food was getting cold. We told her to just quickly give us the missing nan. The chef offered a goodwill offer to us and he offered another lamb roll. We said no and said just make the nan. We waited for the missing nan. It’s almost 20 minutes of waiting we asked about the nan to the chef.The chef handed me a lamb roll and just as i had it in my hands soon the waitress grabbed the lamb roll from my hands. The waitress shouted at me aggressively and said; your not having this lamb roll just the nan.Wow how rude was she and so rough with me. I was the victim of her abuse and made to feel so small to ask for my missing nan. She treated me so badly even though I was the customer whose order was incomplete.So shocked whilst here I was waiting again for another 15 minutes for the nan as our food went colder. The chef said nothing as he went on to make a nan.It was now almost an hour since we came out for the missing nan then finally got our nan.Now it is almost two hours the food we had ordered was now freezing cold and when we reheated it tasted bad and not only that we paid £30 just to be humiliated because our order was incomplete.

Do you want to eat after an hour and a half from your order or do not eat like us? then you found the right place. I can not tell you about the quality of food because our order never arrived. After an hour and a half we decided to leave and try to find another place to eat. Very poor service and the place has no ventilation, after an hour and a half you smell like smoked salmon. We ordered two main dishes a starter and two soft drinks, I believe they keep the soft drinks in the oven because they were so hot and you have to ask for glasses, the starter came without cutlery, just a plate in the middle of table and of course no napkins, the main dishes never came. Anyway the place is unecceptable. We definitely not recommended.

Made to order. If ‘on the bone’, may have to wait far longer than a hungry tummy would care for ie almost an hour. They don’t do ‘mild’ so even if you specifically ask for less spicy you’ll sweat buckets from the heat. Waitress was efficient but borderline rude. All those said I still enjoy the food and the price is on the lower side, hence 4 stars.

The best food hands down. Not had something this great in a long time! We had a mixed grill as a starter. Both juicy and cooked to perfection. Ordered a Chicken Handi and Lamb Masaledar. These were delicious and packed full of flavour. Cooked from fresh. I recommend everyone to come here.