Imans, Edinburgh

Great food but watch your bill....

Imans is in my favourite part of the city, the area surrounding the King's Theatre. It comprises of a restaurant and an adjoining sweet centre, providing exotic Punjabi desserts. On Friday, I treated myself to a Kulfi and a huge box of cakes and was so impressed by the quality that I decided to go back for a meal.

Upon arrival, the restaurant looked bustling and was of the new wave of restaurants who are shunning the sticky carpet and flock wallpaper. The interior was done out like a cave but peculiarly had pebble dashing on it, looking less Punjabi and more like a 1960s council house. Carpets were stuck to the wall, giving it a cosy feel.

The menu was extremely impressive, the prices were surprisingly good for the capital and the menu very detailed and packed full of Indian staples like Bhajis and Madras. The menu also contained some regional variations of dishes too. I ordered an Onion Bhaji and veggie samosa and the quality was fantastic. The bhajis were huge and fluffy, the samosas full of chunky veg. They came with two dips, a yoghurt based one and a fresh chilli and tomato.

My main course was a veg madras and this was so hot, it could have passed for a vindaloo. It was a mixture of beautiful fresh potatoes and my old foe the frozen carrot. The pilau was my favourite colourful one and the peshwari naan has entered my top 5 of Naans! It was huge, even bigger than John Sargeant (the naan I had in Liverpool's UnI which resembled John S's face!)and was topped with sliced almonds.

The dessert, lemon sorbet, was poorly presented. Two forlorn-looking dollops in a bowl with absolutely no attention to detail or presentation. Mango Lassi was of superb quality but I thought the juices were misleading. On the menu it advertised fresh mango and guava juice-they were not fresh, but Rubicon juices out of a carton at 2 quid a pop.

The big sting came with the bill, the drinks were not itemised and just said 'bar £12.10'. this didn't make sense as we ordered 2 Lassis (2.95 each) a juice (1.95) and a water (1.50) We ordered a second water but they give us tap water. It still didn't add up to £12.10. No tip for them then! The staff were pleasant though apart from one gentleman, who I blame for messing up the bill. His impatient attitude when serving was despicable too. Shame, because I would have definitely went back to the restaurant too. Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea and plenty more restaurants in Edinburgh.