Kim's Mini Meals — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Not good but not bad

I heard of this place 5 yrs ago and never have a chance to come.

Finally I came with my partner who is chef for more than 10 yrs and we both travelled lots in Asia before Covid.

The reason why I writing this as I want to give a proper review.

Environment: 100% Korean homy style. When you go in from front door, you will see 6 small tables and each table can sit 2 person. On the left hand side, there is (I believed it’s a box room with a window) odd area that allow two people sitting at the window and 4 people sitting at the dinning table. This “box room” is hot and humid. I personally not recommended.

Food: Starter £8 each

1. Pajeon Batter isn’t seasoned, tasteless supposed have mussels, too small or too less to find them. dry and no sauce

2. Fried Aubergine - Grilled aubergine, with chopped tomatoes, onions, spring onion and sesame on top. Can’t remember what sauce, not impressive. Maybe Korean soy sauce & vinegar?

Main course £12 each

Side dishes: kimchi pickled spicy radish fried egg white with spring onion cabbage pork mince with tomato sauce meat balls 2 sips of mushroom soup ( 50ml in a 250ml cup 😂)

Many people highly recommended Pork Rib Stew. Meat is very tender with loads of mushrooms and 2-3 small pieces of carrot, onion. I couldn’t finish it even I was hungry as it was so salty. The saltiness covers all neutral taste.

Beef Bibimbap One table spoon of beef (maybe less)in this hot stone bowl. Portion is small for £12

Share with friends, total we paid £3x and we all weren’t full.

Price is high as portion is really small. Very disappointed after all those good reviews.

Probably will not return, hope this review...

Last time I came here was 5 years ago for my friend’s leaving dinner and we had a great time! I remember back then, there wasn’t this crazy queues and the food was the best bimbimbap I’ve ever had!

Since then I tried other ones and couldn’t get the same taste, sauce and aroma.

My other friend recently got into Korean dining and was really excited to try this restaurant, and so I gave it another try and hoping that bimbimbap was worth waiting for. We had to wait at least 30mins or more before we had a table. There was an older man who took our orders on the door before we had a table to sit in. Not sure about the level of professionalism, but I couldn’t help but feel rushed. The website suggested we should come about 6:20 for a good time to get seats but it opens on 5:30pm?

Anyway, the staff was very nice but I have to say the food isn’t quite what I remember eating 5 years ago. It’s maybe and probably due to high demand and expectation of dining, so it’s definitely a different quality that I remember.

The little side dishes that come with the main meal was kinda cool, but everything was so preciously placed on the little dishes, Just a wee Description:

A piece of mushroom dipped in black bean sauce cut in half, Two slice of spicy cucumbers A few slices or kimchi A few tiny clumps of egg omelette.

It serves EXACTLY two people. A bite each :/ I’m not sure I’m impressed or quite disappointed??

Overall, the experience was alright. Though I got put on the table next to the fridge and everyone kept passing through me and kept opening and closing it. Not the most comfortable table or room. I guess you need to try...

We walked past Kim's Mini Meals accidentally and were standing outside for a few minutes pondering the menu, peeking inside and checking Google. We weren't quite sure whether we wanted to go inside (we actually had made reservations for a different place later that night), when one of the super friendly waitresses stepped outside and asked us if we were looking for a table and we just said yes. In hindsight we were probably pretty lucky, apparently it's not unusual to wait outside for a fair amount of time - there are not a lot of tables.

I generally avoid eating meat, but I read so many good reviews about the pork ribs that I decided to give them a go. And they were fantastic - they do, literally, slide off the bone almost by themselves. I have not seen this in a good long time, you usually have to gnaw them in all but the very best BBQ restaurants. Just beware that they are cooked, not smoked.

My wife has the fried undon noodles with tofu and she was also super happy with her choice.

The waitresses deserve a special mention, they were extremely kind and forthcoming - sometimes this comes across as being a little phony, but definitely not here. Two thumbs up from us!

As for the atmosphere, it is very down to earth and unpretentious in the best kind of way. This is not a posh place.

The meals were 14 pounds each including a small appetizer, which is out of this world value for money if you ask me.

And finally a small word of advice: "spicy" definitely means spicy. I ordered "medium" and that was perfect for me (I do like spicy food!). Only pick that option if you know what you are getting...