Maki & Ramen — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Sadly chef doesn’t know what “ vegan ” means at this particular location. When I received a ramen with egg, I asked for a new one without it, however the server just went away, took the egg off and brought the same food out again. When I asked for a brand new soup, the lady went away without a word, so I followed a minute later to make sure this is getting sorted, only to see her stood by the kitchen window going back and forth with the chef, who didn’t seem willing to understand the issue, still holding the ramen in her hands. Once I saw the reluctance on the kitchen’s side and the staff not knowing how to deal with this kind of situation, we decided to leave. By the time I’d receive a new soup, my mother’s soup would get cold and I just simply didn’t want to risk any more issues with my food and wasn’t willing to wait that much longer anyway, as the service was already kind of slow, which was easily made up by good food if that was what I would receive. No apology given, my mom ended up apologising to them, as they showed a clear dislike in our simple requirement. The only thing we were told was, that the order was input correctly by the server. Won’t be returning to this location, however I’m a bit sad about the experience as I’ve always praised and loved the Maki&Ramen chain, and I do frequent their other Edinburgh locations and always enjoy the food and service very much. My mom has a slight allergy, I don’t, but I simply highly dislike eggs. This could easily be a way bigger issue if someone is genuinely highly allergic. Their glasses were also not exactly clean, but that happens I guess.. Sadly the the whole experience just made our day a bit bitter tasting. Cute...

Maki & Ramen Southside is an authentic Japanese sushi bar situated within a 5-minute walk of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. With its distinctive exterior and working ramen noodle workshop on display to passersby, it's hard not to get drawn into the restaurant to dine under the beautiful lanterns!

On arrival, we were encouraged to sanitise our hands and keep our face masks on whilst moving through the restaurant (the new normal!). With social distancing measures in place, each table had it's own COVID friendly perspex screen which allowed us to feel more comfortable and even added an element of intimacy to our evening (also helping to hide our lack of chopstick abilities from the other more experienced diners!).

Being new to Japanese cuisine, our challenge was deciding how much food would be too much to eat! So, after getting some advice from our waitress, we settled on 1 Ramen, 3 sides, and 10 pieces of sushi (to share of course!). We ordered the Beef Tataki Ramen, Pork Gyoza Dumplings, Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Chicken Katsu & Cucumber Tokoyo Roll, and lastly, the Grilled Eel Nigiri! With everything tasting so different to what we're used too, it's almost impossible for us to pick a favourite dish, however, the dish that we were both surprised by the most was the Grilled Eel Nigiri - incredible!

Whether you're looking for sushi, freshly made in their sushi bar and kitchen, or a bowl of ramen with homemade noodles made daily in their in-house workshop, you're guaranteed to experience a dish that is not only fresh but straight from the heart of the chefs...

Ramen, the perfect rainy day comfort food. Homey and welcoming atmosphere and staff. Warm lighting, dark varnished wooden panels, walls of encouraging sticky notes and drawings of inside jokes, what more could one wish for?

Well, maybe perhaps at a restaurant, good food. I had the spicy tonkotsu, which wasnt at all. (I get the need to acclimatize to local taste buds, so this I forgive wholeheartedly.) Which came in a fairly big portion, but something felt off about the broth. It was... painfully average, and even resembled the storebought broth i had (you just have to trust me in this. For instance packet miso and handmade miso are worlds apart, and this should apply to ramen broths!). Not utterly inedible, but nor was it mind blowingly good. Yes, all (most) of the toppings that are supposed to be there are! Except corn, and perhaps bamboo shoots(forgive if I am wrong, but the sad amount of seeweed distracted me). But this only left me full and almost satiated.

Ok effort at ramen, but booming in business. In terms of sheer number of outlets, big boss you, fellow Singaporean, seem to have triumphed. With mediocre ramen no less. I extend the warmest regards as a fellow person who grew up in the material-driven society that is our home country. Parading as a ramen conoisseur while maximizing profits, our lord and Saviour LKY would be crying...