After a spectacular evening under the watchful gaze of Clarence, at Edinburgh Books, for the programme launch of the West Port Book Festival, I toddled down the road towards home, and decided to pop in to Miso and Sushi.

Interior

This place has been my regular irregular Chinese takeout place for more years than I care to remember. Its re-branding as a Japanese place alarmed me for a while, but I was soon reassured by the retention of a slightly abbreviated Chinese menu, also.

When I started to hear mention of their food being rather impressive, I was intrigued, but as I may have mentioned before, I rarely choose to eat too close to my abode. The time had come, however, for me to make an exception.

Soup

Let’s deal with the decor, and most alarmingly the carpet, first, then move on to the positives. The place is decidedly shabby, and none too chic. The carpet, in particular, is extremely worn, to the point of being rather off-putting. It’s a real shame, as the quality of the food on offer is extremely high.

From the extensive menu, I opted for a bento box, so I could sample a good range of their dishes. I chose the teriyaki eel with salmon sashimi and sushi rolls. This was a fully comprehensive meal, with miso soup, rice and salad.

The soup arrived very promptly, and has solid claims on being the best miso soup I’ve had in Edinburgh. Flavour and texture were both expertly judged.

Bento box

The bento box elements were all very good, too. The rice was warm and fragrant. The salad had a pokey little chilli dressing. I’m never going to love sushi rolls, but these were nicely executed. The eel was really good, with soft pieces of flavour-packed fish, in a well-seasoned sauce.

The highlight was the salmon sashimi, with beautifully fresh and succulent fish presented in large, chunky pieces. I could have eaten a hundredweight of the stuff.

So Miso and Sushi serves really high quality food, but isn’t doing itself too many favours with its manky old carpet. The answer is probably to order takeout from here, but then you’d miss the pleasures of the bento boxes, which are for sit-in diners only. Here’s hoping that they replace the worn floor threads, soon, so I can more heartily recommend that you visit.

Scores
Blythe scores Miso and Sushi
4/5 for food
4/5 for presentation
1.5/5 for setting
3/5 for service
giving an overall 12.5/20

Today’s quester was: Blythe

I ate: miso soup, eel teriyaki bento box

I drank: lager

I wore: typical West Port Book Festival launch chic, including www.tieclub.co.uk tie

Total bill: £17.80