I didn’t particularly care for the Gurkha Brigade, on Antigua Street, so while I was sad when it closed I was keen to see what might follow it. I was rather pleased to see Ada arrive in its place with the promise of fresh Turkish delights.

I was joined today by Arianna, a regular guest quester who most recently joined at Giovanni’s. Upon arrival, it was lovely to note another familiar face in the shape of the very friendly waitress who used to work at Rodi, another fine purveyor of Turkish food in the city.

The interior is much changed from the previous place which was rather gloomy and cramped. Replacing it is a bright and airy space, with sunny Turkish detailing throughout. The restaurant was decently populated for lunchtime service as we took a seat at a smart table.

Both lunch and full a la carte menus were delivered, which was handy for Arianna as she’s a vegan so often has to mix and match across menus to find a good route to a feed. She opted for a fresh house salad for main, with some olives to start, while I stuck to the lunch menu dishes starting with kizartma (fried aubergine, courgette and potato with yoghurt sauce) then followed with adana (lamb with rice and veggies).

Starters promptly arrived look simple and neat. Arianna was very happy with her olives, served in a lovely tomato sauce. My vegetable dish was simple and nicely done with a really satisfying sauce.

Although we still can only aspire to the quality of aubergines that you get in Turkey, this is the kind of dish you simply didn’t see served in Scotland a few years ago as the simplicity would have exposed the relative poor quality of the core ingredients. We now have much better aubergines and the like on offer, so it’s no surprise that more and more Turkish restaurants are appearing in the city, given the central part that patlican plays in the cuisine.

Main courses kicked things up a further notch with Arianna’s simple but delicious salad, replete with parsley and lemon, a real winner. My skewer cooked lamb was excellent and the generous accompanying rice and meyhane pilavi were really good, too.

We rounded things out with a brush with the grainy delights of Turkish coffee and I took a little baklava away for the folks back at the office.

So overall, Ada is doing really good work. Their £8.50 deal for three courses at lunchtime is one of the better offers available in the city, both in terms of quality and generosity of portion size. I’ll certainly be back and would recommend you pay it a visit.

Scores
Blythe scores Ada
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
4/5 for setting
4/5 for service
giving an overall 15.5/20

Today’s questers were: Arianna, Blythe

We ate: kizartma, olives, adana, salad

We drank: water, Turkish coffee

We wore: red tights, Edinburgh Bow Tie Company bow tie

Total bill: £18.50