Kebab Mahal

Very good takeaway kebabs (Afghani or Pakistani style) with a few seats in the restaurant. The proprietors are very friendly making this a great place for a simple, cheap meal.

So CHEAP and so GOOD!!! I love this place! It is not the coziest restaurant in the world, but man, the food is awesome! The kebab reminded me my days in Istanbul. Perfect combination of meat, veggetables and spices. I cannot wait to come back!

Oh my goodness this place is great! The staff are wonderful, the price is even better and the food is superb. A definite favourite go to, would eat here anytime type place.
We usually get takeout, but there is a place to sit and eat which is useful if your buttling around that part of town.

Me and 2 friends were looking for dinner options in Edinburgh and found this place on Unilocal.We wanted something good and something affordable. This place was both! It was first time having Indian food ever and this place set the bar really high. We visited Edinburgh for 9 days and ate here 3 times.

Nothing more to add than the others have said, it’s great. Surprisingly extensive menu, unbeatable prices, convenient.

On our (me and hubby) two day visit to Edinburgh, this was one of the best finds. A hole in the wall kinda restaurant, seems to be very busy and dishes out absolutely lip smacking dishes with ease. We had been to Kebab Mahal twice and both the times we loved the food. If you are one of those people who prefer posh restaurants over good food, then my friend this place is not for you. This place looks more like a fast food joint but but but… the food is nothing like fast food. The two times we were here we tried the shammi kebab, chicken tandoori, chicken bhuna, kharahi murgh accompanied with super yummy tandoori garlic naan. All the dishes including the naan was absolutely delicious. At the end after you have stuffed yourself with these goodies, if you still have any room left for dessert do try the baklava. Best baklavas i have ever tasted. We also tried the almond cake which was also yummmm. Delicious food, excellent service and warm & welcoming staff = awesome gastronomic experience.

Need a cheap meal, then this is the place to go! Great sized curry for £4 -£5– was yummy too. Super unfriendly and unhelpful staff though. Cleanliness of the place was a bit gross. Our table hadn’t been wiped and floors looked like they hadn’t been mopped in a year!

I loved the food here. As they say dont judge the book by the cover, dont judge this place by the looks and the board which boasts pizza and doner kebab on it. The food is good authentic indian and tandoori food cooked brilliantly and is cheap.
The service is friendly and of course extra friendly for me as I could speak the language :-) The saag panner was excellent as was the bhindi masala. The samosa was spicy and the rotis were huge.
Tried the special tea and raas malai for dessert and it was excellent. In fact the dessert was the favourite part of my meal. All up with three courses it was 30 quid for two to have dinner including drinks. Not bad for what was a big meal.
I would drop in here regularly if I could :-)

Erm… This place is amazing.
I’ve heard about the Kebab Mahal on the Edinburgh grapevine for years. But for some reason I never felt the need to go there. But now I always feel the need to go there. Because the food is fantastic. And oh, so cheap.
This is not a posh restaurant. Oh no. It’s formica tables and stools and weird items stuffed up the back of the room. There’s even two parts to the place, separated by a proper wall and accessible only by going outside and entering another main door. This is what I like to call personality.
Me and my other half had an incredible meal here, in the completely separate restaurant from everyone else. We ordered a starter of onion bhajis (three arrived the size of steering wheels) followed by a veritable feast of Indian main courses. I opted for two sides and a naan to keep me filled and the bloke opted for a main course, rice, naan and a side.
We couldn’t finish it all and took the rest home. All that wonderful food only came to £26. And the service was good too — our waiter was pleasant and we even helped him shift some tables to accommodate us.
It felt like a mad family meal — will absolutely, definitely, totally be back for more. Long live Kebab Mahal!

I do not get the hype here. The food was at best average. It is not a hole in the wall… And it is definitely not fast food. It is just a mediocre restaurant. The food was SO oily that I am pretty sure it seeped through our plastic bag. We ordered the mixed vegetable curry, the mushroom bhaji and the tarka dhal. I honestly could not taste much as my mouth was coated in oil. We also waited 20 minutes and watched 8 people who came in after us get their take away before us and get served before while sitting down. No explanation, no apology for how long it took and the fact that we got frog-​jumped by everyone and their mothers. The lamb kebab was ok, but coming here was my biggest regret of our trip.

Do not judge a book by its cover. And certainly do NOT judge Kebab Mahal by its appearance!
It will reward you with one delightful indian food experience. From the chicken tikka karahi to lamb tikka bhuna, every plate is delicious and generous on the size. Accompanied with a couple of nans and you have an unforgettable ethnic feast! Our meal ended with a baklava and a kataifi which was equally delicious and we hardly reached a £24 bill.
Best Indian in Edinburgh for sure, and if you know the cardinality of the set «Indian restaurants in Edinburgh», that says a lot.

This is just a tiny place run by a few guys, but it gets packed and is well worth squeezing in. We had some fantastic samosa to start, then dove into tikka masala and lamb bhuna, both of which were amazing. Price was shockingly reasonable, cheap even. Hard not to love.

Tasty food for a reasonable price. Not the nicest venue however if I lived in Edinburgh I would frequent this place for sure.

Es la mejor comida India que he probado. Es un garito cutre llevado por una familia pero, la comida es absolutamente deliciosa y abundante. Vale la pena!

Cheap curries. The chicken and mushroom was nice. Big chunks of white meat chicken. Sis liked the chicken tikka masala. I thought it was too rich and creamy, but I like mine more «tomatey» and sis doesn’t. The aubergine was drenched in oil. Tasty, but super greasy. The naan was huuuuge. It was 4 times the size of the naan that I had at London restaurant. We did experience the MSG thirst a couple of hours after dinner though.
The doner kebab is horrifying. Yes, it’s HUGE, but the «meat» is dry and awful and the whole thing was drenched in a neon red sauce that just ended up disintegrating the pita bread into a mushy red mess. Don’t get that on clothing. You’ll never get it out.
Popular place for local students. Come at the wrong time and you’ll be waiting a while. Call ahead with your order as they advise on the website.
Would return, but only for the curries.

This is an addiction. If I am put into rehab for this addiction I will escape, and find my way back to the palace of Indian food in Edinburgh known as Kebab Mahal.
The Taj Mahal has nothing on Kebab Mahal. In fact, seeking asylum in this Mahal will do you much better than the other Mahal. The inscription at the Taj Mahal was obviously mistakenly put there when it was meant to be here, at Kebab Mahal:
«Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator’s glory.»
Wash away your past sins by eating at this mansion of Halal traditional tandoori and curry dishes. For it is here that you will be pardoned.

Right, so after my last review of Kebab Mahal, I decided that I was hungry. So I went back to Kebab Mahal, of course!
This time I went for the lamb-​curry something I hadn’t tried before and, being Indonesian and curry-​prone myself, I think I died of bliss.
I shuffled in, holding my stomach, bent over and clearly in the final stages of hunger-​pains. After having placed my order and being greeted by almost all of the friendly clientele and staff the curry arrived. A light opened up above me, trumpets sounded, a harp was gently plucked. And I may or may not have taken a nose-​dive into the curry.
Look, I’m sensitive to heat and so this burnt my throat and mouth to a point of angst-​ridden pain but it was soooo good that despite the pain, I couldn’t stop eating. (My fault for trusting them when they said there were very few chillies in there, «almost none»).
What am I saying? I’m saying get your bee-​hinds over here and have ye some curry! Doesn’t get better, really doesn’t, and they’re so incredibly friendly. As a matter of fact, why. I do believe it’s almost lunch-​time … muahhahaha

I am currently, as I type this, the very proud parent of a food baby which I named after it’s daddy — wee Mehal. It’s been less than a few hours since I had my first Kebab Mehal meal and one I’ll remember for a long while yet. All the reviews on Unilocal are true, it’s simply fantastic.
I feel I can’t add much to what has already been said. Sometimes on Unilocal you find a business that has some 3 star, some 5 star reviews. Some people adore it, some people are impartial, and occasionally someone disliked it. But Kebab Mehal, reading through the others, is certainly ‘one size fits all’ in the best way possible (if your size consists of elastic-​waisted relaxi pants, it helps).
It looks like nothing on the outside. Or rather, it looks like every other kebab shop you see. And there are a lot of kebab shops in Edinburgh that are in equal parts kebab shop and pizza /​chip, only frequented after 1am when under the influence. In this respect, do not judge this book by its cover.
Inside it is plain, a diner, a bit scaffy (not a criticism, just the way it is). But smells that greet you, oh and the sight of those freshly made poppadoms and pakoras. The menu is simple, there is no *signature dish*. It’s just, all of it is brilliant.
As Charles says, it’s family run. The owner /​manager (?) was very friendly, the service prompt although certainly no frills. ALl I’ll say is, the food is amazingly good Indian. No runny sauces, tough meats. Instead fresh breads, super spicy dips, hot-​off-​the-​grill lamb. The vegetable biryani, with a side serving of biryani sauce, was loaded with, well veg. There’s also pools of that ghee-​oil at the end which comes back to haunt you, but you don’t even care. It was that good.
Definitely not a ‘meal out’ type place, if you’re going on a fancy date, or a family meal. You come in from the cold at 3pm on a freezing January day, you keep your coat on whilst you eat, you stay half an hour and savour the food. Or you come at night after a dance class, still sweaty faced, and refuel on the tastiest carbs around. It’s no nonsense, but delicious, and I think I’m a little bit in love.

It would be easy to mistake Kebab Mahal for just another place that sells processed shaved meats, its unassuming and dated appearance not doing it any favours however the old saying is true — one should not judge a book by it’s cover…
The food is excellent — from the mild rich and creamy chicken tikka masala to the more spicy madras or vindaloo which have a good balance of heat and flavour and real kebabs. The only thing ever to take me by surprise is that the chicken pakora is on the bone — delicious but something to be aware of.
To sum up, yes it can be very busy, is small and looks dated however if you want good food at a good price Kebab Mahal is one of the best places to get a curry in Edinburgh and I for one hope it never changes.

Excellent curry in a family run establishment with a total of six tables.
The service is quick and the food is great. We had chicken tikka masala (excellent) and lamb bhuna (very good).
Thank you, Unilocalsters, for a great tip.

Damn, I thought this place was a secret.
This place is what Unilocal was made for. If you did not know — you would probably would not bother.
This place is no secret to folks who love decent curries. Lots of regulars from the local Indian community to be found here and always some student newbies, occasionally with American accents.
Mister Khan is really nice fellow and his friends in the back make tremendous curries. You could just wander in here and get a kebab or some pakora. However, the folks who know will sit in the back, get yourself a lovely beverage (no alcohol served — like all of the best Indian restaurants) and enjoy the fabulous curries. The portions are immense and the curries and breads are always well made.
Finally, when you leave the price will startle you. It is stupidly low priced.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of the places that looked Kebab Mahal were this good. A nasty looking off-​license with a security screen had some lovely Chimay or Gambrinus in the beer chiller? Or a cheap café that served the greatest breakfast ever?
So, I told you — yeah it is great — now don’t spoil it.