Kim’s Mini Meals

I’m reviewing just to give praise for the wonderful family who runs this restaurant! Mr Kim and Mrs Kim are wonderful hosts of this small cozy restaurant right off of Nicholson St. The food is always made with love and what’s more the atmosphere is just so lovely. I don’t really know Korean food that well but everything tastes good to me. I love their soups. Mr. Kim has a great sense of humor and I know if I go back to Edinburgh I’ll visit Kim’s mini meals :)

Love it. good food, good service from family business. We come nearly every weekend!

Delicious food cooked by Mrs Kim, friendly services by Mr. Kim. Price is very reasonable with such good quality. The choice is not so big but enough. Will definitely come again! Highly recommended!

There are a couple of Korean restaurants on this road, but this is by far the best! Authentic Korean restaurant managed by Mr Kim and cooked by Mrs Kim. Food is amazing — and served in porcelain you would find in a Scottish second hand shop (probably because traditional Koreanware cannot be easily found here in Edinburgh).
Small, quaint, and definitely a keeper!

Amazing authentic Korean food with great vegetarian options and reasonable prices.
Been here several times this past year and the food is always good. You get a little bowl of soup and 3 or 5 (lunch and dinner, respectively) mini starters regardless of what you order. Service is a tad brisk but fine. Very small so it fills up quickly and there are often queues.
Delicious food, good prices, worth the possibility of a wait. They are closing temporarily from 23^rd May to August or September so get it while you can!

It’s all true… as authentic Korean as you can get in Edinburgh. Reasonable prices, portions, service, etc. Our group had the kimchi pancakes, bibimbap, spicy pork, and a few other dishes the four of us shared. Hit the spot after a cold round of golf… and a couple of nights of Scottish food.
The place is small but quaint and after all, it’s all about the food. Talked to the waiter/​son who told us a bit about the journey his family took to end up in edinburgh running a Korean restaurant… kind of establishment you want to support.

Totally one of the best Asian restaurants I’ve ever been in Edinburgh with affordable price (can be stuffed with under 10 pounds) and considerate staff there. As a Chinese who had a lot of Korean food in China, I would say this restaurant serves real Korean food. The staff there will even teach you how to eat their food properly, and serves you with a little candy when you’re finished. The only shortcoming would probably be that there are always a lot of people waiting as it’s so popular!!!

So Kim’s mini meals temporarily closed, but has reopened! Yay!
I came here for lunch today with a good friend. It was packed and we waited outside for a while, so when we eventually got a table the owner gave us free genmaicha tea. I ordered the tofu stew with kimchi. I specified I wanted it to be spicy.
For £8 we got a soup starter (pea soup-​not very Korean but tasty and warming), a little taster of vegetables and kitchen (my friend ate the chicken as I don’t eat meat), and our mains with rice. Everything was well presented and colourful, service was fast and friendly (though I have heard from others that the owner often preaches his religious views to customers, we didn’t have this experience).
The setting is appropriately cosy, with strangely out-​of-​place memorabilia from Barcelona and random other ornaments decorating every space, it feels a little cluttered, but bizarrely in a good way.
Still tasty Korean food with friendly service in an even cosier environment.

Fantastic food and atmosphere. Service is great too and everything feels just right. Only thing is that the process differed in my case from the bill to the menu and the appetisers given were a bit stingy.

Went here last night after reading glowing reviews on Unilocal and I wasn’t disappointed.
The restaurant is very cosy, shall we say, and my two friends (both of whom aren’t what you would call petite) had to fight our way into the corner which made things tight but maneagable.
We had fried tofu to start with between the three of us (the starters are all large) .There were four big pieces of tofu sitting in a sweet soy sauce covered in fresh chopped veg, sesame seeds and chilli. The veg included tomato and cucumber which gave the plate a freshness, while the raw chilli gave it spice and the sesame seeds a nice mellow nuttiness, the sweet soy sauce completed the picture. So far so good.
Then came the mains, I’d gone for pork ribs as suggested by our waiter and again I was not disappointed. A large bubbling cauldron of loveliness was placed before me. The sauce was boiling violently and it was suggested by the waiter (this time unneccessarily) that it would not be wise to touch it! About 7 or 8 healthy sized pork ribs stuck out of the frothing morass like something out of ‘The Flintstone’s”.
My friend had the vegetarian bibimbap, a Korean favourite, essentially
various chopped veg and a fried egg, on top of a bed of sticky rice, with a spicy, sweet sauce.
My other friend had the pork bulgogi which came with rice and lettuce. Mr Kim demonstrated how you use the lettuce to wrap up the meat with a small amount of rice, like a small sushi roll. The meat was covered completely in the sweet, slightly salty, spicy Korean sauce that seems to be a large part of the cuisine.
Back to the ribs, I gingerly grasped one from the bubbling pot of hades with my chopsticks and brought it to my mouth, it was delicious. This is an oft’ used cliché, but the meat literally fell off the bone, it was so tender. The fat had almost completely melted away leaving a lovely silky richness and depth of flavour, yet there was still just enough texture and flakiness to give the meat some structure.
They were in a sweet soy soup and I finished it completely (there was a smattering of fresh mushrooms and sesame seed as well) and the rice was sticky and dry which made it easy to eat using chopsticks.
We had 4 or 5 complimentary sides which is common in Korean restaurants including the obligatory Kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage), broccolli covered in spicy red sauce, cold sweet egg rolls, some sweet fish cakes (sort of rubbery but nice texture, again in spicy sauce) and some cucumber with spicy sauce.
Only two small issues, one the small space and secondly compared to other Korean restaurants I’ve been to the size and number of the complimentary sides was pretty small but this may have been due to the lack of space on the table.
It was very reasonably priced, all the above came to only 41 pounds including corkage and an adorable ‘dessert’, consisting of a strawberry and piece of sponge cake skewered on a cocktail fork!
So in conclusion I’d say, GO GET THEM THERE RIBS! :-)
It’s wise to book in advance, particularly at the weekend.

Loved this place! Mr Kim is so lovely and the food was fantastic. We started off with the kimchi pancake and jap chae. Both very generous portions as the menu told us already. Pancake was nice and crisp on the outside, my two year old son loved this. And the jap chae flavours were delicious. My main was the bimbimbap while my husband had the pork bulgogi hotplate. Overall the food was excellent and we will definitely go back to this cosy little place.

I was here with my family a few months ago during our holiday trip. We found it rated quite high on Unilocal and thus decided to give it a try. And it was wayyyy better than we’d thought! We tried almost all of the menu, from the rice cake (ddeokbokki) to the beef, squid bulgogi and the noodle (ramyun), and all of them were marvellous! It’s the best Korean food I’ve ever tried, better than many Korean restaurants I’ve been to in London to be honest!
You should definitely come to this place when you’re in Edinburgh

Finally made it to Kim’s Mini Meals for dinner last night and gotta say I am already planning a return visit. The place is tiny, so it definitely pays to book. When we left there were two groups standing out in the cold waiting for tables.
I loved that you get a soup to start (last night was pea soup, which I’m not normally a fan of but it was WELL tasty), then a selection of little bites. kimchi, pancake, meatballs, pickled daikon and something else which I’ve forgotten were the offerings last night.
We shared a spring onion pancake as a starter, then followed it up with a bimbimbap for him and a spicy kimchi with tofu & seafood soup for me. I was well enamoured by the purple rice I got with my soup (you also get one free refill of rice if you need, but I was happily full after the first bowl, tho you may need the second bowl if you decide to forgo a starter). How much I enjoyed my dinner was evident by the fact that I drank every last drop of soup and left absolutely nothing in the pot.
Drinks wise. we threw caution to the wind and tried the ‘cinnamon punch’, ‘honey red ginseng’ as well as the ‘rice punch’… The rice punch comes with rice in the bottom of the glass which was a bit weird. even for me… the cinnamon punch was much better than expected and definitely worth a try, as is the honey red ginseng. both were rather sweet tho.
The menu is pretty small compared to Shilla which is the other Korean option in Edinburgh, but I couldn’t pick one over the other. I shall be spreading my love of Korean food between both places!

Amazingly delicious! We tried the rice cake (deokbokki) bibimbab, ramen, beef, chicken and squid bulgogi, and all of them were superb!!!
Highly recommended if you want some authentic Korean food in when in Edinburgh

We had a very pleasant dinner here. The food came out very quickly, Mr. Kim was nice (and spoke excellent English), and the food was as good as any Korean food that I’ve had in Koreatowns in NYC, Chicago, LA, or Seoul (except for the banchan which is on the skimpy side). The level of spice on some dishes might be too high for people who don’t like spicy food BUT NOT ALL Korean food is spicy and they had non-​spicy items on the menu.
Two mains, tea, and soft drink was 27£.

Whilst I’d order something next time (no idea why I stepped outside my comfort zone & went for a seafood dish) the overall experience here is very pleasant. Courteous, attentive & swift service, fantastic portion sizes of very well made dishes and an atmosphere of eating at your favourite granny’s (if your granny’s Korean). Booking’s probably a good idea though as we were lucky to get a seat for dinner before the evening rush descended.

STILL GREAT!
Hadn’t been back for about a year however Mr Kim’s son recognised me as being a repeat visitor. Stuffed my face full of bimbimBIMBIMBIMBAP, pork Bulgogi as well as the Tofu + Seafood stew for mains as well as the Ddeokbokki for starters (not to mention Kimchi and appetisers to further stretch my stomach to haggis-​like proportions).
The Tofu and Seafood stew was awesome (if you can stand hot food)… the flavour of the seafood disseminates itself through the broth and tofu and is subtle yet tasty. Recommended.
Mr Kim couldn’t say more than «Wow, wow, wow» when he realised my dining partner and I made our way through two bowls of rice, one appetizer and three mains. :D
Waddled off home content that everything is OK at Mr Kim’s. :) BACK SOON.

I love these sorts of places. Bursting with personality but totally without trying.
I was met at the door by Mr… err…Kim I guess, shown to a table (the last one I might add, the place was packed at 12:30 on a Monday) and had the menu explained to me.
He asked if I was cool with using chopsticks. I am adept at twirling the feeding sticks so laid his mind at rest. I’m not sure what the alternative would have been. Some sort of fork perhaps?
£9.50 gets you a lunch inclusive of a shot of soup, three amuse bouche and a sizzling bowl of Bibimbap (which Mr Kim came and mashed up for me as I clearly had no idea what I was supposed to be doing) and a can of rice punch.
In summary;
It gets busy — book ahead if you don’t want to wait.
The food is good.

I visited Kim’s Mini Meals with my Total Food Geeks chums, including the lovely Jenny L. We sampled just about everything they had on the menu, and some extra bits and pieces, too. For me, there were as many misses as hits, and none of the hits was a knockout blow.
Overall, we said: «I admired it more than I liked it. My fellow Geeks took to it with unabashed adoration, but it lacked a real „killer dish“ or „killer flavour“ to hook me in. It’s a place I’d happily recommend for others to go and try. I’d take people there who were keen to try something a little different. But I can’t say it’s particularly high on my own personal list of places for a repeat visit.»
Having said that, I have booked to go back with a group of work colleagues (mainly because one of them is named Kim ;-)), because I did like their schtick, the lovely china place settings, and the service, hence the four stars. I hope on my second visit the food thrills me a little more.

Bimbimbap! There are now two reasons I love it. Not only is it possibly the best word to say out loud, but it turns out it’s an amazingly tasty, pretty healthy, veg-​packed dish that gives me the biggest food hug I’ve had in a long time. Like one of those squeezy, bear hugs by someone who’s at least a good 5 inches taller than you and is wearing a big wooly jumper. Proper food love.
And Mum (as she’s called on the menu), or sorry Mrs Kim — the chef of Kim’s Mini Meals — certainly makes her food with love; home-​cooked love, and pride. Which is clearly displayed through her husband, the front-​of-​house /​friendly Uncle-​type person who made our meal all the more entertaining, fun and love-​filled.
Explaining to us that Kim’s opened because Kim herself was so in demand with her friends, and her son’s friends, to cook amazing Korean food that she thought she may as well open a wee restaurant. And it feels like an extension of Kim and Mr. Kim’s own home — in the best way possible.
It’s small inside, so do book ahead. Also worth noting they don’t take card payments. Mr. Kim will greet you at the door and show you to a wee seat (or large table of 12 as we were). Proferring appetisers on kitsch china plates with warnings of «Don’t break these! They’re expensive!» (in the most adorable, tongue-​in-​cheek way possible), with beautiful hand-​sewn chop stick holders, mismatched china (expensive) croquery and doily table cloths, and classical music in the background, with the sound of sizzling and delightful smells drifting from the nearby kitchen it’s a dining experience like no other I’ve had in Edinburgh.
As to the food itself? Oh my, yes please. This was my first taste of Korean food and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Mr. Kim explained to us each dish, and as Ben mentions in his review, there are two menus to browse. One with a written description of each dish, and a step-​by-​step photo album of each dish so you can see all the ingredients before, during and the finished product. As someone who likes to cook, and frequently asks exactly what is in dishes out of curiosity, I loved this!
We shared a range of all the appetisers so I think it’s safe to say I’ve tried them all? The rice cake in the hot pepper spicy sauce was interesting, unusual texture that I really enjoyed, and of course the spicy red pepper sauce was perfect for my spice-​fiend tastebuds. The other pancakes were nice, although not what I’d normally order. The egg one was like an omlette, and the fish one in potato like a giant fritter. But quality-​wise, very fresh.
For mains. BIMBIMBAP TIME! I had the Bimbimbap (who knew?) but rather than with the traditional Scottish beef mince, I requested pork and prawns. Not a problem. And no egg. Also not a problem. As all the other reviewers have said, the food is just wonderful. So fresh, it came presented in a steaming, sizzling hot pot all the ingredients laid out neatly, and Mr Kim showed us how to stir it all in together. I LOVE the hot red pepper sauce. Would have had more if I could. It was a hefty portion too and greedy-​gannit that I am, I finished it all. Every last piece of rice.
There’s only one dessert on the menu, rice cakes, ours was flavoured with chocolate. The texture is more like turkish delight. It was fine, although after all the starters, complimentary soup and sides (that come with every main) and my huge Bimbimbap, I was more than full.
What else can I say about Kim’s, Mrs Kim herself, Mr. Kim and their son who served us? Wonderful family, wonderful family-​run restaurant, delicious food, service with not only a smile but a story, humour and dare I say pizzazz? (That word, like Bimbimbap, is underused I’d say).
Oh, it turns out I’m not such a huge fan of kimchi (pickled cabbage). But that’s personal taste. The little plates of food for the sides were delightful. And I love that they also unashamedly advertise one dish as made with ‘hotdog pork and spam’. Queue Monty Pithon song… SPAM, WONDERFUL SPAM, Sp-​a-​a-​a-​a-​a-​m.
I should also mention that’s it really quite cheap! We had starters, sides, soup, mains, dessert and tea and it came to £17 a head. I was overwhelmed by the amount of food. Many small plates a large feast make! Particularly good value at lunch time.
A dining experience like no other in Edinburgh, delicious Korean food. Read all the other reviews, look at all those other 5 stars, go with good humour and enjoy!