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June 14, 2014

Leith is filled with celebrity chef restaurants and innovative cooking. Here are 3 smaller alternative Leith restaurants, you might not have tried before but are most definitely worth a visit.

Mintleaf

Just round the corner from the shore in Leith you’ll find the Thai and Indian restaurant Mintleaf. The restaurant is housed in a listed building but they’ve furnished the interior sympathetically with colourful velvet seats, massive mirrors and a log fire.

Mintleaf lets you choose from across the Thai and Indian cuisines. From the Thai side, dishes like the Gaeng Massamam, chicken cooked slowly in coconut milk with potatoes and peanuts, and Gaeng Ped Pedyang, roast duck, sliced and cooked in mild spices, grapes, pineapple, cherry tomatoes and sweet basil, are fantastic examples of the Thai cuisine.

Covering the Indian style of cooking Mintleaf has currys like Shat Kora Gust, tender pieces of lamb in a calamansi juice, with rinds, lemon leaves and bengali chillies, as well as meat straight from the tandoori such as Tandoori Murgh, spring chicken marinated in yoghurt with delicate herbs and spices, tandoori barbecued, served on a sizzling platter.

View menus and more Mintleaf offers here.

Al Dente

Situated on Easter Road, Al Dente italian restaurant gives you a cosy neighbourhood dining experience. The staff are sticklers for using fresh ingredients and the family run restaurant prides itself on authenticity.

The pasta selection at Al Dente is brilliant; the seafood spaghetti, studded with clams, mussels, king prawns and squid is worth a try as is the pappardelle with venison ragu.

Outside the pasta/pizza selection, standout dishes include the duck with a sweet plum sauce and the pan-fried monkfish served with pine kernels, basil and cherry tomatoes on a bed of roasted
 potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Offer: 20% a la carte discount – view Al Dente’s menus and more offers here.

Britannia Spice

Located near Leith’s Ocean Terminal and named after its neighbour the Royal Yacht Britannia, Britannia Spice follows the maritime theme right through to its decor, with rope ladders and ships helms tastefully decorating the restaurant.

It serves dishes from numerous countries; Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, northern India and Sri Lanka, so there’s no shortage of choice. It’s a great option for vegetarians with dishes like Mughlai Vegetables,
fresh vegetables mixed with coriander, almonds, cardamom and cooked in a creamy mild sauce or Methi Paneer Chaman, cottage cheese cooked with fresh fenugreek leaves and chef’s selection of spices to a medium hot taste.

Offer – £14.95 for 2 courses on a la carte menu + sundry. – view Britannia Spice’s menus and more offers here