pomegranate

among the better turkish restaurants in edinburgh.... good location, not too far from st. james and very close to the cinemas/theater.

i used to go there very often as my previous manager was a big fan... but hadn't been there for almost 8 months till recently (about 5 weeks ago) with my wife

food was decent (as always) and since they follow 'byo bottle' we had taken 2 bottles of red wine - makes so much difference to the whole experience :)

the turkish waitress was quite friendly as well and turned out to be a fan of bollywood (indian cinema)... recited full para from a famous song filmed on amitabh bachhan... sure that wouldn't appeal to many of the readers here but worked for me ;)

also, they offer flavored 'hookah' in the basement section... we didn't try that but it smelled good.

middle eastern food is not something that i eat a lot of, and isn't normally my first choice but i had heard a lot of good things about pomegranate and i have wanted to try it for a while!
we booked to go here last saturday to celebrate my boyfriends birthday. we booked very last minute, but still got a table straight away; i was glad to see that the restaurant was busy when we arrived, as i was concerned that the ease of booking meant that it would be quiet!
pomegranate has a fun vibe when you walk inside because the decor is very vibrant. there are quite a few tables but it doesn't feel like a huge space, which is handy for providing an intimate setting. 
it is byob, which means more time can be spent pouring over the food menu rather than the drinks! we chose to share a few meze dishes to start - hummus shawarma, cheese borek and halloumi. the hummus shawarma was delicious; i would highly recommend it! i also enjoyed the halloumi, but the cheese borek i found to be quite dry. for my main course i decided on the merishke kebab; the chicken was seasoned and cooked very well, but it was a very filling meal. i think i would opt for more meze on my next visit so that i can try a bigger selection of foods.unfortunately, the service was not very attentive, it took us a while to get anyone's attention, but when we did they were very friendly

i am not really a fan of this place but it does serve shisha for which i prefer it. the ambiance is a bit shady and its a really small and cozy place.

great food and relaxed place

this is one of my favourite places to eat in edinburgh, its easy going an has lots of options on the meze menu which are suitable for veggies / vegans as well as plenty of options for omnis. i would highly recommend the ful beans,the olive salad and the aubergine is unforgettable, pretty much everything i've tried has been really well made, tastes great and served with a smile! see you soon pomegranate!

amazing restaurant. first stumbled upon this when attending someone's birthday in one of their private rooms downstairs. have subsequently returned on many occasions. the food is always fresh and well seasoned. you can order small plates or go large on mains. very relaxed atmosphere and you never feel rushed. they even do shisha pipes! would recommend the rose water ice cream with the baklava. best middle eastern eatery in town!

pomegranate definitely took me by surprise. i would recommend it to anyone who is looking for an authentic arabian night. do try the baba ghanoush and olive tapenade, they are absolutely delicious.

great service, a menu to suit all dietary requirements and staff more than willing to answer questions and help out. the food was fantastic, portions are generous and there are plent choices for sharing, or ordering individual meals. don't forget dessert- the rose water sorbet is superb! byob.

a great place to spend your evening!

pomegranate is located on leith street close to princess street. easily accessible with decent ambiance. shisha is tobacco free with many flavors. the nice part is if you go with friends you have a separate room to have food and for shisha! i recommend you to reserve a table if you have a big group.

we ordered few mezzes and kebabs. the best mezzes were hummes and dolma! they were incredibly delicious! they serve you naan as well to have with mezzes. dolma is stuffed with rice and has a bit of sweet taste and i must say this was the best dolma i have ever tasted! i do not recommend their salads, they weren't the best. they serve kebab with rice/salad and naan and it tastes good as well! their service wasn't the fastest, we had to wait for more than 20 mins for them to bring us another shisha order and they messed it up with another table so they need more planning and organizing to maintain their crowd.
overall,
food- 4/5
service- 3/5
ambiance- 3.5/5
plating- 3.5/5
quantity- 3/5

love this restaurant! we went for my sons 21st and it was fab. it's byob and no corkage. the food and service was great and the waiter recommended we go downstairs and hire shisha pipes when we finished the meal and this was such a highlight! you've got to go!

delicious middle eastern food at a good prize... and in huge portions. we ordered several things to share them and before even finishing we were so stuffed i had to take some home. their vine leaves stuffed with rice are delicious, and so is their baba ganoush...

the month of august has arrived and food club went to the middle east… presuming the middle east is a delightfully pink building opposite the playhouse that is.

it was a chaotic start to the evening but this was nothing to do with the restaurant – and all to do with tip top planning and organisation from selected members from the organisation.

the waitresses were extremely helpful and filled our table with naan bread and hummus while we awaited the arrival of our final colleague. it’s byob and once we arrived and carefully placed the plastic bags in the corner, i whipped out my fridge magnet bottle opener to get the party started but the waitress had already presented us with her bottle opener and the beers were flowing. let’s order.

so much to choose from which is always good – we had a selection of mezze to start including, soujuk, slices of lebanese sausage sunk in tomato, garlic and chilli sauce. very tasty succulent sausage with a good kick to the sauce. lamb samboussek – so good it burned the insides, boiling to the touch but these parcels of minced lamb went down a treat. the moroccan meatballs were great and the perfect main meal teaser. one member was raving about borek’s and ordered the cheese one and found it pleasingly cheesy. this was all washed down with more naan and our own collection of beverages.

we moved on to main courses while discussing the possibility of heading to the downstairs shisha bar but nothing was decided. between us we ordered a selection of kebabs and shawarma and also the qozy lamb. i’ll start with the qozy lamb which was a huge and tender portion of lamb on the bone which literally fell off with the slightest touch, melt in the mouth brilliance served with aubergine tapsi.

the kebabs were all lovely and tender and served with bamya which brought it all together. the chilli gosht could have been hotter but this is coming from gentleman who takes pleasure is eating fire (may or may not be true). the sharwarma was plentiful and very tasty and one other got it served in a wrap with dips and thoroughly enjoyed it. can’t fault the service again as just as you were looking for something to dip with, more naan appeared at the table.

feeling satisfied and having enjoyed a brief interval from the food, we ordered dessert. some went for a pallet cleansing sorbet with a selection of mango and rosewater, chillingly refreshing. we also ordered the pomegranate ice cream… only felt right considering our location. cupcakes made a brief but effective contribution to the meal and baklawa, it’s in capitals because i feel it warrants being shouted out, small nutty pastries served with ice cream was a good way to end great meal.

after paying the bill we were guided outside and down the stairs to a cosy area for the shisha bar. we were sat in a brightly coloured cove and placed the order for a cherry and double apple. we sat for a good hour passing the pipe and enjoying the flavours and ambiance that only 7 men in a pink cove can create.

big thanks to everyone at pomegranate for a great meal and great night.

for good value middle eastern food in a decent location, you can do a lot worse than pomegranate. if you’re new to the cuisine, try out the tapas style mezze dining to try several dishes at once and get a feel for what you like. now that i have discovered the unadulterated joy that is kubba, i will definitely be back for a full plate’s worth!

given that we went in a big group ... we ordered each of the 15-16 starters that they served ... surprisingly all of them were equally good..
i never thought this place would add one more cuisine to my favourites ...middle eastern food surely rocks !

i'd never visited a middle eastern restaurant before and finding halal restaurants that aren't indian/pakistani/bengali  in edinburgh can be quite difficult (try searching on google and you'll know what i mean!)

when some friends asked if we wanted to try, we were keen. after all, don't dismiss anything until you've tried it! service was great and our server has been kindly offering recommendations for dishes. we ended up sharing our mezze (the equivalent to spanish tapas) and enjoyed every bite (try the baly merishke - crispy lemon scented chicken wings, they're amazing!). the only disappointing thing was the size - they're tapas sized dishes, mind you, so i'm not complaining but when you really like a dish you just wish there was for everyone to get a full taste.

i realised that by the time we got to our main course though that a normal sized starter would've been too filling. the rice they serve with their main dishes are generous and i wasn't even halfway finished with my meal before i started struggling to finish everything! it was all so good i ate it all, but went home with such a round tummy, i could've probably been rolled home!

overall, i really enjoyed the experience of trying new cuisines and this is one that i would definitely recommend for those who want a different restaurant from the usual burger joints and takeaways.

right..me and my partner are huge fans of eastern med food..lebanese food..turkish..etc.

we heard this place was good and seemed busy most days when we walked past it. so before going to the cinema we decided to go in for a pre cinema dinner. 1.5 hours before film starts.

we enter and the waitress comes over and says hello. we ask for table for 2. she says she doesn't have any. it was 5 pm and no one was in the restaurant. not a soul just us. we said is it fully booked? she said yes, let me check. well you can sit at this table but it's booked for 8pm.

8pm?!!!?!?!? it was only 5pm!! we assured her we were not going to sit for 3 hours! she gave a wary smile and pounced off to behind the bar, clanging away at bottles and glasses.

it took her 20 minutes before she came waltzing over and said are we ready to order now, talking as if she had been waiting for days whilst tapping hard with her pen on the note pad. we told her we were going to see a film and if we ordered so and so would they take long. "no long" she huffed back.

we ordered a few small things eg. veg starters. aubergine and sausage hot pot. some bread. some rice. and a tomato veg mix dish.

food was not bad. it didn't taste all that fresh...and some of the veg seemed like they'd been boiled over again and again. mushy and..old??

whilst eating away what we could, she just stood there with another waitress gossiping very very loudly. hand gestures, flicking of the hair, eyes rolling..it was hard not to notice as she was only a metre away!!! the whole entire time, of around 1.4 hours there was only one other table a group of 5 girls that came in!

we asked for the bill, and she comes over and stretches her face to an unbelievable forced smile! it was so unpleasant and so so uncomfortable being so close to her and her presence really dulled on you.

we haven't been back since..i don't want to see someone forcing a smile like that just to please us. it wasn't necessary. it was just inappropriate behavior and unprofessional.