Emma Reach for the star-ters then mains at Celestia
We are big fans of the cooking of Mohammed Abbas, having enjoyed both Bo’ness Spice and Cilantro in Edinburgh, so we were excited to visit his newest restaurant, Celestia for lunch.
You’ll find Celestia in Canonmills, just off the bottom of Dundas Street, behind an area being cleared for redevelopment, meaning that Celestia does currently feel a little isolated, though it has the fine-dining restaurant Cardinal next door for company.
Edinburgh in February can be cold and grey – colder than Glasgow actually, as an icy wind could be felt blowing from the Forth, but then we stepped into a room full of warmth at Celestia. Visually, it’s quite striking with colourful touches of green, purple and gold, with marble effect dining tables and statement lighting.
Lunch menu at Celestia
Poppadom and chutney, followed by a starter, then a main with rice or naan is available from £15.95 per person every day.
But if you’d like more choice then a la carte is available all day.
A la Carte menu at Celestia
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Dessert Menu (not online)
What we ate at Celestia
We began with a tray of rustic-looking poppadoms and three house-made dips. Our favourite was the chilli oil garlic slices. Tender chunks of lightly spiced garlic. This is a bit different to the usual spiced onions!
Impressed, we were eager for the starters. I picked the dakshni paneer – cottage cheese stuffed with dry nuts, ginger, and chilli, grilled with ground spices and ghee. The cheese looked very earthy, but the plate, like the restaurant, was very colourful.
Creamy paneer covered in a crisp spice coating and served with a sweet mango sauce. Quite different to the paneer (pakora) starters that we are used to in other Indian restaurants.
Mark chose the assorted vegetable crisp, which are seasonal vegetables, delicately battered and fried to a crisp – essentially vegetable pakora, but possibly the freshest tasting you’ll find in Edinburgh so three wasn’t enough as we could have easily demolished two plates of these each.
For our main course, we decided to share a Tandoori Grand Assortment. This is tandoori chicken, lamb tikka, chicken tikka and seekh kebabs, served with naan bread.
Very protein-heavy with four types of chargrilled meat so lots of Maillard flavour, all tender and no need for a sauce.
The included naan was a regular plain naan, which had that balance of fluff and crispiness needed in a naan.
We also shared a side of Celestia dum aloo – baby potatoes deep fried in all Indian spices, including shahi jeera, garlic/ginger paste, yoghurt, and cashews with a rich sauce. Not spicy hot but certainly aromatic and flavoursome, the fluffy tatties were bathed in flavour.
Sharing a main course meant we had room for dessert so Gulub Jamun was ordered, which came with rabri sauce, which is a condensed milk-based sauce. Our server advised that it wasn’t quite ready as it hadn’t fully reduced but we decided to still have it anyway.
But we love Gulub Jamun so all good – moist and light sponge at just the right temperature.
Walnut chocolate balls – walnut, chocolate and Indian spices. Not a typical Indian restaurant pudding but perfect for any chocolate lovers as these were thick, dense and chocolatey, and not really spiced in our opinion but a little spice wouldn’t hurt.
Verdict
A really great experience continuing the trend set by Boness Spice and Cilantro. Service was friendly and non-obtrusive. We enjoyed a relaxing and very colourful lunch with lots of different flavours, beginning with crunchy poppadoms with garlic, some of the finest vegetable pakora we’ve had, a filling plate of grilled meats, followed by two sweet desserts.
Spice levels were mild for our choices – we didn’t pick any items with a chilli on the menu (some curries have 4!) so this is somewhere where you could take someone who thinks they don’t like Indian food because it’s too spicy. We would happily return for lunch or dinner.
Toilets were also clean, and in good condition.
TL;DR
+ Visually striking interior
+ lunch menu and a la carte available
+ Pickled garlic with poppadoms
+ best vegetable pakora we’ve eaten for a long time
– plain naan with Tandoori Grand Assortment only
Where is Celestia
Celestia, 8 Eyre Place, Edinburgh EH3 5EP
Book at table at Celestia
Click here to book a table at Celestia
Opening Hours
Sunday – Thursday 1PM – 10PM
Friday – Saturday 1PM – 10:30PM
