9 Cellars Thali

This restaurant has ceased trading.

9 Cellars Thali

1–3 York Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EB

Telephone 0131 557 9899
Food served Sun/Mon 5.30–11pm; Tue–Sat noon–2.30pm, 5.30–11pm.
Average price £6.95 (set lunch); £18 (evening meal)
Pre-theatre price £10.95

The 2013 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the 2012 edition.

NOTE: Currently closed for refurb. Don’t judge this restaurant by the glowing photographs of food in the window display. To get an idea, just speak to chef and owner Phool Thakur, who’ll tell you of his history cooking in some fine establishments in India, and now serves much more than the usual biryanis. Starters are artfully presented, such as a neat arrangement of lime-marinated king prawns dotted with carom seeds, or ‘Guirati Aloo Tikki’, a small mashed potato cake with mint yoghurt. Oddly despite ‘thali’ being in the name, it isn’t offered on the standard menu, but make sure to ask for it because it’s a great way to sample more of their dishes such as butter chicken or fish balchao, a spicy Goan dish made with dried shrimp paste. Mop it up with some of their puffy poori bread, which you might not need if you’ve ordered a giant dosa, crispy and yielding tasty masala filling. There’s a short selection of Indian desserts, but if you’re lucky you’ll end the evening with more stories from Thakur of family, cricket and, of course, food. A refurb was planned in spring 2012 as this guide went to press.

High point: Giant dosa pancakes
Low point: Some of the tables are awkwardly placed

Number of wines sold by the glass: 4
Delivery: Free within 1-mile radius
Private dining: Up to 20 covers
Provides: Vegetarian options (at least ¼ main courses), Children's portions, Children's high chairs, Pre-theatre menu
Music on stereo: Authentic Indian and cool Bollywood
Capacity: 75
Largest group: 30
Open since: 2003
House wine: £11.95 per bottle
BYOB: £1 corkage

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13. curry connaisseur – 7 Dec 2011, 8:11am Report: try the king prawn makhni from M & S and the garlic naan
superb!!!!

12. curry connaisseur – 7 Dec 2011, 8:09am 9 Cellars Thali Report: i know my curries and it was just appalling food!!!!
this place should be shut down...it does feel dirty
Me and my friends were the only two customers in the restaurant..
the lamb briyanis was meant not authentic like the menu described and instead was dry pieces of tasteless lamb...the bindi fry was good.
it was bad..the waitress was reading her book when we came in and got back to her reading once she served us the food...not even bothered to ask if we were enjoying our meal...this place should be shut down
sorry guys....

11. Devotee – 20 Jul 2010, 12:11pm 9 Cellars Thali Report: Have been using this place since it's early begining and have found the food to be nothing but exceptional. People seem to forget why they go out. I go to enjoy the company of those I am with and this has always been my experience here. Thanks Chef Thakur the knobs stay away those after enjoying life come sit at my table!!!!
Great food authentic indian not the british lager louts Bangladeshie Pakastani triple. Keep it up Chef!!

10. karol – 21 Apr 2010, 1:13pm 9 Cellars Thali Report: I must disagree with all the bed comments. We go to 9 Cellers whenever we are in Edinburgh and we have never been disappointed either with food or service!! We consider it as one of the best Indian restaurants in town.
Thakur's excellant food is unbeatable, brings back all the memories from my travel to India! I had eaten in many restaurants with various quality of food during my stay in India and I must admint 9 Cellers' standards qual the top ones.
The other day we stopped by for late breakfast and we had veg tali with a side order of cheese paratnha. All freshly cooked, perfectly balanced, good kick to start a day.
we love 9 Cellers!!

9. fogAndWhisky – 15 Jun 2009, 11:08pm 9 Cellars Thali Report

We went to 9 Cellars this evening for the first time using our List card. The dishes were lively and interesting, the service friendly and professional. Granted it mightn't be the best Indian I've ever had in my life, but it was darn fine for all that.

We opened with Garlic Mushrooms and a Lamb Kebab. The former was less garlicky than the name implied, which worked fine for me. It came in a rich, somewhat spicy sauce. The kebab looked for all the world like four slices of black pudding, but were reasonably artfully arranged and tasted spectacular. I believe they had panir cheese and spinach inside. Whatever, they were very nice.

For mains, we ordered a peppery chicken dish recommended by the waiter, and a prawn dosa. Again, the chicken dish didn't exactly match my picture based on the description, but it was a very competent curry with a rich, buttery sauce. The dosa was terrific. I love they way they char the pancake to within a hairs breadth of burning, which brings out all kinds of nutty flavours. The prawns inside were nicely cooked and the modest accompaniments (mint sauce and some sort of daal) sealed the deal quite well.

All-in-all, a job well done. I'd give good odds on our returning, even without the benefit of the card.

8. Diableret – 17 Feb 2009, 11:38am 9 Cellars Thali Report

I cant beleive how many bad reviews this place has got.

My boyfriend and I went to the 9 cellars for Valentines Day and have found it to be one of the best Indians I have been to (and trust my Ive been to a lot!)

As for the comments of food lacking depth ours most certainly did not. Okay it departs from the "traditional British" Indian as it does not serve Balti's and Bhoonas but that was part of the reason we went there. It was something different and it did not disapppoint. The dishes tend not to be like so many british Indians where spice is the main criteria. (but then as I do quite a varity of Indian cooking at home I know that the majority of traditional Indian dishes tend not to be just about spice)

We didnt find the restraunt itself dirty at all... the toilets could do with a bit of renovation but then Ive eaten in places with worse toilets and cant say its given me a jippy tummy so long as the taps work!

For starter we had popadoms and very nice chicken pakora. For my main course I had a dish called sharabi kababi. This was like heaven for me. The dishes appearence as it had a chilli on top made me think it may be a heavily spiced dish but pleasently to my suprise it was like a lightly spiced chicken stew with deep undertones of tomatoe and herbs. I would definatly recomd this dish to anyone! My other half opted for a more tomatoe based dish (I cant quite remember the name of it) having tasted it I can say that it too was absolutly devine!

For desert we both rather predictfuly opted for mango kulfi. I would say how lovely it was and the rest of it but mango kulfis always nice!

I also had a cocktail (kama sutra) which went perfectly with my curry. (and as I had a bit of a cold at the time it was really soothing on a sour throat!)

The only real critism we had was the waiting toime between courses but then the food was always worth the wait so we didnt mind.

In all we came away both very pleased. We have taken buisness cards and will recomend it to anyone we know traveling to Edinburgh in the future.

7. B-Boy – 4 Nov 2008, 4:44pm 9 Cellars Thali Report: M - have you got some kind of axe to grind here? If you don't like the restaurant why have you bothered to look at the reviews again? You must have searched for it specifically.
If I don't like somewhere I'll just leave a comment and look for a different restaurant. I've eaten here a number of times and found the food to be excellent.

6. M – 31 Oct 2008, 1:20pm 9 Cellars Thali Report

Dave Mac – I think you’ve missed the point in the above reviews. None bemoan a “lack of bhunas, dopiazas, vindaloos etc.”, but they do make some very specific observations about where this establishment fails to deliver on fundamentals including lacking of texture or depth of flavour, food prepared in dirty oil, overcooked food, burnt food, dirty restaurant and food served cold.

The comparative of a supermarket curry to this food served at this establishment stands and serves to illustrate the benchmark to which this restaurant is being measured and still found wanting. You discredit yourself by assuming that this would be the benchmark of choice!

5. Dave Mac – 8 Oct 2008, 12:03pm 9 Cellars Thali Report

Amazed at the negative comments.

9 cellars is the best Indian I have been to in Edinburgh - better than its more celebrated contemparies like Khushis, Britannia Spice etc.

The chef appears to forego the usual curry formula to present more authentic, unusual dishes with more subtle spicing. Perhaps this was the problem with the negative reviews above. A lack of bhunas, dopiazas, vindaloos etc.

Tesco Curry! Talk about discrediting yourself with your own words!

The lamb signature dish is

4. EckyP – 6 Sep 2008, 5:27pm Report: Such a shame. Nice starters and then the main courses arrived.
North Indian Chilli Garlic Chicken as you have never seen it before. It looked just like Heinz tomato soup with bits of chicken in it and a chilli on top for good measure. It tasted like passata with with bits of tastless chicken in it and some chilli thrown in as an afterthough.
The other dish we had (cannot quite remember its name but based on chicken, red wine and onions) seemed to be totally spice free apart from some heat from the chilli. Chicken again totally tasteless.
All in all not somewhere to recommend.

3. corpal – 14 Aug 2008, 7:00pm Report: We went to 9 Cellars not expecting much from how it looks on the outside, but were pleasantly surprised once we got in. It was a little quiet, but the food was the best indian myself and my partner had ever tasted. It goes further then most indian restaurants by offering different types of dishes, and they really put effort in with presentation of food. Our starters, mains and pistachio ice cream desert were all lovely, tasty and cooked to perfection. I would definitely go there again.

2. M – 20 Jul 2008, 9:30am Report

We visited 9 Cellars last night and were thoroughly disappointed with it. If ever a restaurant was trading on a good review or an award gone by then was it.

The place could do with a good clean, with remnants of others meals being liberally splashed over the walls. Don't even think about turning over the tacky place mats before you've eaten... they were filthy with ingrained dirt and assorted food stuffs. Had we turned them over before we'd eated then we would have left.

The poppadoms were cold, having been pre-prepared which is disappointing but the crime of the century. What was appalling was that they were speckled with dirty fragments from what was obviously a dirty fryer.

Our starter, Gujrati Aloo Tikki, was cold and tasted of dirty oil. It lacked texture and was uninspiring. The main courses did not fare any better, with overcooked rice and insipid sauces which lacked any depth at all and were barely warm.

Poor food and sloppy cooking is becoming more common and this is sad state of affairs. 9Cellars epitomises this general malaise and is not somewhere we would recommend. Save yourself 80% of the bill and a disappointing evening and treat yourself to a Tesco curry instead.

1. Sam – 22 Apr 2008, 9:47pm Report

I have been using The List to pick out restaurants for well over four years and I have never been disappointed - until I went to 9 Cellars recently. This restaurant is hit listed and I also noticed that it has got good reviews by other prominent reviewers in the field. However based on my experience at this restaurant I have to disagree with the reviews.

After reading the review on The List, I was rather excited about the dosa but mine was burnt and cold at the same time! The Okra side dish was also cold and rather unexciting. The Rajasthani lamb curry was good but nothing special. And when I asked for a Rasmalai I was told that they don't serve it anymore - though it is still there on the greasy dessert menu card.

I would be interested to get others' view on this restaurant. Maybe I was just unlucky and I am aware I can't come to any conclusions based on a single visit.

Average rating 4/5 from 8 reviews of 9 Cellars Thali.

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