Reviews of Indaba

Great Spanish and South-African tapas. The Salpicón de Pulpo, Secreto Ibérico (Pork shoulder) and the deserts (all homemade) were superb. There's a really nice rustic, 'neighbourhood' feel to the place and it was busy which created a nice atmosphere. All in all, a great experience and one I'd recommend to anyone looking for Spanish tapas in Edinburgh, or Scotland for that matter. Gracias y hasta pronto!

Beautiful wee restaurant, found by chance whilst searching Google maps (going to a gig at the usher hall). The service was brilliant, atmosphere was lovely and the food was exceptional! We had 5 plates between 2 of us, plus a bottle of wine. Only disappointment was we were too full to have dessert! Next time for sure.

Dinner here was fantastic! From the service to the food, I’d highly recommend anyone in Edinburgh to drop by this family-run restaurant. The gambas al ajillo and ibérico pork shoulder were especially delicious, and coming in groups of 3-4 would be perfect. We wished we had a bigger stomach to try their desserts!

South Africans or the Rainbow Nation have a great and diverse food culture. There are 9 official Bantu Languages plus English and Afrikaans. The food is a melting pot of Dutch, French, Indian and Malaysian influences. There are three distinct styles of cooking in South Africa. The first is Afrikaans Cooking, which is highly influenced by the Dutch settlers who were joined by the French Huguenots. Afrikaans food consists mostly of red meat cooked on the braai (boerewors, kebabs, steaks, chops), potatoes and/or rice and vegetables. Desserts include rusks, milktart and koeksisters.

Having grown up in South Africa, I was excited when invited to go along to this new South African/Portuguese hybrid restaurant. This place is hidden on a side street in Tollcross and unfortunately the décor inside and out does nothing for it. If I was looking for somewhere to eat and walked passed this place, I certainly wouldn't stop. It reminds me of a make-shift road side Shebeen in South Africa with garish colours, tired interior, bad paintings on the wall and chalk boards covered in terrible scribbles of the drinks and dessert menus. (but maybe that's intentional - well I'd like to think so anyway!).Now don't let that put you off though. In a strange way, for all its bad points on décor, it makes up for it in food and customer service. The food is tapas with the Portuguese element taking the centre stage but some great South African dishes like the Dried Wors and Sosaties.  They recommend you have 5-6 dishes between 2 people. There were 3 of us and we ordered 7 dishes plus dessert. Although the serving are small there was ample food to fill three rumbling bellies.The big bonus is that at least 90% of their menu is gluten free which meant that my friend could easily and happily choose just about anything on the menu without having to dissect it and ask a million questions - they even had GF Cheesecake. We had: DRIED BOEREWORS from John Brash of Murrayfield £3.95 GF. ALBONDIGAS DE LA CASA - home made beef & pork meatballs with pine nuts in stock £5.50 GF. CALAMARES A LA PLANCHA - grilled calamari £5.95 GF. PATATAS BRAVAS- sauteed new potatoes smothered in Indabas spicy tomato sauce £3.75 GF. TORRE CAÍDA DE TOMATE, MOZZARELLA Y BERENJENA - fallen tower of Mozzarella, beef tomato, aubergine and basil oil £6.25 GF. TORTILLA ESPANOLA CON PISTO - Spanish potato and onion omelette with vegetable stew £4.75 GF. SPECIAL - JAMON WITH MANCHENGO CHEESE. CHEESECAKE AND ALMOND CAKE. COFFEE BON BONS. As with all tapas restaurants, I don't find them value for money but I knew that. The food is good. The service is great. Well done Indaba!

Usually when we drunkenly harrass restaurants for food at half 9 on a Monday night, they're about to close and we're the only customers. I thought the same would be true for Indaba as it's on a side-street in Tollcross, but there were a couple of other tables happily tucking in. I ordered two glasses of Chenin Blanc (although we didn't need it) and we got on with ordering our tapas.