Bonsai Bar Bistro

We love this place.

It has been a massive favourite of mine for over 6 years. Recently we started learning Japanese round the corner and like to come in here after class for some food and plum wine!

My only problem, is i can never decide what I want! there is so much good food. Last time we came in we had the Bento Box which was a great way of getting a selection. I also took my parents last year and they were worried about not liking all the "raw fish", now they have a much better understanding of Japanese food and want to go back next time they visit.

Cant wait to go back and get some more Katsu, pork dumpling, maki, california roll, noodles, miso, nigiri, tempura . . . . . i think i should stop now, i'm making myself hungry!!

Bonsai was the first Japanese restaurant I visited when I moved to Edinburgh and a number of years and much restaurant exploring later it still remains my favourite.

Great mixture of ever-changing specials, hot and cold food and it's the only Japanese restaurant I've ever been to where you could eat for a reasonable amount of money. Plus, consistently good quality fish and satisfying portion sizes of sushi!

Since the first time I have visited this place, about 5 years ago more or less, I have liked it. Nice atmosphere, and very nice lunch deals.
The staff are nice, and rather fast service mostly =)
At the moment there is spicy tuna on the menu board, this is really something to try. It is a bummer the miso ramen disappeared from the lunch menu :P
This has been my favourite restaurant for years here now, and I will keep coming for as long as I am living in the city =)

Japanese food for Scottish people.

The menu at Bonsai strikes a wonderful balance between the exotic and the comfortable with something to suit both the most adventurous and the most cautious palate all served in a friendly and informal setting.

My favourites include Beef Tataki, seared fillet thinly sliced with lemon juice and wasabi, and the Tempura Roast Eel Sushi so redolent of the seaside - delicious.

Bonsai is my favourite lunch spot.

We have been lovers of Bonsai for nearly two years now and i can't say we have had a bad experiance ever!
When you first walk in, you can feel the warm and comfortable atmosphere. It does not matter if it is very busy or quiet, you are always made to feel welcome and encouraged to relax.
We go in for lunch quite a bit with our favourites being from there lunch menu which is only £4.90! The food is great and the price is ridiculously low for the portion you get. Our favourites are the Curry Katsu and the sushi set, both of which come with delicious miso soup on the side.
When we take a trip during the evening, we always want to order more than our stomachs can handle. If your looking for well made traditional style sushi, we would recommend there maki-zushi section. If it's larger meat dishes you prefer, they have a selection of teriyaki's that always seem to be cooked to perfection. The teppanyaki dishes will make you crave Bonsai, especially if you are new to japanese food - this includes things like deep fried octopus and scallops served in a ginger and orange sauce. Our personal "must have's" include the dragon role which consists of 8 large pieces of sushi, with a tempura prawn in the middle, cuccumber, rice, avocado across the top and a small drop of mayo to finish it off. It's made to perfection and looks very impressive. We also love the shiitake butter. It's mushrooms that appear to have been soaked in a butter sauce, they are soft, not too hot and taste great. However there is one dish that we come back for time and time again. We can't find this in any other place which is why we always order it when our stomachs allow it. Located on there specials board is the Tempura Roast Eel sushi roll. It's like an eel maki but it has been put in tempura batter and deep fried for a short period that gives it a beautiful light crunch when you bite into it.
Our overall opinion is that Bonsai is a fantastic place to go if you love well made, authentic, japanese food for good prices. It appears to have a great group of people behind it who obviously care about the quality of there product and there is little else you can ask for from a restaurant.

I went to Bonsai last week on a visit to Edinburgh and I was really impressed. I was a bit hesitant about going because I usually feel pretty awkward in Japanese restaurants...like I'm not sure what is the "right way" to eat things and I'm always a bit embarrassed to ask what things are on the menu. Bonsai was totally different! The atmosphere was relaxed and informal and the staff were very friendly and seemed to genuinely care about the place and love the food, which I think is pretty rare among waiters/waitresses.
The menu made it easy to try a whole range of stuff (don't worry, they have a lot more than just sushi!)...we just kept on ordering things which I thought was a really fun way of eating.
The food was delicious, arrived quickly and wasn't too pricey either! I had a great evening and will definitely be returning next time I visit Edinburgh!

Exceptionally friendly staff and a warm coloured ambiance make Bonsai a good choice for casual and semi-formal dining.

The food is consistently good, with the occasional flourish – the Teriyaki Chicken comes out sizzling, stays hot throughout the meal, and is perfectly cooked and tender.

The lunch deals are an amazing bargain, always filling the stomach, and for under five pounds. The Bento Box evening meal choice is ten pounds well spent, with several courses provided and a variety of choices available.

All in all, Bonsai provides very high quality food, brilliant service, and a relaxed atmosphere for modest wallet crunching. Highly recommended.

Came here for a birthday night out a couple of weeks ago with 9 other folk. I'd never tried Japanese food before & to be honest my expectations weren't great. I actually didn't know what to expect and I was wishing we'd opted for a curry instead right up until walking in the door.

All that changed as soon as I entered though. It was early in the week so I expected it to be a bit empty but no, it was absolutely buzzing. Their were only a couple of free tables and even they got snapped up within 10 mins. But the main thing that hit me straight away was the smells from the kitchen. They got me salivating!

I'd come in a bit late so my gang had already ordered and were just starting to be served their food but immediately I was asked by the waitress if i'd like a drink."Ehhm.. aye a beer.. Stella"I mumbled. "Sapporo for him!"my friend dutifully shouted."You'll love it!"and raised his bottle in my direction. As he lowered it a bottle of strange alien brew was put down & the rest of the food started to arrive.

I was scanning the table looking for something that i'd like to order & took a swig of Sapporo. I think it was when the cool crisp beer hit my tastebuds I realised that this ain't gonna be a bad night afterall. Curry-schmurry!

After a few minutes of browsing the menu and getting fed tidbits by my pals I was ready to make my own mind up.

I ordered a duck teriyaki (love duck as long as it cooked right), cheese gyoza (you can't go wrong with deep fried cheese dumplings), takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings) & a tako salad (tako is octopus and having spent time in Malta I learned to love it) & a gohan (or rice to you and me.)

Well.. the duck was cooked to perfection in a sweet-savoury sauce & served on a sizzle platter allowing the sauce to reduce and the bed of carrot & cabbage to gently cook as time went on. The octopus dumplings were served with a brown sauce, creamy mayo, fishy flakes & a weird red ginger that when put into my mouth altogether just blew my mind away. The tako salad was good as well. Just the right balance of melt-in-mouth octopus, slightly cruchy onion, tomato, crisp lettuce & a wonderful citrusy vinigery dressing of which the ingredient-X is yuzu (an asian hybrid fruit according to wikipedia.)Cheese gyoza was also a guilty secret highlight.

For dessert I had the choc-fondant from the specials. The edges souflee'd up and were all cakey while the centre was like Wonka's river with a scoop of vanilla ice cream floatin on top. Epic!

I'm a new convert to Japanese. Tried a couple of other places in the city since but none have come close to Bonsai in terms of food, service (special mention to the Japanese waitress that night!x) or value.

I'm going back very soon and I can't wait. Neither should you!!

This was by far the restaurant I most frequented while living in the city. The decor and the general ambiance made you feel comfortable while feeling like the whole experience was a treat, even after many many visits. The staff was intelligent, kind and helpful, but not servile, which was a breath of fresh air. The food was excellent and the variety available at rather modest prices allowed for everyone to try different dishes and pick their favourites without breaking the bank or feeling like you missed out. Personal favourites were the miso soup, the tako salad, the salmon and avocado maki, the mixed sashimi, the gyoza and the duck teriyaki. Highly recommended.

Nothing to write home about that one. Athmosphere was a pleasant surprise as you would find the same interior in a provincial japanise izakaya so it was a promising beginning.
The food, however, was a remote echoe of the japanese one, in fact, quite blunt, apart from the miso soup, which in fairness you can prepare to the same standard at home. Rise was close to terrible, salad - an awkward mixture of vegs and seaweed; fresh and pickled in the same dish do not work, believe me.
Portions were quite small, ramen served in an ice cream bowl (?) with a funny toy spoon and had a taste of its own - not really bad, but not really miso ramen taste. Teriyaki salmon's little cousin was too small to even get one's interest.
We were given a discount card which we are not planning to use.

Food: Decent doesn't stand out from other Japanese/fusion restaurants in Edinburgh.

Service: Surly, Inattentive. Maitre 'd has to be experienced to be believed (she's the one with the clipboard and Gauloise in back pocket). I have never encountered such rudeness in any eating establishment - ironically this may be worth a visit alone. Staggering.

Conclusion: Avoid. The management may feel that they can get away with this sort of thing during the festival but restaurants in Edinburgh live and die on their reputation - what about the remaining 49 weeks of the year?

Remember, you can pay less than the full amount, explaining your reasons.

Leave your name and address so the restaurant can contact you if it wishes.

It is a criminal offence to leave without paying anything, so always explain why you are taking a particular course of action.

We booked a table for 6 on Saturday night – we’re all from Edinburgh, so not naïve about the fact that because the Festival’s on, restaurants tend to be busy. When making the booking we were not told there was any timing restriction on the table (let along the 1 hour and 15 minutes we’d been allocated). Unfortunately, we were 20 minutes late arriving at the restaurant – but not being aware of any restriction we did not think this was a huge problem (and being pragmatists, realised that if we did have the customary 2 hours, we’d only have 90 minutes in which to eat our meal).

On arrival, the restaurant manager’s attitude at our lateness was appalling – she was extremely rude about the fact that we were late and made no effort to be tactful that this was causing her a problem – seems she’s misunderstood the meaning of the word ‘management’. Despite this less than warm welcome, we gave assurances we’d be out in time, ate our food extremely quickly, asked for the bill whilst we still eating and were ready to leave by the allotted time. At this point, one of our party informed the restaurant manager that although the food and service (up to that point) had been fine, her attitude was appalling – no apology, no effort to be nice, just another bitchy comment that we’d been late and made her life difficult. To top matters, when paying the bill, the waitress asked us if everything had been OK, undaunted we made our second attempt to point out that it had not (again – in a non-confrontational manner) at which point she lost her temper and started shouting at us.

The bad attitudes, poor restaurant management, failure to set expectations at time of booking and being seated at a table which would have been more suited to 4 children rather than 6 adults, means none of us will be going back or recommending this restaurant to anyone we know. With more than 60 years of combined “eating-out-in-Edinburgh" experience between us, we were in agreement this was one of the worst dining experiences we’d ever had.

The place is small, relaxed and informal, and the food is delicious. There is a tapas-style menu with plenty to choose from and very quick food service, so you can just keep placing orders until you're full. A highlight was the sashimi, served with a wild onion sauce. The gyozas and traditional pancake are definitely worth trying. A great little place to spend a long evening eating and drinking.