Mintleaf

Walk into Mintleaf and you're immediately hit with the smell of proper spice work—the kind that makes you realise how many Edinburgh Indian restaurants just phone it in. It's in Leith, on Bernard Street, in a space that's warm without trying too hard: decent lighting, tables that don't feel cramped, actual thought gone into how it all comes together. You'll find yourself ordering more than you planned because everything reads well on the menu and arrives tasting like someone cares about the end product. The crowd's mixed—locals who've worked out it's worth the trip, couples, groups on a night out—which tells you something about how reliably good it is.