Karen's Unicorn in Edinburgh, City of

Back here after a few year and it was Good now as it was then...dumpling starter was lush and husband had salty and chilli chicken followed by beef in oyster sauce and sirloin steak in a sauce was lush...bottle beer a bit expensive..but meal was divine

Although this restaurant is ‘off the main drag’ it’s well worth checking out! Not many Chinese restaurants over an extensive gluten free menu but this does! The regular menu is excellent too with loads of quality choices

After reading reviews we booked on a cold Wednesday night and glad we did. I had a chicken meal and my wife had a vegetarian dish, both were very tasty. I would go as far and say my dish was the best Chinese meal I have ever had. Nothing fancy decor wise but good food reviews and that's what counts in my book. We will be back next time we are in Edinburgh.

Great food and really nice and friendly staff. Would definitely recommend to all. Slightly of the Main Street but in a lovely location and atmospheric.

Excellent Cantonese food cooked to a really high standard. Service excellent and good value for money. Can't be beaten.

Lovely restaurant with great food, friendly staff and reasonable prices. I would definitely go back. Excellent gluten free menu too.

Love this restaurant. Being gluten free it’s tough trying to find a decent Chinese restaurant, let alone a great one. Service is fantastic, just hope they make it bigger in the future. I would say value for money compared to othere chinese restaurants in Edinburgh it is not brill (portion is pretty small), hence knocking down a star.

Really nice food, with excellent gluten free options.

We ate here 2 nights out of three during our trip to Edinburgh- that in itself will tell you how much we enjoyed it. Excellent food , big portions , excellent choice / variety on the menu. One of out group is gluten free and they has a separate full menu of gluten free options which was excellent. Staff are friendly. Would recommend booking in advance We were lucky to get in both nights.

Came here with my partner and our friends. It is very popular and you must book on the weekend. The food was overall really good and the service was really friendly and quick. The chicken satay main wasn’t as good as I’d hoped for but everything else people had was good.

Straight down the traditional Chinese menu, nothing fancy, but everything flavourful and nicely prepared.

1st time and absolutely loved it. Food and service were great. I would definitely go back

The most amazing gluten free menu in terms of choice. The range and extent of the menu was fantastic. The taste is the dishes was incredible, definitely try and make all of your party eat off the gluten free menu to enable to enjoy everything. For starters we shared 4 gf dishes between 6 of us, including peanut satay chicken, salt and chilli chicken (intense chilli taste which was so tasty), water paper prawn (really nice flavour) and seaweed. For main I kept to my own dish of chichen fried rice and stir fried vegetables (in photo, this is just part of the portion) with gf chilli soya sauce which was especially made (again in photo). The taste of the main was to die for. Important to note that there are no gf prawn crackers and you are warned on this when seated. This would be the only improvement I would suggest. Highly highly recommend Karen’s Unicorn for gf food. Also for non gf food treat of party loved their meals highlighting that flavour was immense. Recommend that you book as it is quite a small restaurant if you wish to dine in they also do take away.

This is a restaurant we have been wanting to try for some time so we decided to try a takeaway last week. Sadly it was a huge disappointment. The pork dish we got was full of fat and the sauce lacking any flavour. The chicken curry was also tasteless and the chicken was very soft (a strange texture to it), there was something off putting about it. The curry sauce was watered down and lacking flavour also. Chips were very unappealing too. A terribly poor experience. We had hoped to venture into the restaurant but we shan't be returning now.

First visit with my teenage daughter. Lovely restaurant. Friendly staff. Extensive menu. Great value. Delicious food. Throughly enjoyed our visit.

Service absolutely awful, appalling! Extremely rude it’s actually unbelievable! No customer service at all within the whole place. Tried to place an order, the gentleman was so rude on the phone and just put the phone down. Another time was in the waitress dropped sauce all over me, she then ran into the back don’t apologise or say anything or give us tissue or try and clean it up. She just left into the back, no one came to try and help clean up or assist or apologise. After this, no one came over to the table at all. At any point we could see the server serving other people but stop serving us. We then had to enquire and a different service started serving us and no point. Did anyone ever apologise for it or help the clean the sauce dropped all over me.

Amazing food and service here, really is a must do if you’re in Edinburgh but book ahead as very busy. The staff were amazing, so polite and professional. But the food - wow, indescribable! So tasty and of an incredibly high standard. Absolutely delicious, we’ll be back again.

Amazing food and service here, really is a must do if you’re in Edinburgh but book ahead as very busy. The staff were amazing, so polite and professional. But the food - wow, indescribable! So tasty and of an incredibly high standard. Absolutely delicious, we’ll be back again.

A regular dining place when we are in Edinburgh! Great staff , great service, great food ! Magnificent!

I loved the food here! One of the only GF-catering Chinese restaurants in Edinburgh. Was really good to have crispy chicken with sweet and sour sauce again.

Recommended for gluten free customers. Menu is clearly marked and staff were very helpful with additional questions. Remember to book ahead. That this place was busy even in Nov is a testament to the quality.

Lovely little restaurant, perfect place for dinner after a few drams at the Whisky Society. The spicy squid was delicious!

Truly amazing Chinese! Food was amazing service was impeccable and cost for City Centre eating was also great! Please visit. It's out of this world.

The food is always great as is the service. The atmosphere is slightly quirky but the rest more than makes up for it. One of our favourites

Super yummy!! I took my mother here last night for dinner, food was hot, fresh and delicious. We ordered the honey chilli chicken, vegetable chow mein and rice. Staff were attentive and not pushy. Definitely recommend.

Very tasty food, attractively presented. Service attentive. Decent wine list. Reasonably priced for standard and quality. Very popular so best to book.

Great Chinese food, friendly efficient service!

First visit to this restaurant after a recommendation by friends Arrived without a reservation and the staff couldn’t have been nicer, needed table back in 1hr 20mins and that was fine because service was super quick Food was freshly cooked, hot and quite tasty although we weren’t overly impressed with the quality of the meat in the beef and black bean & the fillet steak Cantonese! Unfortunately I’ve had better many times so probably wouldn’t rush back. Nice enough but I do think there are better Chinese restaurants

Fabulous place! Great service great food!

What a lovely find in Edinburgh. Excellent food and service.

Absolutely no question, this is Edinburgh's best....!!!!

Food was good. Service was too intense, felt rushed.

Called here on the off chance whilst on a family visit to Edinburgh. Although they were unable to accommodate us straight away, they suggested we return in 45 mins. True to their word a table was available - and it was most definitely worth the wait! Food was delicious, service was polite and efficient. Having eaten in a lot of average restaurants that really could and should do better, this place is a welcome affirmation that some places really can be very good at what they do. Eat here if you can. PS Don’t go for a drink at the pub across the road if you find yourself waiting for a table. £24 for two glasses of red wine that were nothing special (you can buy it for £5 a bottle in Tesco and €3 a bottle in Italy) is daylight robbery.

This is simply the best chinese meal I've ever had

Lovely food and decent portions.

Traditional-style Chinese. Good and attentive service. Enjoyed it.

We chose a food box each. It was ready when we collected at chosen time. The food was delicious, we were supplied with complimentary bag of prawn crackers with our 2 food boxes. Definitely recommend

Excellent food with impeccable service.

Eaten here a good number of times now as the food just never fails. The service is always great, staff very attentive. You must try the honey chilli chicken!

Thouroughly enjoyed the experience dining here, the service was excellent and the food we ordered was delicious.

A really nice restaurant. Great food at a reasonable price. Would definitely recommend.

I'm embarrassed and proud to say I have eaten here three times in the past 2 weeks. the 8 quid boxes are enough food for one. It's fresh, crispy and all the best things. 10/10 would recommend. Might end up there again next week

Excellent! Food was hot and tasty. Service was great. Definitely be back

Amazing food and service. Can’t wait to come back.

Food was amazing,great atmosphere, definitely be back

best duck wraps ever our server polly was kind and friendly loved the spring rolls tastiest ever 🫶🫶🫶🫶

Just horrible Vegetable Chow Mein - very greasy noodles and practically no veg. Probably the worst I’ve ever had.

Brilliant food,very attentive staff. Would recommend the crispy beef and duck spring rolls highly.

Wonderful Chinese food. Had the spicy beef, sweet n sour chicken, noodles and champagne. Great people, great food.

Nice place tasty food Could have had more vegan or vegetarian meat free options or mock meats Overall not bad at all

Posto buonissimo e bellissima atmosfera.

Nothing bad to say really. Very tasty. The place has a reputation of being a bit quirky but it seems to be only because of the name as the food, price and experience weren’t unusual at all. Just tasty Chinese food.

Excellent staff service, food was tasty, not amazing but tasty usual Chinese

Just had take away. The food was great 👍

Avoid. I just experienced aggressive behaviour from a male member of staff when I highlighted a mistake with the order.

AVOID!!!! A male staff member got very aggressive with me when pointed out his mistake with the order.

Been here a few times over the years as the food is always really good. This time was for a family birthday so a special occasion. Have to say, the restaurant really could do with a bit of smartening up - I don’t think it’s changed in 10 years - as it would make all the difference, chairs are very saggy too. The food, though, is still great. Love the crispy duck, and pork dumplings as starters. Shredded chicken and beef mains really good too as there’s a lot more actual meat than you get in many places. Service was a little confused when we were there - suspect some staff were new. Not the cheapest but you get what you pay for.

Simply one of the best Chinese takeaway options in Edinburgh, if not Scotland. Inside the restaurant is lovely, but I can only speak for the quality of the food and it's first class. Bit more expensive than you'd expect but you are clearly getting what you pay for, and that's a top rated Chinese kitchen.

Excellent! This was the best meal we've had for a while. Nice small restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere. Service and food were outstanding. Reasonable price for the quality. We had Duck spring rolls and Char Sui Bao starters. The spring rolls were very good, but the bao really stole the show! Delicious! Our mains were the Duck original and the Duck Plum with egg fried rice. All were cooked perfectly and were delicious. Portions were exactly the right size too - we finished just when we were full but not over-full. We would recommend this place to anyone going to Edinburgh

Amazing food and Polly delivered incredible service and advice (lots of veggie options!). I will go back … maybe even tomorrow.

We tried this because its near where we stayed. The food overall were ok. The duck wrap is the highlight of the meal, as well as the roast pork , pork ribs and prawn toast. Lemon chicken was ok, the fish and soup were not so much taste. Would come back for the duck though. Very fast serving too.

This was a really disappointing trip. We had spring rolls, soup and sesame bread. The spring rolls were quite mushy and had not been cooked for long enough. The soup was fine and the prawn toast was good. For mains we had egg fried rice and the wok noodles, beef in black bean sauce and the Kim Chong prawns. The rice was very bad, it was stuck together like boiled rice and had not been properly prepared. The noodles were a bit better but had little flavour and were greasy. Both main dishes had little seasoning and had no spice; the prawns had more spice than the beef but both were very disappointing. The soy sauce was however very good. It has changed badly since last time. A genuine disappointment.

ordered take away from the kiosk in the entryway of the restaurant — very handy and even lets you pay with cash (you press a call button and someone on staff handles taking your cash payment). i was craving pork chow mein and this hit the spot! also the siu mai needs an honorable mention as it’s incredibly tasty! i’ll definitely be back.

Very tasty spicy food. Good atmosphere and a friendly service. We enjoyed our dinner very much!

Best crispy beef I've ever had! It's clean and tastefully decorated. The service was excellent. You can't go wrong here.

Busy little place and quite canny.

Both of us had a starter, bbq spare ribs and chicken spring rolls.....delicious. Followed by Cantonese sweet and sour chicken and chow mien again both delicious. Hope to dine here again on our next trip to Edinburgh.

Visited due to reviews and ordered a takeaway one box of sweet and sour with egg fried rice and was really underwhelmed. Maybe the good reviews were based on dining in, but I think it should reflect all meals. The egg fried rice was white and did not have any seasoning just a few minute bits of egg and the sweet and sour sauce was quite subtle. For £8.90 with 10p for a bag think it is overpriced and didn't enjoy it.

Not a good sign when the best dish was the prawn cracker appetizers. The extremely expensive dim sum was the mass produced type available in any Asian grocery. The duck in plum sauce was very tough! The Szechuan prawns were quite good. Egg fried rice...

Great place, great food, great atmosphere and great service

We visited Karen's Unicorn on a recommendation as we struggle to find decent Cantonese food in our area, we were pleasantly surprised but not blown away, the restaurant feels a bit dated but I think that's a good thing as it has a lot of character to it and there are not many places around Edinburgh with that feel, the food was very nice but nothing we hadn't experienced regularly before, service was prompt and the servers were very attentive, the atmosphere felt very homely and comforting which was a nice change, the pricing was about right for the food and overall experience we had, I would definitely recommend a visit if you get the chance 👍

Most delightful staff. American style service. Delicious food!!! What more could you want x

Excellent food and great service Only a takeaway so no atmosphere but it looks good.

Showed up at just after 5 PM without reservations on a Friday night. We were lucky enough to get a table. The Singapore chow mein noodles were absolutely delicious. The shrimp crackers were also enjoyable. The hot and sour soup was very nice. The food...

Lovely Chinese food. Free prawn crackers which seemed freshly made. I had salt and chilli tofu to start which was really tasty. I then had the almond crusted prawns but asked to have honey chilli sauce instead of the orange Cointreau sauce which they easily...

Quirky setting , No thrills. Visited with my family of 4 , Really great fresh Chinese food , was reasonably priced and enjoyed by all. We ordered mixed starters and mains ,Beef and Black Bean was a standout. Would recommend to all.

Excellent service, great food and extensive gluten free options! This restaurant made our family reunion very special, would highly recommend.

Brilliant all round. Top of the tree.

Pretty good Chinese food. The staff and service are both very friendly and it was close to the city center.

Superb dining, great service, consistent quality, very busy, essential to book.

Really shocked and disappointed with standard of takeaway received tonight as always been top notch before😠 Wafer paper prawns smelt so fishy couldn't eat, also saturated in grease. Shredded chicken was just chewy batter and very little sauce. So disappointed and don't usually write reviews...

We visited this restaurant due to name and location. My name is Karen Abercrombie. We thought it funny it was called Karen's unicorn, located in Abercrombie place

This is THEE best gluten free Chinese restaurant literally ever. As someone with coeliacs I find it so difficult to find Chinese food that caters for us coeliac losers. I recommend Karen's unicorn to anyone who will listen

Looking forward to trying Karen's Chinese but was disappointed. Shredded beef was just batter, fried rice looked like boiled rice with egg through it plus the rice sticking together. Salty n. chilli chicken pretty tasteless. Disappointing after so many good reviews

Very good, big portion nice atmosphere great service very attentive staff

Had great meal and service was amazing defo be back

This was without a doubt the best chinese i have ever had!!! Everything was so hot and fresh and perfectly cooked. Everyone of us enjoyed every mouthful. We all had different starters and mains and everything was just 10 out of 10. Service was also...

Won ton's were great. Beef oyster sauce as well. Went to see shen Yun afterwards at the playhouse theatre. They were even better than the food. I highly recommend the show . Neil

Loved the place great meal highly recommend

Very welcoming. Friday night and we turned up without a reservation. They accommodated a place for us. Very attentive staff and the food was tasty and nice.

Best Chinese food I have ever had. Highly recommend. Food is clean and not drowning in grease. Super tasty and well cooked. I drive a 1.5 hour round journey for this food and it's worth every penny.

We went to Karen’s due to a recommendation. We had been told not to expect a Tattu style place but food would be good. There were plenty of tentative staff and service as a whole was great. A mega bowl of prawn crackers were placed...

Such an amazing meal!!! Food is absolutely delicious and very reasonably priced, you can taste that is authentically made. Definitely 100% recommend

Top notch staff and service. Dinning room is intimate. The food was so amazing. Seriously the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. First place I’ve ever “Saved” on the map. Great job Karen’s Unicorn. Can’t wait to come back on my next visit to Edinburgh

Fairly close to the centre in a Georgian Terrace the slightly tired interior is perhaps the only let down. Friendly service, stunning food and reasonably priced wine selection are all 5 star. Would particularly recommend crispy duck in pancakes and prawns coated in almonds. Will...

Restaurante oriental. No tiene menu. Platos sabrosos pero la cantidad no es excesiva.

We pre-booked a table the night before, but we arrived a little early. It was ok - we were allowed in and from that point on the waitresses were attentive (brought us prawn crackers) and served our food and drinks quickly and efficiently. Our soup...

Really lovely food and nice staff. Been a couple of times and tried quite a few of the dishes and everything is really great.

The worst experience of my life! Went with my younger sister to Karen’s unicorn, to start we had prawn dumplings which came so hard I couldn’t swallow so I had to send them back. For main course we got noodles which came swimming in oil...

This was our local takeaway when staying in the area. Quick service, and food was tasty. We had a takeaway but the inside looked nice. Recommend