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Jimmy’s Express Photos
Jimmy's Express photos: the dining room, the counter and the plates that leave it, taken at 45 South Bridge in Edinburgh. Take a look inside.
THE GALLERY
Jimmy's Express Photos
These are Jimmy's Express photos, taken in the room and around the kitchen at 45 South Bridge. The duck, the dining room, the shopfront, the plates that go out on a Friday night. Nothing borrowed from a stock library and nothing styled by an agency.
Family-run
Behind the counter since day one
Cooked to order
Nothing sits under a lamp
South Bridge
Six minutes from Waverley
Open daily
Noon until half nine
What the Jimmy's Express photos show
There are three things in these pictures: the food, the room and the street outside. That is what the restaurant is, and it is not more complicated than that. We have not dressed the tables differently for a camera, and the duck in the photographs is the duck you will be given.
Some shots are from a quiet Tuesday, others from a Friday with the room full. You can usually tell which is which by the number of plates on the table.
The point of a gallery on a restaurant site is to answer one question honestly: what will it be like when I get there. Ours is a small room on a busy street, with a lot of food going past. That is the answer.
The dishes, close up
The duck turns up more than anything else, which is fair, because it is what most people order. Carved with the skin on, pancakes, cucumber and leeks, and a pot of hoisin. The pancakes are there because the duck comes with pancakes, not because somebody styled them. The char siu is the other one that photographs well, glazed dark and sliced thin over rice.
The noodles and the fried rice look like what they are: wok food, cooked fast, not arranged with tweezers. Salt and pepper prawns, chicken with dried chillies, beef brisket stewed until it gives up and falls apart under a fork. The dim sum and starters fill the front of the meal, and they get fewer photographs than they deserve.
If a dish looks good in one of the Jimmy's Express photos, it is because it looks like that on a plate. There is no separate photoshoot kitchen and no plate of food waiting under a lamp for a camera. The banana fritters, for what it is worth, look like what they are: hot, sweet, and gone in four bites.
The room and the street outside
Inside it is warm, lit, and close enough that you can hear the next table without trying. Tables are set with the things you need rather than the things that look nice in a photograph, and the lighting is designed for eating rather than for filming. We have not straightened the chairs or moved the sauce bottles out of shot for any of these.
Outside, it is South Bridge: buses, students, people coming down from the Royal Mile with the Festival programme in one hand. The buses are in most of the street photographs, which is honest, because they are there in real life too. The shopfront has been there long enough that people use it as a meeting point without knowing the name of the restaurant.
We have included the counter and the pass because that is where the food actually happens, and because people like to know a restaurant has a kitchen rather than a delivery hatch. Look for the doorway in the exterior shots, not the sign. On a busy evening the sign is not what you notice.
Better in person, but this is close
If the Jimmy's Express photos have done their job, you will already have an idea of what you are ordering. The duck, probably. Maybe the dry pot if you are the sort of person who reads the chilli count.
We are at 45 South Bridge, six minutes from Waverley and two minutes from the Royal Mile. Open noon until half nine, every day. Bookings run through RESV for up to eight people and by phone for anything larger.
Come in and see the room with a plate in front of you rather than on a screen. The photographs are honest, but they cannot give you the smell when the door opens.
That sounds like a line, and it is not meant to. It is the thing people remember. Book a table, or if you are bringing a group, look at the group bookings page first, because the room takes a big table better than these pictures suggest.
The gallery is also the fastest way to decide what to order. Most people arrive already knowing they want the duck and leave having argued about the dry pot as well, which is roughly the correct outcome.
Common questions
Questions we get asked
Are the photos of the actual restaurant?
Yes. They are taken at 45 South Bridge, in the dining room and around the kitchen, across different days and services. We have not used stock photography of other restaurants or dishes we do not serve, which sounds like a low bar and is not always met.
Can I use one of your photos?
Ask us first. We are usually happy for people to share a picture with a credit, and less happy to find one used by somebody else to advertise something. Email jimmyexpress888@gmail.com and we will sort out what you need.
Why do some photos look busier than others?
Because they were taken at different times. A Tuesday lunch and a Friday night in August are not the same restaurant, even though the room, the kitchen and the menu are identical. We would rather show both than pretend every service looks like the best one.
The duck looks better on a plate
Book a table at 45 South Bridge, or order collection and eat it at home. Open noon until half nine, every day of the week.
From the room
Twelve frames from South Bridge
The full set in one grid: roast duck and char siu, the booths under the skyline mural, the wok line at service, and the shopfront once the street goes quiet. Some shots are from a Tuesday, some from a Friday with the room full.
Photographs taken at 45 South Bridge across a quiet Tuesday lunch and a full Friday service. Nothing here is stock.
