Ting Thai Times Two, Edinburgh

It's not our sort of place really. And if you've ever been you will already be expressing your surprise. The Johnstons went there? Not really their sort of place. And after I had sampled the wares of Ting and Ae Tapparat for the second time, I could tell that you were right. Why? Because this is described as one of the coolest street food destinations in Edinburgh.

This morning I read an interview with Ken Bruce who described Greatest Hits Radio as the antithesis of cool. I can empathise with that. But one of the beauties of throwing yourself into the Edinburgh Festival is that you can find yourself outwith your comfort zone. This year, I've been in Captain Zak's spaceship and the wooden horse of Troy. I've seen acrobatic clowns surviving an ice age by lighting lamps while standing on one hand, and watched two 18th century gents playing tennis on an actual court at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. So cool street food? Why not?

In fact L and I were heading home after a rare dismal Fringe experience. We wanted something, but not a full dinner. Not pizza, not pasta, not chips. And lo! Ting Thai hove into view in the lower part of Lothian Road. Appropriate timing perhaps, as they first fired up their woks in the Edinburgh Festival of 2012. This is their second Edinburgh place, the first being up near the university on Teviot Place. There are now a couple in Glasgow too.

There are no frills. You sit on a simple backless stool at a longish table cheek by jowl with your neighbours. Help yourself to water by filling up a 1950s style teapot from a central tap. They have a licence but there's no pressure to get you to buy drinks. The place is packed. Serving staff have to be lithe, simply to be able to squeeze through the serried ranks of customers. Despite the inbuilt obstacles, service was remarkably smooth, your whole order being delivered at once.

Khoa Pod Tod are fried sweetcorn fritters, perhaps the only weak point of the (double) experience. Tasty enough, but the delight of deep fried food decreases exponentially every minute it's left outwith the fryer. When I chose Moo Yang, I didn't fully understand what I was ordering. What arrived was exactly what the menu promised, namely caramelised sticky pork. There was, however, no sauce. I got two generous pork chops of top quality meat, which I would happily eat again, but as part of a larger selection. L went traditional, going for Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai. That's Thai Green Chicken Curry to thee and me, and very, very good it was. Our bill, excluding drinks and service came to less than thirty pounds.

You can't really write a review on the back of three plates of food. Happenstance found me at the Book Festival a few days later. Its new HQ is in the building which was once the Royal Infirmary in Lauriston Place. That's handily located for the original Ting Thai in Teviot Place. It opens at 12. It was filling up when I entered at 12.15, and was full to bursting point by 12.30. That despite the fact they've opened a pop up just a few doors down, presumably for the Festival. Although the menu here described itself as the Festival Menu, it seems identical to Lothian Road. There are minor price differences, but in pence not pounds. I noticed one very strange anomaly. In Lothian Road you will pay £11.10 for a yellow vegetable curry: in Teviot Place it is £8.70.

I was more savvy with my choices second time round. Order one of their starter size dishes, which they describe as Small Box, and a box is indeed what you receive. They are mercifully leak proof. The beef in my Nam Tok Nua, spicy beef salad, was a bit chewy, but for just over a fiver you're not expecting fillet. Spicy as promised with half a mint plant and some Thai basil, and a glorious juice with onion and lime and chilli, with some roasted rice to sop it up. Unwilling to waste a drop, I finished it off with some of the jasmine rice which I'd ordered to go with the Seabass Maeklong. Despite being billed as Other Box, this was served in a generous bowl with a good sized fried fillet. Seabass for £10.40? Goodness. Served in an unctuous coconutty sauce with cashew nuts and chilli jam. This time the authentic Thai flavours were provided by lemongrass, nam pla (fish sauce) and unusually, lemon juice.

The staff? Of similar dimensions and similarly charming. Gracie from Texas has just finished her Masters and is entranced by Edinburgh.

I defy any one who enjoys Thai food not to be entranced by the food in these two places, not to say be gobsmacked by the prices. They don't seem to care that you're not cool, and aren't in the least fazed by the fact that you're significantly raising the average age of the clientele. How on earth have I missed out on Ting Thai for the past decade?

As the menus are identical and prices fairly similar, I've given the maximum and minimum prices over the two places.