I had read about this restaurant, but with our schedules I hadn’t been able to book it until now, so I didn’t really remember what to expect. I just knew it was an Indian restaurant and that we’ve been searching for another decent place ever since Indian Oven went downhill, Dosa went out of business, and the ones in our neighborhood our meh.
The space had a nice looking bar and we were seated in the dining room. I hadn’t recalled that we had booked the tasting menu which was a pleasant surprise since you know we’ll almost always give that a try if it’s available (you can also book an a la carte reservation).
The menu was essentially a 4-course menu with a choice for each course, one of which was vegetarian in addition to some supplements. We opted to try every option between the two of us with the exception of the mains which had 3 choices – Andrea went with the Sach Paneer Pollichathu and I went with the seabass. For the supplements, there was a morel dish and a tiger shrimp dish, but morels were out of season so it was subbed with a portobello mushroom and there was also an additional pork belly supplement that wasn’t listed on the menu; we went with the tiger shrimp and the pork belly (I can never resist pork belly). We also went with the very moderately (to us) priced wine pairing.
We started off with some cocktails. Andrea went with the Mission District, which was tequila based and had some spice and I went with the Embarcadero which was Mezcal based and was more fruity. The Embarcadero was beautifully presented and both were quite delicious. I did prefer my drink, but for a spicy drink, Andrea’s was very good and quite spicy (although not the spiciest cocktail she’s ever had…that would have to go to the first time we dined at Copra (which is also another excellent Indian/Sri Lankan, restaurant). So, good start.
To start with, there was a Pani Puri, beautifully presented. It was a nice fruit (passion fruit) amuse bouche to start. This was paired with a sparkling Dr. Loosen (I didn’t even know they made a sparkling wine since we’ve always only ever seen/had their typical riesling).
First course was the Yogurt Chat and the Hamachi Bhel. The yogurt was delicious and the hamachi dish was solid. The chef came out to during this first course to see how we were doing (I hadn’t realized until later that he was previously the head chef at Rooh where we he had a good but not great meal…beautiful presentation, but not quite enough flavor).
Second course was a jackfruit keema and a lamb keema. It was very nice to see the presentations mirrored between the two dishes. Both had great flavor and were delicious with layers of flavor and spices.
Then came our supplemental dishes, the tiger shrimp and the pork belly. The winner here for me was the tiger shrimp (and I sucked the juices out of the head of the prawn). The tamarind sauce with the pork belly was delcious, but I found the pork itself to be just a bit dry and bland which was a bit opposite of what I expected when I think of pork belly. Aside from the sauce and a couple peppers on it, it was just bland.
Third course was the Sach Paneer and the seabass. The paneer dish was a layered dish (they had likened it to lasagna), but found it very bland (would have rather had a basic saag paneer…). The seabass did have decent flavor thanks to the curry. The portion of sea bass was pretty small (not that I needed a large serving at all) and I do like to see my sea bass with just a bit more browning on it.
Lastly came dessert, both of which were enjoyable. The coconut payasam had a delicious fresh young coconut flavor and the cryo bits gave a bit of texture. The besan barfi opera was an interesting and tasty fine dining version for dessert.
Service was solid, esp. the somm who did a very impressive job of pairing esp. since we had split pairings for every course. Several of the wines were interesting and different which we often crave. All in all, a very interesting restaurant concept, great cocktails, some hits and a couple misses on dishes. We’d like to come back and try the a la carte menu although I just wish there was a bit more spice overall.
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