The Restaurant
Tamarind is located in Mayfair, it is a one Michelin Star Indian restaurant. The kitchen is run by Alfred Pasad, the youngest Indian chef to receive a Michelin Star. The dining room is located underground but is wide and very spacious. decorated in cream, burnished copper and gold. We were a little late, again because of those damned underground cancellations, but the friendly receptionist was assured us it wasn't a problem. We were shown to our seats and given the menus to browse.
The Menu
having already decided to go for the lunch menu we picked our options and looked at the drinks list. I ordered a glass of red and pretty much regretted it throughout the meal, not because of the quality of the wine, it was very good, but because it's an Indian meal and in my opinion red wine and Indian food is not a good combination but ah well. The Other Half had more sense and ordered one of their non alcoholic cocktails, which was very refreshing.
The waiter came over to take our orders and we told him we were ordering from the Lunch menu, this caused a slight bit of confusion as he began to take the menus away without us telling him our orders, he then told us it was a tasting menu and all we had to do was sit back and eat. We started to a get a little nervous at this point considering the last time we went to an Indian restaurant we couldn't walk for a good month due to the shear amount of food eaten and a Michelin star tasting menu for £16 hmm.
Sunday Lunch Menu
Starter
Spiced Chickpeas and crispy potato with sweetened yogurt, tamarind chutney and pomegranate.
Crispy Fried Fish with gram flour, chili, curry leaves and lime.
Tandoor grilled ground lamb kebab with saffron, mint, chili, cheese and red onion on mint chutney.
Main
Diced lamb with baby potato in browned onion, tomato and spices.
Chicken with fenugreek leaves in onion tomato, cumin, garlic and red chili.
Served with
Cup mushroom and peas in a sauce of onion, tomato chili and cashew nut.
Cauliflower and peppers tossed with tomato cumin and spices.
Yellow lentils with mustard, turmeric, tamarind and curry leaves.
Basmati rice
Naan
Dessert
Warm vermicelli pudding.
Honey and saffron ice cream.
My reservations about the quality of the food were wiped out with the arrival of the starter, crispy battered fish, flaky and perfectly cooked, the lamb was juicy and beautifully flavoured, balanced out with the mint chutney, the chickpeas were very soothing, cleansing the palate ready for the main.
Shortly afterward the main arrived, well the buffet arrived. Dish after dish was arranged on our table wafting cloud after cloud of fragrances over us. Each dish had clean well balanced flavours that were easily recognisable and not over powered by another flavour. The rice was perfectly cooked, fluffy and light and the warm golden naans were delicious, from our viewpoint we could see into the kitchen where a chef was making them. My only complaint was the lamb was a touch dry but the fragrant tomato sauce made up for this.
The dessert was a good end to the meal sweet, creamy vermicelli pudding with a delicious honey ice cream (the lack of picture is because I ate it then remembered I needed a picture).
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| Passionfruit cocktail |
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| Starters |
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| Mains |
Service
Service was good, having stated above about arriving late, the waiting staff were friendly and helpful, the sommelier was a bit over enthusiastic but nothing too drastic.
Overall
Some of the best Indian food you will eat and an absolute bargain of a Sunday lunch offer.
Tamarind Restaurant
20 Queen Street,
Mayfair
London,
W1J 5PR
020 7629 3561
Nearest Underground Station: Green Park
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