Jonathan Gold | L.A. restaurant review: Tamarind may be SoCal's best Indian restaurant - michelin star restaurants dishes

A few months ago, a colleague invited me to dinner at London's Tamarind restaurant in Newport Beach, which he thought might be the best Indian restaurant in Southern California.
A satellite of Mayfair restaurant, it is one of the first ever Michelin-starred kitchens for Indian cuisine.
I went to the original London about ten years ago, although I was impressed by the club style of cinnamon and the direct, vibrant flavors of Rasa and the late Kastoori, mayfair Tamarind impressed me with its frank attempt to produce Indian food with white gloss and gloss
European gourmet tablecloth
It features a glossy curry house classic and a particularly nice rice casserole biryani baked under the pastry dome, but I remember it was mostly wine list, flowers and costs.
I'm not particularly surprised by the richness of the Orange County Tamarind, which is located in a rather luxurious shopping center in Crystal Bay --
Not because the parking lot and the Mercedes showroom are much like passing through the floor-to-ceiling windows to the tandoori chef, or after a pleasant golf game, other customers drift in.
Cooking is not surprising either.
Young chef Alfred Prasad attended a pan-game in the kitchen-Indian dishes —
Elaborate barbecue
Coconut Mushroom salad
Coriander korma, chickpeas dal, smoked eggplant curry, hot nan bread stuffed with coconut and dates --
Floated over the table, most of them decorated with pomegranate seeds or rustic lettuce, and none of them were confident enough to interfere with the beautiful Sonoma chardonnay smell.
Photo: at the Tamarind restaurant in London, doing luxurious cooking for the Robb reporting crowd, it's easy to understand why Prasad will temporarily give up his London kitchen, go to a restaurant that is less than a fragment from the warm California Sea.
I had a nice night and then I forgot the place more or less.
But on Twitter the other day, a reporter asked me what I thought might be the best Indian restaurant in the area and I have to admit I don't know.
I appreciate the southern Indian cooking of the northern ridge woodlands, some Kerala dishes from Mayura in Calver city, Gujarat Telis in Rajdhani, atsia, and a few other places, but none of them are "the best" because Kobe is the best two defenders and gitarada is the best Thai restaurant.
I thought that the tamarind might be the best Indian restaurant, even if there is no vivid spelling, even if there is no celebrity chef back in the UK.
I know that the menu has changed in a subtle way, with less content than the nomenclature.
Channa chaat, a plate of cool hummus beans mixed with whole wheat chips and yogurt, tamarind and mint chutney, has become a Hummus salad, novice forever
Potato cake and chicken nuggets are known as aloo tikki and murgh malai.
Still, I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the dinner I ended up getting.
Chickpeas, salad, wheat chips.
Sturdy, more like Ritz cookies than the delicate crunchy stuff you find at atsia snack bar, garlic nan reminds me of the California Pizza Kitchen.
The marinate lamb chops baked by the Tamarind specialty tandoor are mushy, and the tandoori salmon is overcooked, and the black lentils seem to be half butter.
Under its pastry dome, the vegetable biryani is fragrant, but damp than I thought;
The grain of rice is not obvious.
Sure, it's not a bad dinner, but it's not what I want either.
I went hungry to eat the real Indian food I imagined.
The next night, I found me in the little Indian community in Artesia looking for a more authentic experience I imagined.
I ended up at the best restaurant on Pioneer Avenue, which is generally considered --
Not that sticky.
But there is a place for white tablecloth and table music.
Unusually, I ordered the exact same Mughal meal I had the night before: channa chat, chicken ka, tandoori lamb chops, makhani dal, garlic nan and vegetables had a few dishes to kick.
Jonathan King quiz: I look forward to having dinner with the young Dessie couple and many people
Families of a generation in India will surpass dinner in the bloat.
What I didn't expect was that there would be less food in almost every way --
It's not just the ingredients that are obviously inferior, as you might think in less than good cases
Expensive restaurant, but there is no difference between canned vegetables and chickpeas in biryani, Curry is
Nan and nan are matzo-dry.
Dinner was not deleted the night before
It burns in memory.
If I make a mistake by spitting out the tamarind carefully,
Its chicken tika is slightly juicy due to timidity?
Isn't Dal's butter power more desirable than a cooked bland?
Does the moistening of the Biryani base mean a contrast to the more fluffy grain on the top, and is the explosion of cardamom refreshing?
Am I not realistic about the possibility of Indian cooking?
Obviously, I need to re-evaluate.
I took a sip when I got back to tamarind
I did the finishing with a spice mix of garam masala and had a lemon-flavored quinoa salad which would be any meal at the Hollywood M CafeThose spinach-
Potato cakes may have been crafted from sushi scallops, but they are delicious, with a slight scabs on the edges that give off fensie. Soft-
The shell crab may have passed. battered (
Definitely off season)
But the strong crust is seasoned with coconut and roasted fennel, falling down like a potato chip. The curries —
Chicken butter, beef
Deep and complex, with the heat of Chile, almost rich taste.
Even the normal yellow dal is fine. a good dinner.
So does tamarind meet the standard of London's elegant Indian restaurant?
I don't think so, but it may be.
But Mayfair is not Artesia or Newport Beach.
In this case, the context may be counted. jonathan. gold@latimes.
Probably the most fashionable Indian in Southern California.
But what does that mean?
East Coast Highway, Newport Beach ,(949)715-
8338, tamarindoflotilla.
$7-shopping center$14;
Big plate, $22-$29; curries, $14-$24; desserts, $7-
Open at 11: 30 for $8. m. to 2:30 p. m.
Tuesday to Friday, 5-10:30 p. m. nightly.
Accept credit cards. Full bar. Valet parking.