Tamarai

Tamarai is a favourite already. I took my colleagues, one of whom was on his first visit, and he loved it.       The food, service and wines selected were great as always.

Tamarai was chosen as the location for a catch-up with a few very fussy friends.  However, with its identity crisis as a restaurant, bartamaraiweb and club, it could have hit the spot or gone spectacularly wrong.  No pressure then!

Being greeted by a bouncer isn’t the most inviting way to attract customers, but once inside the staff were appropriately friendly and helpful.  The venue apparently serves as an art gallery in its spare time so was also suitably impressive, whilst the bar serves a great of range Asian inspired cocktails and Charles Metcalfe is responsible for the award-winning wine list.

The Pan-Asian menu includes dishes from everywhere from Chettinad and China to Burma and Thailand.  After much bickering over the varied and appealing menu, we decided to go for the 7-dish tasting menu (£52/head), with some dim sum to whet the appetite!  From the moorish sweet chilli lotus root to the perfectly seasoned soft-shell crab, the starters were well received.  Mains included perfectly Steamed sea bass and an inoffensive Chicken green curry.  Desserts were a distinctly average Sesame & white chocolate semifreddo and a tray full of fresh fruit; then again, who’s ever heard of a decent dessert at an Asian restaurant??

Overall it was good fun and the food was enjoyable. However, with fairly steep prices, you just get the feeling that you are paying over the odds for the restaurant’s aspirations to be an exclusive night spot.

Food: 3.5/5
Value: 2.5/5
Venue: 3.5/5

Check out my site at lovefoodlovedrink.com