Tamarine Lunch Review

On Monday, May 19, Nadia, Ellora, Yaa, Becca, and I dined at Tamarine, a Vietnamese cuisine in Palo Alto. When I arrived, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had never been to a Vietnamese restaurant. There were a few businessmen scattered here and there, the lighting was slightly dimmed; the ambiance of the room felt maroon, the color of the tablecloths. As I took in my surroundings, I got the impression that Tamarine was trading on a more formal, less traditional approach to Vietnamese food, for the place seemed to value an upscale, high class, clean appearance over a deep-rooted cultural experience. Instead of garnishing the walls with Vietnamese art, a separate room was formed to showcase art from Vietnam. Likewise, the food dishes had to be ordered separately—the salad, the rice, stews, and main dishes were all a la carte. It seems that Tamarine aimed to present both Vietnamese culture—through art and food—and their entrees all separately, giving the customers autonomy to mix and match various elements of food and art in a unique manner, so that a variety of experiences are possible.

The first dish I ordered was the Ginger Chicken Salad: chicken, cabbage, cashews, mint, and ginger dressing. Overall, the salad had a sweet, but subtle flavor, contrasted by the sharp (compared to round), rhombus-shaped plate on which it was presented. The chicken was particularly soft, but gave off a slightly bitter aftertaste. The dressing was lightly drizzled atop the salad, providing the perfect balance among ingredients, such that none dominated the other. The ingredients were relatively isolated from each other in the form of layers in the salad; in this sense Tamarine succeeding in keeping its elements separate, left for the customer to mix them.

Next I ordered the Coconut Rice. This dish came in a banana leaf bowl set atop a weave basket, the most elegant of the three dishes I ordered. The rice was isolated from the rest of the food, enclosed and sheltered. The banana leaf dimmed the lighting deep inside the bowl, emitting a green hue within the dish. I found that the rice, moist and soft, topped with shaved coconut, tasted best in its own rather than mixed with other dishes. While atypical of rice dishes, the self-sufficiency of the rice was due to its creamy rather than plain flavor. In this case, I felt encouraged not to mix the rice with the rest of the dishes, though I still had the option of mixing them.

The main dish I ordered was the Mango Tilapia, but with chicken instead of tilapia. This dish was disappointing. The first two had set up high expectations, and when I took my first bite of this stew-like dish, I was overwhelmed by the tang of the sauce and the savory aspect of the chicken and mango. Instead, I was expecting something sweet; my experience with mangos in restaurants has been that they are always sweet. This turned out even more disappointing when I found that the dish did not mix well with the coconut rice; the sauce was too overpowering. Unaccustomed to eating stews without some type of balancing dish such as rice, I felt abandoned by the restaurant, left with a dish too thick to be a soup and too strong to be eaten on its own.

Though Tamarine succeeded in presenting its customers with separate dishes, lending to more possible combinations and autonomy of choice, my personal experience with the food was one of failure; the dishes did not mix well, and the main entrée was unappealing. However, I would return to the restaurant again—but only for the coconut rice, a pearl amongst pebbles.

~Dominique Y.