In a nutshell:

A simple yet excellent restaurant in natural, rustic, rural environment, that has a calming effect, starkly different from modern day Urban brick & glass restaurants, outstanding food & slow service. In short, I was totally impressed.

Address & other details:  See details written on the bill below.

Meal for 2: Rs. 500 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & eggs

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

 

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

Our Guide recommended this restaurant to us after he heard us saying ‘ we want to eat local food’. The restaurant is kind of situated out of nowhere. It has an Open air section & another section with covered roof but open sides.

As we walked in, we saw desi Chicken roaming around. Expectations rose & we remembered Kalim’s Moonlight. However, dreams were shattered soon as we got to know that this was a vegetarian restaurant.

Two well bred dogs were taking a walk in the campus, sniffing around but not disturbing the guests.

We saw some farming happening in the premises as well.

As we were soaking in the rustic rural environs, a peacock walked past us.

At a distance there were few rabbits in a cage.

The Kitchen was made from dried tree leaves just the way village houses r.

Tables & benches were of random unharmonised colors and sizes. I loved that bit.

Water kept in small earthen pots around the area. All the pots had a steel glass in them. For hand wash we had to catch the steel glass, take some water in it and wash our hands on the ground – exactly the way it is done in the rural areas.

The menu card was short & crisp, easy to read. Laminated printed paper ensured they were tear proof & water proof.

I cannot but post picture of an oxymoron on the menu card – We make fruit juice with mineral water!!!!!

2 guys were serving a huge crowd of people. They were Running around more than the forward players of an International football team!!!!

The restaurant gives free meals to auto wallahs, taxi drivers and guides. So they r never short of guests inspite of being located in the middle of nowhere.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

We started our lunch with a beverage called Lemon nana – lemon and mint combination.

It was a dark green colored drink, very very refreshing, had generous amount of mint, had an intense taste of sweet n sour. Super loved it. Rate it 4.5/5

We were also served Masala buttermilk, a salty drink full of flavours.  The flavours of fresh ingredients were coming out well – crushed ginger, crushed mint & a very good base drink that we cud not help ordering second helping. Excellent. Rate it 4.5/5

We ordered the Tamarind Tree Special Thali. As per menu card we were to receive – 2 poori, Alo jeera, banana flower curry, veg curry, raitha, mint chutney, veg fried rice, plain rice, dal, sambhar, curd, pickle, papd, fresh fruits, tea/coffee & bottled water. One of the reason to choose this thali was to taste banana flower curry.

Gourd curry was simple yet nice. The gourd was not soft and mushy but kind of firm on the outside (area below the peel ) and soft inside. Balance of the curry was very good. Enjoyed a lot. Rate it 4/5

The Daal was excellent. The grains of the Dal were visible, cud b felt but they were diff and nice. The presence of a small amount of Palak (spinach) made a difference. The balance of taste was very good once again. Rate it 4.25/5

Fried rice was good but nothing great. Rice was well cooked and flavours of masalas made their presence felt. Rate the rice 3/5

Sambar was very tangy and good. High in both sour and hotness and well balanced with salt. Rate it 4/5

Egg fried rice lacked salt. On adding salt it started tasting a lot better but it cud never reach its potential, had the salt been added while cooking. Directionally it was very good. Rate it 3/5

The chutney felt pretty unique to us. It had mint and peanuts among other things. Distinct taste, intense and very enjoyable. Rate it 4/5

Banana flower curry. This turned out to b very different than mocha (banana flower curry Bengali style). The cuts of banana flower in the Bengali version is small and here it was huge chunks. The flowers were made into a nice tangy gravy. The flavour of spices of the gravy were nice but they overshadowed the delicate flavours of banana flower, Rate it 3.75/5.

Jeera aloo was almost home like. It’s claim to fame was crispy fried curry leaves flavouring. Everything was perfect. Rate it 4.25/5

We also ordered vegetable Kurma & egg curry extra.

Vegetable kurma was excellent again. The veggies were crunchy. Flavour of whole masalas were enjoyable. Loved the gravy a lot. Rate it 4.5/5

We also tried egg curry. The base of the curry was grated coconut and we loved it. Very very different, had its share of spices but was not on the face. Interplay of spices and coconut was very good. Wud have loved it more if they had used desi chicken eggs instead of the poultry eggs.

Rate this dish 4.25/5

Overall rating of food at Tamarind Tree averages out to

Given a choice I wud revisit again & again. Hope some restauranteur goes to Hampi, sees the overall concept & replicates something like this somewhere near the metro cities. So refreshing & so good.