Continuing on with the theme of food today (don’t know why I always seem to do this to myself!) Pauline, Sandra and I decided to check out the Chef’s Tasting Menu at Tamarai – a Pan Asian restaurant mixing Chinese, Thai, Chettinad, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese and Burmese dishes. Sounds a bit daunting so we weren’t sure what to expect!

According to its website Tamarai was launched in a “spate of glittering parties hosted by Tatler, Jimmy Choo, Sir Paul Smith and GQ, Tamarai is the latest hotspot for the beautiful people, the style gurus and fashionistas of London.” Uh huh. Actually Sandra says that dining in the restaurant tonight with us, though I didn’t see them, were a couple of celebs – Natalie Cassidy and Beth Cordingly.

Upon walking into the venue we were directed down, down and down until finally we reached the restaurant. We were surrounded by black broken up by brightly-coloured pulsing lights and here and there the reflection off jewelled lamps and candelabras. This was a former night-club after all. There were also LCDs built into the walls displaying nice visuals. Our table settings were all geometrically shaped and even the knife was very funky … if a bit scary looking even.

We came to Tamarai for the Chef Tasting menu which was on offer from Top Table for 50% off. The selections on the menu promised something interesting from we certainly got it – from the foie gras on the lotus seed root to the beautifully done soft shell crab.

How it Looked	The Dish	How it Looked	The Dish
	Reduced Soy Flavored Foie Gras on crispy lotus root		Sweet Chilli Lotus Root, chives, fresh coriander
	Smoked Salmon Thayar Satham (curd rice), tomato pickle		Hoisin Duck Spring Roll, pickled plum sauce
	Mud Crab And Pomelo, galangal, palm sugar		Soft Shell Crab, flame roast coconut, masala mayo
	Curry Leaf King Prawns, wild rice uppama		Thai Green Curry with Jasmine Rice – this was actually our main – everything that came before it was the starter!
	Roasted Sesame and White Chocolate Semi Freddo, wild berry coulis		Seasonal Fruit Satay including Dragon Fruit

As we’d already booked to get the Chef Tasting menu we didn’t really need to tell our waitress and in essence the food just kept coming and coming and coming. Dish after dish appeared on our table and I think in hindsight it would have been nice to have some sort of explanation at the beginning of how the tasting menu was going to work. Sure each dish was introduced well and explained but we didn’t know if we were having starters or mains and therefore didn’t know how to pace our eating. It almost felt like we were being rushed – though I’m sure the restaurant was just trying to make sure we got our dishes efficiently. Fair to say we finished well within the 2 hour sitting limit imposed upon us.

In the end it turned out that our starters or appetisers started with the foie gras and ended with the giant King Prawn (it was absolutely massive – Sandra thought it was overcooked but I still thought it tasted pretty nice) and separated by a sorbet palette cleanser. By the time we got the Thai Green Chicken Curry with Jasmine rice we were nearly done for! The foie gras was unexpected and actually I normally wouldn’t order (for humanity reasons) it but I thought this was probably the one time I would try it and to be honest it wasn’t what I expected at all – it was very smooth, very tender, not at all like most liver and very very rich. I can see why lots of people love it but I still don’t think I could bring myself to order it and encourage the force feeding of all those geese. But .. to each their own!

I actually enjoyed all of the dishes tonight finding them fairly tasting and challenging. My favourites had to
be the soft shell crab, the king prawn and the green curry. Tasty but by the time I got to the dessert I was nearly dying from being so full (I don’t think it helped that only a few hours earlier I’d been to the Indian buffet for lunch!)

From a value for money perspective I think we definitely got it with our 50% off offer. In actuality the Chef Tasting menu is actually fairly decently priced even without the 50% off (and good value over the a la carte dishes) though having said that the portion sizes are generally a little small (apart from the soft-shell crab), you wouldn’t probably order that much anyway and £50 is a lot to spend on just food (not to mention the extras such as the yummy-looking and extensive cocktail offers and service.) Service-wise it was pretty good though in the end it took a while for the bill to arrive. Save for a special occasion.