05.16.08
Review of Tabla, Friday April 2008
11 Madison Ave. & 25th St., 212-889-0667
Great for: Goan sausage and poached egg, outdoor seating, vegetarians
I’ve always heard great things about Tabla, but never got to try it. So I was happy that we managed to get a reservation for seven one Friday night when we wanted to catch up with some friends. There’s ample outdoor seating as well, which will be nice when the weather finally improves. They serve food as well as drinks out there.
I noticed that half the things on the market tasting menu (amuse plus 6 courses, $89) were not available on the regular menu, which I thought a bit odd. Maybe they do that to encourage more people to order it. And I wonder why they have prix fixe for the rest of the menu as well – three courses for $64 – when the dishes are all so different. It must makes things difficult financially. Also, what if people want to order a bunch of appetizers?
To start, we all had a tasty amuse-bouche of salty broth that may have been beef and tomatoes. We found the fluffy naan and thick papadums with green and red sauces addictive. The appetizer of Goan sausage and poached egg over bucatini, heart of celery, fava beans and botarga (like lettuce) was spicy, with crumbly delicious pork, a lovely soft egg and perfectly-made bucatini. The sauce gave me an excuse to have more naan so I could scoop it up. The Rawa crisped soft shell crab with snow pea salad, Thai basil and mango-maple coulis was similarly good, with a nice crunchy salad.
For the main course I had roasted Yorkshire pork three ways with French lentils, spring garlic, local carrots and sour yet tasty chickpea ramp velouté. The sausage was tender and yummy; the loin slices were a bit tough around the edges but not bad; and the crackling was chewy with an inch of fat and a half inch of meat which was salty wrong goodness. The Boyfriend’s pan-roasted sea scallops with roasted cauliflower, coconut-taro purée, roasted bok choy and citrus glaze was slightly too sweet, otherwise decent. We liked the crunchy bits too.
The flourless chocolate cake with cassis coulis, yogurt sorbet and chocolate tuile was fine, not great. Three of the four sorbets in the selection offered – pineapple, lychee and passionfruit – were good. The pineapple was super sour and no one could eat more than a bite of it. I preferred the free chocolates afterward.
They have a lot of tasty cocktails here. We tried the Thai basil bliss, Hang Thyme, Tablatini, and Lots o’ Passion. The last two were the best. When the waiter knocked over some of my cocktail, he said he would come with a refill for what he spilled – he didn’t, but it was nice of him to try anyway. Despite slowness with drinks, I found the service very polite in general. The ambience and decoration are lovely. I liked the judicious use of mosaic in narrow bands along the walls and as art. The whole place is rather regal looking in an understated way.
We had fun with our friends, and the food was pretty good, but we felt it was a bit overpriced for the quality. It’s also less Indian than I expected – definitely more of an Indian-American fusion. From our experience, it was yet another place with better appetizers than anything else.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost (for just us two): $230 (4 cocktails)
Noise level: low hum
Chance of walking in: medium.
