Tips for Dining, Eating, and Food Shopping in the SF Bay Area (including Berkeley, Oakland, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and San Jose)
Start New ThreadI'm headed up to SF again and wondering if you guys would be so kind to give me a status report on the Tandoor-Loin (Tandooriloin?). What's up, what's down, what's good for what?
Indian food in LA SUCKS.
By echoparkdirt
on Jun 24, 2009 05:58 PM
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I would still like some replies to this! Help an LA hound!
I went to Shalimar yesterday. The Chicken Tikka Masala and Garlic Nan was wonderful. I found the lamb chops a bit dry. Will try another tandoor-land option for lunch.
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I like Chutney on Jones @ O'Farrell. Lahore Karahi is good too, but it takes forever to get service and get your food.
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Went to Lahore Karahi tonight. It wasn't quite as good as Amber, but for its price point/atmosphere, I'd consider it the best of the hole-in-the-wall SF Indian restaurants. Everything was very complex and intricately seasoned, but none of it was overwhelmingly so.
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Is Lahore Karahi serving alcohol now?
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Lahore now has a beer license and my friend gleefully reported he was drinking Taj beer when he messaged me.
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Is a beer license separate from a beer and wine license?
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Take your pick.
http://www.abc.ca.gov/permits/license...
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I see On Sale Beer, and On Sale Beer and Wine Eating Place, so I take it to mean that they also have a wine license, but choose to not have any
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Until I hear otherwise, I'll continue to recommend Sultan as the best.
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I just had the lunch buffet at Sultan. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. The Chicken Tikka Masala was superb, the garbanzo bean cold salad was great, with lots of color and freshness. The ingredients all seemed high-quality, and much of the food was complicated and wonderful. The naan was just average, and I think that Shalimar has better naan. All in all, Sultan beats Shalimar hands down. But the atmosphere was completely generic and not at all as conducive to a loud, fun, casual friends type nite as Shalimar. Next I will try Lahore Karahi and Chutney.
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"The ingredients all seemed high-quality, and much of the food was complicated and wonderful."
I think that pretty much sums up why I think Sultan is a cut above the others.
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Last Halloween I was at Sultan for dinner and there was a large party (15+) in the raised portion of the dining room along the entire left wall. They were assembling as we arrived and appeared to be a moderately loud, laughter-filled reunion of young adults who were still going strong when we left about 1.5 hours later. Their food seemed to arrive in waves and they freely moved about to visit with one another.
So I think with this space could adapt well to a "loud, fun, casual friends-type nite." I also think that sometimes Sultan is almost an empty quiet cavern which might discourage an impromptu "loud, fun, casual friends-type" gathering, but I'd guess the restaurant would welcome the business!
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It's not the tandoorloin, but Amber India has opened up a San Francisco branch. This is one of the Bay Area's top Indian places, and priced accordingly. So if you're willing to pay more for excellent food and nice decor, it's worth checking out.
Michael
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I thought the food at the original Amber India was good, but no better than at the best of the cheaper places.
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How long ago did you go to Amber in Mountain View? About 5 years ago I would agree with you, but I think the original location has improved considerably in response to greatly increased competition. I don't know whether that carries over to the San Francisco location.
Michael
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Probably over five years ago. Maybe I'll give it another try.
I just noticed yesterday that Amber has a stand in the Metreon "farmers market."
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How are Pakwan and Punjab Kabab House these days?
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A friend took me to Pakwan a few weeks back and I liked the tandoor selections we had, lamb chops and chicken. I thought the lamb curry and chicken tikka masala were underseasoned and didn't have much pop though. The place was fairly empty on a weeknight.
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link
501 Ofarrell St, San Francisco, CA 94102
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