Tamarind Indian Bistro

Nashville Restaurants and Food
Tamarind
1516 Demonbreun St.
Nashville
615-259-7772
www.tamarindnashville.com

What is it about the Demonbreun street roundabout strip? Is it the high rent? Is it some Music Row fungus? The bars and restaurants keep closing, despite immense sidewalk appeal and an excellent location. This should be a prime spot to eat and drink. Instead it is pockmarked with vacancy signs.

Into this fray bravely marches Tamarind Indian Bistro. The place has plenty going for it: a cute little patio for people watching, a pleasant dining room and most importantly ownership with a track record. Tamarind is run by the same folks involved in Woodlands Indian vegetarian restaurant. That joint helped to break the tired mold of Nashville Indian food with a focus on Southern Indian and delicate tastes and textures. Unfortunately Tamarind takes several steps backwards.

You can’t blame the buffet style for average lunch offerings. Woodlands serves up an amazing buffet. At Tamarind you get the usual suspects. Some of them are of reasonable flavor. Vegetable rice biryani is decent. The naan is fluffy and with a nice little char here and there. The samosas are okay, perhaps a bit gloppy inside. Matar paneer is reasonably savory and you can actually taste lamb in the lamb onion curry. Chicken tiki masala has a little zip in the tomato sauce. Other items like saag chana and tandoori chicken just sit there on the plate begging to be forgotten. At about $9 a person it’s an okay lunch, but rather uninspired.

Dinner brings out other issues. We sit in a near empty restaurant and yet still spend 10 minutes or more before getting a waiter. You could blame the patio seating, but it’s a small place and they can easily see outside. Then you get the feeling that the waiter is trying to upsell everything. It seems like they would like us to make up for the lack of business. And those prices at dinner are a bit high for the food you get: $13-$16 per entrée and the portions are rather small.

The garlic naan sets things off to a good start. We order spring rolls for whatever reason. They’re average and served with too sweet tamarind sauce and a watery mint chutney sauce. Chicken makani is awash in a boring tomato sauce and served in a little bowl. I hit bone and tendons a couple of times.

Veggie Eater: I found the buffet dull; although half the items were veggie friendly, the dishes themselves were hard to tell apart; not promising when Indian cuisine is generally defined by strong, distinct flavors. On my return trip, I asked the waiter for suggestions, stressing that I was fond of foods with a bit of kick to them. He suggested the Matar paneer. This was a more promising meal. The paneer is swimming in a creamy yogurty tomato curry sauce that is flavored with garam masala, red pepper flakes, and garlic. It’s mildly to moderately spicy, and left my tummy with warm glow following the meal.

Meat Eater: It’s not fair to judge a restaurant by the quality of its sister establishment. So, putting our disappointment aside we have three big issues with Tamarind Indian Bistro: high prices, average food and questionable service. Maybe things will improve in the future. For now this joint won’t be bringing us back to Demonbreun Street.

We paid $22 with tax and tip for lunch and $40 for dinner.