Tamarind Tribeca - Indian family style small bites

Tamarind is a great place for dinner, but I imagine that the Tribeca location gets the most action at their sleek wide open bar area. It's always bustling with activity, and the menu is made for small bites to share.

Pomegranate bellini! 9/10: I have no shame.

Puffy bread stuffed with squash with some kind of creamy sauce 6.5/10: Everything was okay. The sauce didn't add anything.

Potato pancake with carrots (and is that jicama?) and scallions 6.5/10: It's better than a plain mashed potato, but worse than a potato latke. Since it was flat and pan fried, it has to compete in the much tougher potato pancake category.

Fried cauliflower 9/10: Cauliflower was battered, fried, and rolled around in a sweet/tangy/savory/spicy sauce. What's not to love. I briefly wished it were a chicken wing, but cauliflower turned out to be just as good if not better.

Crab cake 8.5/10: It's all crab and no cake. I think the cake was the stick. It was deliciously curried, and served in a pool of a different kind of curry sauce.

Rum special of the night! 7/10: Rum decorated with some green apple slices and a sprinkling of blue cheese. The drink tasted surprisingly smooth, but I'd say that it was actually *too smooth* Perhaps the rum was not spiced enough? The sweetness of the apple (and whatever else was mixed in) was well balanced with the cheese actually.

This drink could easily be improved with 1. sugar cane (as one of the fellow foodies mentioned), 2. a hint of smoke or spiciness, and 3. a higher % of alcohol.

Lobster curry 8/10: The lobster was slightly overcooked, but the tomato based curry was *delicious*. I was eating the curry with naan by the end. Most of the lobster meat was already divvied up and eaten by the time I snapped this picture.

Paneer with dates 5/10: This used to be my favorite dish! I don't know what happened... It used to be 4x bigger and one giant melty cheese block filled with dates, craisins, and walnuts. These cheese blocks were somewhat sad and uninspired.

Coconut shrimp 8/10: It was delicious, but by the 2nd shrimp, the sauce got too sweet, especially since shrimp is naturally sweet. I think a hint of kick would have helped.

Overall, it was really fun to nibble on everything. Tamarind is well situated between the informal cafe setting at Bubby's and self conscious haute wallet burning at Nobu. It's great for evening drinks with quick bites or a really nice brunch.