To Share or Not to Share? (Only One Right Answer at the Bread Bar)
Written: May 27 '02 (Updated May 27 '02)
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Pros: A feel-good restaurant if ever there was one. Mouthwatering breads and sauces. Memorable service.
Cons: A few misses among a sea of winners.
The Bottom Line: A marvelous place to sample creative Indian fusion cuisine. The flavors and spices are intoxicating, and the ambiance is vibrantly sensuous.
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| Epicure's Full Review: TABLA |
I felt awash of contentment flow through me as I gazed at our table full of food. I had not seen so many little plates gracing a table since the last time Mr. Epicure and I went out for dim sum. The bright red tomato chunks provided a startling contrast against a serene slate blue bowl. The airy little crisps dotted with black sesame seeds brought to life a muted mustard yellow bowl. The gorgeous, ripe green avocado salad needed no enhancement sitting larger-than-life in a simple white bowl. There was more, but I could hardly take it in all at once. I just stared with a grin of pure happiness, and thought to myself that there was nowhere I’d rather be at that moment than at the Bread Bar at Tabla.
Though no restaurant in the Danny Meyer restaurant empire can truly go unnoticed, Tabla would probably be the last restaurant to spring to someone’s mind when called upon to name all of the restaurants bearing the Danny Meyer hallmark. Having less popular appeal than Union Square Café, less critical acclaim than Gramercy Tavern and less upscale patronage than Eleven Madison Park, Tabla also happens to feature dishes that are less mainstream than any of the aforementioned restaurants. Though I wouldn’t call Tabla an Indian restaurant, it does incorporate many Indian cooking techniques and ingredients in its offerings. I have taken friends to Tabla who were less than enthusiastic about Indian cuisine, and they ended up raving about this restaurant. I think it’s because most Indian restaurants here serve you the same heavy, oily dishes with little thought or creativity, so many people have developed a misconception about Indian cuisine in general. Tabla’s chef Floyd Cardoz, a native of Bombay who trained with Gray Kunz of New York’s famed Lespinasse restaurant, takes the best of Indian cuisine and adds some innovative touches of his own.
Now back to my initial question: To share or not to share? Maybe you can get away with not sharing in the formal upstairs dining room of Tabla, but don’t even dream of it at the more casual (and less expensive) section of the restaurant downstairs, known as the Bread Bar. (What a wonderful name, huh?) The Bread Bar has its own separate menu, which I personally find more appealing than the refined menu upstairs. After all, who wants a three-course meal when you can have a six, seven or eight course meal?!
I recall discovering a lively little Spanish restaurant in South Norwalk last month. A friend of ours, who spent many of his formative years in Norwalk, suggested that we all meet up at a place called Barcelona for dinner. His face positively lit up when we told him how much we enjoyed dining family style and ordering a multitude of little dishes to share at the table. That is the sort of person you want to bring with you to the Bread Bar.
The Bread Bar is fun, plain and simple. The room nearly hums with energy. The gaiety in the room seems to circulate from table to table. In the center of the room is a round open space, which allows diners in the Bread Bar to peek at the upstairs dining room and vice versa. Surrounding the open space is a circular mosaic depicting garden-fresh tomatoes, carrots, peppers and other vegetables. By the long, curved bar, you can see an assortment of Indian breads being prepared in the Tandoori oven. Between the crowd, the action at the oven and the bartenders vigorously blending specialty cocktails in polished cocktail shakers, the restaurant is a whirl of activity. While the shape of the room is not exactly round, the pleasantly spaced tables are situated in such a way, that you feel like you are at the center of things no matter where you are seating.
And it’s not just the room that is fun. It’s the menu as well. Filled with small dishes, breads, raitas and chutneys, the Bread Bar’s menu encourages diners to get acquainted with a variety of Indian delicacies and spices. There are some larger, entrée-size courses as well, but I prefer to concentrate on the vibrant tasting-portion size plates. It’s a pleasure to experience the unveiling of so many distinctive dishes, and a delight to compare so many contrasting flavors.
Mr. Epicure and I wound up at the Bread Bar after a movie in the Village last Saturday. Even though it was 10 p.m., almost all of the tables were still occupied. (New York is definitely the place for late night dining although choices grow slimmer after midnight.) A welcoming hostess seated us immediately at a half-moon shaped booth in a cozy corner. Our server appeared at our table shortly thereafter with the menus. To my surprise, I noticed a number of unfamiliar dishes on the menu. Some of our old favorites were gone, but there was a number of intriguing newcomers.
I started off with a Madison Apple cocktail ($9.00). The bartenders at Tabla make some of the best cocktails in town. Tabla is the one restaurant where I can never resist ordering a drink before dinner. The Madison Apple, served straight up in a martini glass, is a blend of Olifant Holland vodka, green apple and pineapple juices. It’s deceptively strong. By the time I got to the green apple puree at the bottom, I was feeling a little lightheaded. Thank goodness, the bread arrived soon afterward. But wait, before moving on to the bread, let me tell you about my two other favorite Tabla drinks – the Tablatini ($9.50) (Absolut Citron and fresh pineapple juice infused with lemongrass) and the Ginger Citrus Snap ($10.00) (an extremely pretty cocktail with rosy pomegranate seeds floating in a glass filled with Stoli orange, Crème de Ginger and Gruet sparkling wine).
So what about the bread? Yes, what about the namesake of this restaurant? The Indian flatbreads at the Bread Bar are simply sublime. The white flour-based Rosemary Naan ($4.00) is slightly moist inside, and pillow soft and chewy with a hint of olive oil flavor. The Cheese Parantha ($7.00) consists of more textured wheat bread, sandwiching a peppery sharp Cheddar. The Onion Kulcha ($7.00), also made with leavened white flour and stuffed with sweet onions and Kalonji seeds, was last week’s special. The stuffed breads like the Kulcha and the Parantha are served on plates while the Naan and the Roti are presented in baskets.
To accompany the breads, we always try one or two of the raitas or chutneys. The soothing raita (a yogurt-based sauce) and the spicy, intense chutney occupy two ends of the taste spectrum, yet both are perfect companions to the restaurant’s various breads. I noticed on Saturday that my former favorite, the Lemon Chive Raita was no longer on the menu. Our server suggested the Jaggery-Tamarind Raita ($4.00) as a substitute, to which we readily agreed. It turned out to be good, but not particularly noteworthy. While I love the unique fruity tangy flavor of tamarind, I was not crazy about combining it with yogurt. Somehow I picture tamarind being much more at home in a chutney.
Though I wasn’t thrilled with his recommendation, I did like our server a great deal. You know that expression “with a twinkle in his eyes.” Our server called to mind that phrase when he spoke to us. He was always attentive, but beyond that, there was an enthusiasm and understanding in his gaze that made me feel like he was really listening to our questions and taking in our preferences. He provided one of the best experiences that we’ve had at the Bread Bar although I have always found the service to be extremely pleasant and knowledgeable.
It was during my first visit to the Bread Bar that I sampled the Tomato Kalonji Chutney ($4.00), and it has been one of my old standbys ever since. The bright tanginess of the organic tomatoes sets off every other ingredient in the chutney – the onion seeds, the chili and the mustard. You may want to try the Tomato Chutney with the Makai Ki Roti ($4.00), a mustard seed garlic cornbread. All this mixing and matching is definitely one of the pleasures of dining at the Bread Bar.
I get so obsessed by the bread and sauces that sometimes I forget about the rest of the meal – a temporary lapse of memory, I assure you. But who can ignore the Spiced Avocado Salad ($8.00)? The mellow tasting, fleshy avocados were the perfect taste platform for the seasonings. In this case, the chunks of avocados were accented by toasted cumin and chile. Lime juice tempered some of the hot spices. I ate the Avocado Salad with the Cheese Parantha, savoring every bite.
Mr. Epicure couldn’t keep his hands off the Onion Rings ($9.00), which came wrapped in parchment, resting in a swirling, sculpture-like metal holder. Coated with chickpea flour and cornmeal, these onions rings were unusually crunchy and peppery. They were served with “Boodies ketchup,” a ketchup that is simultaneously sweeter and spicier than your usual ketchup.
The Crispy Mussels ($8.00) were also quite pleasing though lacking in the strong oceanic taste that I’ve come to associate with mussels, or perhaps the sea flavor was masked by the turmeric, coriander and chiles. I think I prefer the Tandoori Shrimp ($12.00). Imagine a plate of tender jumbo shrimp, dusted in black pepper and coriander seed, radiating a smoky sensuality.
Another special of the evening was the Mutter Aloo ($9.00), a Sindhi style curry with peas and fingerling potatoes. For a curry, I found it surprisingly mild and soupy. This was a curry that you could eat by itself, without the aid of any starch. It was wonderfully aromatic, almost perfumey.
When it comes to desserts, the Bread Bar can’t quite compete with Gramercy Tavern (who can compare with pastry chef Claudia Fleming?) or Eleven Madison Park, but the restaurant’s desserts are quite good in their own right. There is also less of an Indian influence on the dessert menu than on the regular menu. The one dessert that is an unqualified success is the Tahitian Vanilla Bean Kulfi ($8.00), a cone-shaped Indian ice cream confection served with rhubarb syrup on a pistachio tuile. It’s only recently that I truly began to appreciate the wonders of rhubarb. With many single note desserts, rhubarb adds a welcome layer of complexity. I like the fact that you can see vanilla bean flecks in the Kulfi, and the vanilla flavor is so intense that they probably use an entire vanilla bean for each dessert. To me, the scent of Tahitian vanilla is nothing short of decadent, and unlike many other Kulfis that I’ve tried, this one is luxuriously rich without being gooey. My one complaint is that it is often as hard as cement when brought to the table, so consumption of this dessert can be quite a challenge. My advice is to curb your impatience and bask in the heady vanilla fragrance before digging in.
I’ve also had the Coffee “Kulfi Pop” ($8), which is very similar to the Vanilla Kulfi in consistency, but it lacks the sublime flavors that make the Vanilla Kulfi so distinctive. Coated in dark chocolate and served with coffee whipped cream, the Coffee Kulfi Pop is like a miniature, gourmet ice cream bar.
During our meal a couple nights ago, I ventured away from the Kulfi to try a dessert special for the evening, the Greenmarket Strawberry Roulade ($8.00). True to its name, the roulade consisted of a delicate sponge cake surrounding a light pastry cream and strawberries. The strawberries were sweet and sun-kissed ripe. Paired with a refreshing lemon thyme sorbet, this dessert epitomized summer. Mr. Epicure and I also ordered the Glazed Donut Holes ($7.00), which were tasty but forgettable. The only thing that set them apart from donut holes at the local donut shop was their orange blossom essence. Still, they were warm, and as the founders of Krispy Kreme can no doubt attest, there are a lot of suckers for warm donuts, even if the donuts are nothing remarkable once cooled.
At the end of the evening, I departed from the Bread Bar with the same warm feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had experienced countless times before. The blissful contentment that overwhelmed me during the presentation of the food had stayed with me throughout the meal. Or then again, was it the spicy chutney that was generating the heat?
Address: 11 Madison Avenue (at 25th Street), New York, NY
Telephone: 212-889-0667
Attire: Stylishly casual
Kid Friendly: Probably not.
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations In the summer, you can dine outdoors under the statuesque façade of the former MetLife building. Facing the lovely Madison Square Park, the Bread Bar provides one of the nicest outdoor dining experiences in Manhattan.
Best Suited For: Friends
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Epinions.com ID:
Epicure
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 100 members
About Me:
I generally avoid temptation....unless I can't resist it.
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