Tamarind Tree

Tamarind Tree is up there with Thai Tom as far as mandatory culinary experiences while in Seattle. Excellent food. Decent prices. Great room. Oh, and excellent food.

Vegans and vegetarians will have no problem with dining options here, and neither will extreme carnivores.

What everyone else said.

They don’t take reservations after 6 —I believe—, so plan on arriving early if you don’t want to wait. We were a group of 9 arriving at 7pm and were seated 25 minutes after. I thought that was actually not bad at all and didn’t mind the waiting really.

Another tip: after being seated, randomly choose a page and select your dish from there. Seriously, their menu is a good 20 pages long!!

Aside, from that, the place has very nice decoration —the lighting a tad dark tho—, and the food is quite tasty :) We shared some spring rolls for appetizers. As a main course, I had the Tamarind Tree Crèpe, all excellent. I originally thought the crèpe was served with tamarind sauce —I wasn’t aware of the restaurant’s name—, but I was told otherwise. They gladly offered a tamarind sauce on the side. I highly recommend it. :)

They have updated their menu rather recently. Alright, I am talking more about the vegetarian dishes, of which there are more. They are now spread throughout the menu (indicated with a helpful symbol) rather than segregated in a separate area. They even have a couple of veggie soups, which is notable as before none of their soups were vegetarian, even those without meat, due to the beefy/porky broths. Though to be fair, that is not unusual for Vietnamese places.

They also updated their prices, unfortunately, and they obviously did not go down. And for the meat eaters, I am sure the menu has changed there as well.

As for general review comments, I like the Tamarind Tree, though like Mahalie below I like Green Leaf better (even though Green Leaf has a much more limited menu). They have a huge menu, a lot of vegetarian options, and everything I have had has been very good. The main minus for me is that it is now very crowded for dinner (never been for lunch) and their service can slip when it is packed. The ambiance and decor are not really me, but not bad. And it is now more expensive. It is still a great place, though.

This restaurant has gotten quite popular, so expect to wait. The first time we went there was the middle of the week, we were starving and ended up eating in the weird classic brightly lit place next door. That was good in its own way but back the Tamarind Tree…

My boyfriend ended up taking me there for my birthday. It’s fancy enough, they have a custom drink menu and the food variety is amazing. What stood out the most to me was the Lotus Salad, mostly because I had never tried lotus root before.

I’ll definately return, maybe when the crowds die down a bit. For now I’m mostly eating at the Green Leaf. It’s AMAZING, the ambiance is above par for an ID restaurant but not as trendy/chic.

This place is interesting. There’s something unique about most of the plates. Sometimes they cut the chicken in weird ways (not along joints, for example). Sometimes there’s egg yolk in your soda. Sometimes your ice coffee takes half an hour to drip into its cup for proper consumption. The dishware is strangely beautiful, and the bathrooms have creative (if slightly non-functional) sinks.

I’ve been here for lunch twice. The second time it was crowded enough that there were 3 or 4 parties waiting in the front to be seated. We all stood there confused for about 10 minutes before a man came up to us and said, “Who’s next?” The people that were next then got their table. For some reason, this reassured us that there was no list you had to be on, and that the honor system would have to suffice. I really liked this. It is an interesting way to let people self-organize and allow social norms to dictate the order in which you get seated instead of technology (as far as a pencil and paper is technology). It also made me realize just how anxious I had been hoping that I wouldn’t get “cheated” by having people who came in after me get on the list before me.

I’m going to need to eat at the Tamarind Tree about 50 times before I can say I’m ready to pass a complete judgment, but the first meal was great. Tucked away in the corner back parking lot behind Viet Wah Grocery (where Taste of Saigon use to be) someone with a design flair has decided to take the Vietnamese joint to a new level. Maybe they scoped out Monsoon’s combination of good food and good interior design and thought, hey I can do that. And they seem to have done it mostly right. Some of the design elements are funky – but also cool – and the lunch I had was awesome. Curry chicken, beef on steamed baguette wrapped in lettuce leaves, yummy coconut drink. All good.

I need to go back and try the 7 ways Beef. Tamarind Tree, I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.