Tamarine Restaurant

Celebrated my first Californian birthday here last year so I figured I’d make a tradition of it. Very little has changed:
Staff and service started a little slow but things picked up pretty quickly our waiter saw that we were *veterans* (lol jk we just kept ordering drinks). I got the customary birthday note and a sweet «happy birthday» from the host. Another noteworthy thing was I’d asked our waiter where the restroom was and, without missing a beat, he walked me all the way over to the restroom door.
No complaints about the food – everything was absolutely perfect. The calamari was perfectly crispy without oozing excessive oil. The sauce that accompanied it was so deliciously tart, I could’ve drank it. The escargot, while good, I just didn’t care for. I think the «breading,» or whatever it sat in, took away from how great the snail tasted. Manfriend got phở and, mind you he was only putting up with vietnamese food bc it’s my bday, loved it. I got the lemongrass bass and it was delicious. The outside was darkened and crisped while the inside was still tender.
Why not 5 stars? I realize there are things the restaurant cannot control – like how loud their one Korean female guest is, for example of course. But I’m pretty sure multiple people have complained about this particular part of the restaurant not carrying noise well and even amplifying it (I sat here last year and noticed the same problem). The rest of the restaurant looked equally intimate – why not divide the parties better… especially when it’s a party of two on a birthday… we should not have been sat next to a loud party of 6 – 8.

Tamarine used to be a go to place a few years back. This review is about the decline in the quality of service at Tamarine, our experience and not about the food.
Servers are such a crucial part of dining out and can make or break the whole experience. We took our out of town guests to Tamarine and had a server assigned to us, who seemed to be either having a bad day or just had a lousy attitude.
Should not have dismissed the server’s lousy attitude. Half of our table did not get the food for a long time. We kept asking our server and he kept saying its coming. Until we requested to check what he had put in the computer. (By that time half our table had finished their main course}. When we checked on the computer we saw that half of the order was missing.
After that the staff hustled to get the food ready. It threw off the whole pacing. The maitre de was apologetic and gave us a discount on the total bill. Nice of him to do that, yet nothing can bring back unpleasant time spent that evening.
In this whole experience, I realized how much training from the top matters and also the attitude of the people you hire. After all it is hospitality industry where you have to deal with people. A reason the sign says, «hiring smiling faces.» Not sure how Tamarine deals with hiring and training.
Don’t know, if it was the training or if it was a case of bad hire. What took the cake was how this server dealt with forgetting to put half of our table’s order in. Mistakes happen. We were in a good mood. A sincere apology and owning up for the goof up would have taken care of the whole thing. What a bad experience!

Amazing food, wonderful service. Hosted a team celebration dinner here, and was impressed with the attention to detail.

Phenomenal food, awesome ambience. The waitstaff provided excellent service to us. We particularly enjoyed the shaking beef, a prawns dish, soy glazed duck, fried calamari (comes with a divine cilantro dipping sauce), and fried noodles.
Their unique rice dishes add an extra flair with the proper pairing. For example, the coconut rice is particularly enhanced if you pair it with something spicy. The lemongrass rice cuts through the greasiness of the fried prawns, and complements the soy glazed duck.
I would skip the tuna tartar, though. Nothing about it stood out to us. Yes, it has scallions and other Asian herbs mixed in, it ultimately lacked flavor, which the fried wonton wrappers that supposed to act as a vehicle failed to contrast but obfuscated the tenderness of high grade tuna with fried greasiness.
Anyway, everything here is a la carte, which means you can get creative with flavor pairing. While this is an expensive place, don’t let it deter you from experimenting to get the most out of your dollars.

One of the better Asian fusion restaurants in the area. If you like Slanted Door in SF, you’ll enjoy dining here. They have improved over the years so if your previous visit was mediocre and overpriced, give Tamarine another try… they either have a new chef or have made earnest attempts to improve, and it has worked. Our party of three (all Asian and always critical of Asian fusion) really enjoyed our meal. Definitely order the calamari and clay pot cod. The Tamarine jumbo prawns are delicious so long as you like tamarind. For vegetarians I would highly recommend the curried long beans and basil tofu. I was underwhelmed with the crab and garlic noodles (seems to lacking something). The service wasn’t great and yes, definitely make reservations ahead of time.

Not impressed. Over priced. Nothing amazing, just okay. Service was fine. Fairly conservative atmosphere. Nothing hip.

Very good food! Great service. Drinks are yummy. Try the cucumber specialty drink. Had 2 and was feeling good. Very refreshing, not sweet.

For lunch we had Wok Phở and Empress Rice, both excellent. The service was attentive even though the place was very busy. The tea came a bit cool, probably due to the large crowd. No biggie!

Awesome Asian food! Ambience is nice, can get a little noisy though.
We had made advance reservations for my husband and I, otherwise the wait can be too long.
We ordered the banh mi roti to start with. It was an average dish, I have had better in some other Asian places in the bay area.
Having read all the rave reviews about the clay pot cod, I went ahead and ordered it for my main course. My husband ordered the shaking beef and we shared an order of empress rice. We were not at all disappointed with our order. The clay pot cod is probably the best fish dish I have ever tasted, it’s got that sweet savory taste and the fish was cooked perfect. The shaking beef was great too. And the empress rice was equally good.
Will definitely come back here to try some of their other outstanding dishes!

Id give it 3.5 stars. I wasnt expecting authentic food at a Vietnamese place in Palo Alto but I wanted to give it a try since the menu looked like items from The House. A reservation was made for Friday but since this wasnt located in the center of University, parking was ok. there is also a garage right behind it. You may miss the restaurant entrance if you pass their black curtains. The four of us shared the fried oysters, shaking beef, clay pot cod, lemon sea bass, and the rice with the egg on top. The fried oysters were whatever and the shaking beef didnt blow my mind. The sea bass was a bit dry and I much preferred the clay pod cod. Now that is good and flavorful. The rice with egg was a nice carb to add. It ended up being close to $ 150 since the fish dishes were so expensive.

This is a really good restaurant has been growing on me since I reviewed it last. It has a terrific wine list, innovative food, and a pleasant and inviting atmosphere.
The food is Vietnamese based fusion, on par with the Slanted Door in SF. But the atmosphere here is more refined. It is a perfect place for a quiet dinner or a business dinner. The service is wonderful.
The variety of dishes would suit a wide range of tastes. The wine list is very good, and strong on Alsatian wines which are perfect matches for the style and flavors of the cooking. To bench mark the 4 stars: it is not as good or as innovative as, for example the French Laundry in Yountville, or Le Bernadin in NYC, but still an excellent place to dine.
It is not cheap, but not overpriced considering the quality.

Overall: This place is definitely more asian fusion than Vietnamese. Some very memorable food items, some not so memorable but all tasty.
Food:
APPETIZERS:
Calamari (4.5÷5): Calamari is usually just ok to me, but here the proportion was more like 80% squid, 20% fried dough, and other places usually make it ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. Also the cilantro sauce they provided with this dish was really good.
Scallop Crudo (³⁄₅): Not memorable, not super flavorful. If you get a bite of the chiles it can be pretty spicy.
MAIN COURSE:
Clay Pot Cod (⁵⁄₅): Marinated to a sweet-​savory perfection and melts in your mouth. Super small portion though. Among my family of 6, we each had one bite.
Grilled soy sauce duck (⁴⁄₅): Lots of flavor, pretty tender meat. Came in large cubes.
Shaking beef (³⁄₅): Could be more flavorful.
SIDES:
Roasted brussel sprouts (3.5÷5): Good but I’ve had better.
Empress rice (⁵⁄₅): Savory sticky rice really complements all the dishes served here. Definitely get this.
Coconut rice (³⁄₅): Was just a let down in comparison to empress rice haha. Just get the empress rice.
DESSERT:
Vietnamese coffee: I can’t rate this because I didn’t try it, but my family said it was REALLY strong/​thicker than normal coffee.
Banana beignets/​coconut ice cream (³⁄₅): Fried bananas and ice cream — nothing that special about it. Could have skipped this one.
Service: Our waiter was extremely nice! Took pictures for my family, and gave good recommendations. Ambiance was quiet and pleasant in the restaurant. Top notch service. Will definitely be back here!

We came here on a Friday night after seeing all of these great reviews on Unilocal.I can totally see what the hype is.
First of all, this is not a Vietnamese place. Why is that? You do not see any of that stinky delicious fish sauce in sight. However, this is a fusion Vietnamese place so you do see words like lemongrass, spring roll, and banh mi.
We ordered the Lemongrass Sea Bass and their duck entrée (I forgot the name…). We also ordered the Empress Rice after seeing a bunch of pictures on Unilocal.
Sea Bass was to-​die-​for!!! So juicy and tender and delicious. Excellent dish! :) I was pleasantly surprised. Their duck was very lean and tender. You can tell that they used the most expensive part of the duck and there were several big pieces too! As for the Empress Rice, my god that was some good rice. The fried egg and their sauce really really made this a spectacular dish.
Great service! Our servers were really prompt and accommodating. I also love the setting of the restaurant!!!
I would go back here, but only for special occasions only because this is considered expensive for Vietnamese food. But overall, great place to eat and enjoy each other’s company.

Food is a bit on the sweet side and fairly well prepared.
The negative is how expensive everything is.
I guess VC’s can afford this place, but if you have to work for a living…
I got to eat here for free on a sales pitch from one of the companies I deal with, otherwise I would think twice on spending $ 60 0r $ 100 bucks for lunch or dinner by myself.

Thanks to the awesome Unilocal reviews, we decided to check out Tamarine and I’m so glad we did. It was our anniversary and we wanted to go some place special. We were very surprised by how popular the restaurant is. Ordered the roti prata, shrimp rolls, lamb chops. The lamb chops were amazing, juicy, well done but not dry and the flavor was delightful.
Best lamb chops ever.
They have a good drinks menu. Our server was very sweet (so sorry I forgot yr bake) Unfortunately we didn’t have time to sample the dessert as our meal went beyond the closing time… but we will be back.

I’ve been here a few times with my team and my family. The food is pretty good, but portions are not huge and it’s a little pricey. The shaking beef is delicious– the beef is very tender. I also like the empress rice a lot; it’s very special and delicious! The cod and cauliflower was delicious as well, though a bit small for portion size.
My team and I ate here banquet style, and it was a great experience! They customize the banquet menu and wrote a short blurb at the top. It was very pretty and very well done!
The service is always great here as well. Waiters are helpful and attentive. 4 stars for great food and service; the only con is that it’s a bit pricey– otherwise I would come here more!

LOVE this place. Every single dish was amazing, even the drinks were perfect!
Being full Vietnamese, I’ve been hesitant to come and bring my family here because pretty much all Americanized Vietnamese restaurants are a flop. This place was such a surprise though! Even a dish as simple as the spring roll was authentic and fresh. I mean EVERYTHING was good!
The service was great. I think the only thing was we had one vegetarian person in our group and a bunch of meat dishes came out and she say there feeling left out until we noted we needed some vegetarian dishes.
We were there for a goodbye party and the pre set menus had a personalized note on them which we absolutely loved. The person we were celebrating also got a goodie box of fresh made cookies to go. I also love the classy, but not overwhelming Vietnamese décor. What’s great is its in a posh neighborhood but didn’t feel intimidating to dine at. One of my new fav restaurants. I highly recommend!

I love Tamarine!
My family and I came here for my birthday dinner. So impressed! We ordered food to share: 1) spring rolls, 2) caramelized Alaskan cod, 3) crab glass noodles, 4) wok fired egg noodles, and 5) maple syrup brussel sprouts. All of the food was excellent, I thought the cod was really good but the serving size was a little small (but enough if you’re also getting rice). My sister loved the crab noodles!
It was more upscale than I expected, definitely appropriate for a date or work event. Parking is really easy because there is a large public garage right behind the restaurant. I recommend making a reservation via their site since it does get busy around dinner!

Tamarine shares similar qualities to many restaurants in downtown Palo Alto. Trendy ambiance, post-​work crowd clientele, and predictively pricey fusion food. The cuisine is described as «modern Vietnamese.» I’m not sure anything I tried screamed Vietnamese to me, but it was an enjoyable meal nonetheless.
Banh Mi Roti — This was basically roti canai. It looked heavy, but was surprisingly crispy and buttery. The Penang curry had great coconut flavor. Why they call it Banh Mi is beyond me though.
Tuna Tartare — Probably the least Vietnamese dish on the menu and poorly executed. Mushy tuna, bland, and served with wonton chips that featured a hint of rancid oil.
Clay Pot Cod — Falling apart soft, just the way I like my cod. The outside had a nice caramelized molasses contrast. On the sweeter side, with great garlic, pepper, and fish sauce flavor.
Empress Rice — This lived up to the hype. But I have yet to meet a sticky rice I didn’t love. The fried egg provided yolky goodness, and there was so much umami from the fish sauce. A very satisfying dish.
Service was good, and I appreciated that our waitress wasn’t pushy at all with alcohol or dessert. She let us eat at a relaxed pace and didn’t rush at all.
The placed was packed on a Thursday night, reservations definitely recommended.

Brought my boyfriend here for his birthday lunch, and we both agreed it was amazing.
We ordered the Banh Mi Roti, Empress Rice, Lemongrass Sea Bass, and Hoisin Lamb Chops (see pictures). The total after tip came out to be a bit under $ 100. We loved every dish, and I would order each of them if I came again – except I would skip the Lamb Chops. I felt that the pairing with sweet potato fries was not well-​matched, and made the dish look cheap even though it’s one of the most expensive in the menu!
It was a pricy meal, but it was definitely a special one we’ll both remember!

I bookmarked this place a year ago per recommendation from a friend and finally had a chance to try them last night. I like all my foodie friends for introducing me new places to try!
I knew what to order before arriving here based on review from familiar face on Unilocal.
I started with antioxidant mojito. Newly added to their menu and I was one of the first customers to order this drink. They were fresh and tasty, I ended up ordering two.
I did the ordering for our table (4 people).
— salt and pepper calamari
— green papaya salad
— crab garlic noodle
— clay pot cod
— tamarin prawns
— shanking beef
— empress rice
Food was so much, it is unfortunate I didn’t have room left to try for desert.
Really liked the green dipping sauce for calamari. Main ingredients I tasted were cilantro, lime juice, and garlic. Not sure what else were in it, first bite of fried calamari, I was really happy that I was there.
Crab garlic noodle is another must have here. Garlicky rice noodle blended well with generous portions of crabs were amazing.
Clay pot cod, although portion size looks small but enough to share with a group. Glazed well, it was just enough to have two or three bites. Not really meant to have large portion of them.
Empress rice, loved that sticky rice with nice flavor.
Prawns, very huge shrimp. First bite, I wasn’t pleased. They said it was their signature dish… Then I noticed all the sauce was under the rice noodle. I put some of the sauce with rice noodle, then oh yes it was tasty. Without the sauce, not much of flavor.
Service was excellent and really loved the ambiance. Highly recommend to all the foodie Unilocalers.

An Asian restaurant with no asian lol you know just the typical dermography in Palo Alto.
Over priced drinks and food. Happy hour half off all the starters. No drinks on happy hour though. The only perk is that they have this curry long bean side dish that is made of real yardlong beans not the regular green beans…

I came here for to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday. I’ve only ever been to hole-​in-​the-​wall Vietnamese places like phở, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Tamarine blew those expectations out of the water!
We had reservations on a Saturday night. I’d definitely recommend making reservations for this place, since it is classy and upscale and the whole restaurant was packed that night. When we told the hostess that we were there celebrating a birthday, she came back with a nice card and a small box of cookies– how nice!
We ordered:
— beef tataki appetizer
This dish was amazing. The beef was just very lightly grilled on the outside, leaving the thin slices raw and tender and oh so yummy with the ponzu sauce and fried garlic bits and onions. Would order again and again.
— clay pot cod
My favorite entrée by far. The cod was sooooo tender and flaky, it just melts in your mouth.
— lemongrass sea bass
You wold expect sea bass to be more tender than cod, but that is not so. Still a good dish, but I definitely prefer the cod over the sea bass.
— shaking beef
Probably my least favorite dish if I had to choose one. It was still good, but pretty average for shaking beef.
— tamarine prawn
The prawns were huge and fresh! Just enough of the tamarine flavor, not too much so that it becomes overwhelming, which is a mistake a lot of restaurants make
— empress rice
This rice was all sorts of delicious. It is sticky rice with sauce and a sunny side egg mixed into it. The waiter mixes it up for you, and the rice is super flavorful and creamy because of the egg.
— coconut rice
Not a big fan of coconut rice, but this was good for what it was.
— garlic rice
Beware– this dish is listed among the white rice and coconut rice. For the other rices, you get a small bowl/​serving. For the garlic rice, it’s a whole dish! It’s at least 2 – 3 times the amount. We ordered this thinking it was a small bowl serving, when it came on a plate. The garlic wasn’t too overwhelming, and it’s good.
–garlic noodles
Not quite what I was expecting, but still good!
All the food we ordered was delicious, most of them I would order again. The only downside is that this place is pretty pricey– all the entrees are between $ 20 — $ 30 each. It’s definitely a good place to go for an occasion, but not on a regular basis (unless you’re rich). I’m still giving it 5 stars though, for the ambience and class.

I have heard about Tamarine for quite some time but just never had the opportunity or likely, never made a strong effort to make arrangements to dine here. Maybe my stomach intuition was warning me all along?
I finally had a reason to dine here when my girlfriend held her birthday dinner here last month. We had a prix fixe menu which was unique because typically you would choose one choice from each tier but they ended up bringing family style platters that contained everything on the menu.
I was mildly impressed with the shrimp spring rolls, tea leaf beef appetizer, and the coconut rice. Yes, I said coconut rice. None of the entrees were especially flavorful for me, although I didn’t get the chance to try the shaking beef, which I heard was pretty tender. Although not terrible in any way, 3 stars would properly describe the food during my one visit here.
Service was of course professional and everyone on the staff that serviced our party were pleasant. The interior was tasteful and well done and the noise levels were moderate. I would probably give Tamarine another shot but to be honest, I wasn’t bowled over enough to make another strong effort. My tummy still is steering me in the right direction.

Oh, Tamarine. A classy Palo Alto establishment where you can HEAR your date while eating, where you DON’T have to wonder whether singing all your conversations Glee-​style is the only way to communicate with that lovely person 15 inches away from you.
Okay, rant done.
A party of two came here to say goodbye to summer. We got
— Wagyu beef tataki: An instant winner! Think back to the time you had toro for the first time — the marvelous feeling as that piece of buttery fish melted away. This is the toro of beef tataki. I was pleased with the ponzu sauce — to some, it may seem that the sauce is overpowering but I’d prefer to have the flavor of the ponzu sauce and the texture of the beef together in mouth.
— Banh Mi Roti: Skip this. It was my attempt to add something starchy /​buttery to balance the citrus-​ey tataki. But there isn’t anything special to this dish that clearly distinguishes itself from other restaurants’ versions.
— Clay pot cod: Please do me a favor and get this. But be prepared, it’s a pretty small dish, portion-​wise. The fish, which you know is definitely not toro, somehow melts away in your mouth, and you wonder, «huh?» The sweet soy-​sauce-​based sauce complements the savory flavor (in Korean, I would say but alas, English doesn’t have enough words to describe flavors!) of the fish. I dream about this dish even now, really.
— Empress rice: Again, please do me a favor and get this. I *love* sticky rice. My parents would not let me have sticky rice as often as I liked when I was a kid, because they knew that I would be addicted to this sweet, chewy variation on white rice. Sticky rice + sweetened soy sauce + fried egg? Yes, please!
— Chili-​lime Auber Gine: I am a big fan of roasted eggplants, but I like them better with sweet sauce, I realize. Not my favorite dish here, but my date loved it. I would not recommend it given the other great dishes you could get here.
The cocktails — I don’t remember which one I got — are also great here. I liked both mine and my date’s, which were both citrus-​based.
Clay pot cod and empress rice make it worthwhile to visit here for a special occasion (this place is not quite at a comfortable price range).
My date — well, he’s really picky with food, but his verdict? «My favorite restaurant in Palo Alto. Let’s come here again next week!» Need I say more? :)